REGENERATION AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

THE WAY OF THE WOODS

Here in Perthshire we're very fortunate to have lots of wonderful woodland around us. These photos are from Kinnoull Hill, a large wooded area just a short walk from our flat, with a wonderful range of trees, including some very old ones. It's especially nice to walk in because it's given minimal management and allowed to be in its natural state as much as possible.

THE FOREST BENEATH OUR FEET

Much of the countryside around Perth has been taken over by industrial agriculture, huge fields of one crop managed by a few people with lumbering, factory-on-wheels machinery. All the same, if it's left to do its own thing it will revert in not many years to woodland... The forest is waiting beneath our feet, ready to return.

REGENERATION AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

There's an area to the back of the part of the Westbank site that we manage which was cut down to the ground about ten years ago. We've left part of it just to do its own thing and it has indeed flourished into a very diverse area with trees, including some oaks, bushes, herbs and climbers of all sorts - with almost no management, other than making paths through it so we can see what's happening.

WOODLAND YIELDS

Though there's an abundance of plants, there's not that many edibles. So if we humans want to get more of what we need to survive locally and sustainably we'll probably need to tweak our woodland. At the farm, we've planted some nut trees and fruit bushes in part of this regenerating area with this in mind.

COME AND VISIT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM ...VOLUNTEERING...

All welcome to come along to our regular volunteering day, Wednesday's 11 to 3 (March through to November depending on the weather) - help, share, learn and have fun.

... AND COURSES...

I run gardening and fruit tree pruning/woodland courses at the farm - it's a brilliant venue for these with such a range of stuff to see:

FRUIT TREE PRUNING/WOODLAND CARE - SATURDAY 31st JANUARY 26

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS - SUNDAY 1st MARCH 26

See you soon, Ian

...NEW AGE PENSIONER ECO NEWS

My own New Age Pensioner response to these bonkers times is to keep busy, running classes in simple living skills and helping out at two of the most inspiring projects I've ever worked on in all my 72 years - Perth Community Farm and Inverquiech.

 PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

The fruit and veg harvest at the farm has been spectacular this year - we've had the heat and also the rain (and being in town have a mains water supply too). We divide up the produce amongst us volunteers and give away surpluses to local food charities. You're welcome to drop in on our regular volunteer day - Wednesdays 11 to 3 - through into November depending on weather.

Pretty much everything has done well at Perth Community Farm this year and we're growing a wider range of crops than ever before

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS CLASS - 1st March 2026

Come and find out how to grow lots of stuff as easily as possible - this class really is for complete beginners - covers fruit and veg and also the principles of working with natural processes - fascinating and fun. More details and tickets for all my classes via Eventbrite link below.

FRUIT TREE PRUNING - coming up Saturday 31st January 2026, also covers basic principles of forest gardening and permaculture.

WOODWORKING NEWS

...NEW...EVENING CLASS...

Our first date went really well, it's just a two hour class but that's time to show lots of different techniques and for people to get in some useful practice. I'll run these regularly, next date is Thursday 2nd October - 5pm to 7pm

...SPECIAL OFFER...REPEAT DISCOUNT...

FOR BASIC WOODWORK CLASSES ON 18TH OCTOBER AND 7TH DECEMBER

I'd like to encourage people to do my Basic Woodwork class more than once - they're small classes so I can set you up with something else to make to suit your experience, and give you plenty of support as ever. This class is now £118.80 but I'd like to offer a special price of £99 for repeaters for either these two classes - please email me directly if you'd like to take up the offer: ianecowatt@gmail.com

...ALSO... HEALTHCARE AT INVERQUIECH

I'd like to pass on some of the experience I picked up from my complementary healthcare career - come and learn about gently effective Craniosacral Energy Therapy at Inverquiech, near Alyth, Sunday 5th October. Inverquiech is a magical setting for this, we also run retreats there alongside all our permaculture activity.

Kate's yurt - a brilliant setting for all sorts of healthcare events

MORE DETAILS AND BOOKINGS VIA THE LINK

IAN'S PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS ON EVENTBRITE 

See you soon! Very best wishes, Ian

GARDEN MAGIC AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

Right from the start, we thought that teaching would be a major role for us at Perth Community Farm, and that's exactly how things have turned out. We don't try to grow tons of stuff to sell, but we do grow as wide a range of fruit and veg as we can and focus on showing people how to do the same in their own gardens. (We share out the produce among us volunteers - there's a lot at the moment! - and give away any surpluses to various charities).

We teach in an informal way - people are welcome to drop in on our regular volunteers' day, Wednesdays 11 to 3, to look round, and lend a hand. There's always loads of different things at various stages of growth to see. I also run more formal courses in gardening (also fruit tree pruning/small scale woodland management and more):

NEXT GARDENING COURSE 10TH AUGUST

Woodwork for Beginners - using more greenwood

 A few photos from a Basic Woodwork course back in July and a few new ideas we've been playing with at Inverquiech.

It's always brilliant helping beginners to make something from scratch they can take home. We've been using more greenwood, hazel, willow, sycamore and oak, it's fun exploring ways of jointing it and combining it with plywood and other machined wood.

A big part of my sustainable living philosophy is thinking up ways to produce the things we need with what's growing or lying unused locally. Learning the skills for that makes us more resilient - and it's fun too :-)

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS - course at Perth Community Farm - 10th August

This course covers the real basics to get you started on your gardening adventures, whether you're starting with a windswept concrete slab or acres of overgrown jungle. Find out about sowing seeds, potting up seedlings, propagating from roots and shoots, growing in tunnels and outside, compost making and much more - we'll also look at the basic woodwork you need to make raised beds etc. These are small classes, so we can look at plans and photos from your own gardens and hopefully give you the sort of advice that might save you hours of labour...

Sowing seeds

MORE ABOUT THE COURSE AND BOOKINGS HERE: GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 

Bit of Gardening News...

A VISITOR FROM THE GARDENING COURSE IN MARCH

It was brilliant to see Sian from the gardening course in March, she's helping on a couple of our volunteer Wednesdays. Here she is with the tatties and onions they planted on the course, now almost fully grown. That's a picture of her own flourishing garden on her phone, of which she is rightly proud :-)
 

KEEPING ON TOP OF THE WEEDS...

Everything's growing like mad at Perth Community Farm... including the weeds of course. We have various non-chemical ways of keeping a bit of a check on them with mulching and cover crops etc but at the end of the day there's always some hand weeding to do. Still the farm has probably never had such a big area in production before and there's some great crops coming along.

MORE WOODINESS AT INVERQUIECH FARM

It's great to be set up and running courses for the Summer and Autumn with Kate at Inverquiech Farm again. (Perth Community Farm is also a brilliant venue - especially for the Winter and Spring months when using the bigger polytunnel as a workshop gives us plenty of light and even warmth if there's any sun at all - and I'm planning to move operations back there come the shorter, colder days again. It's fascinating to work at the two places, one right in the city and the other right out in the woods).

THE BIGGER SUSTAINABLE PICTURE

Inverquiech is a lovely place to visit, perched well off the beaten track where the Alyth burn meets the River Isla. People can see many of the aspects of sustainable living happening there, food growing as well as our woodwork, all in a beautiful woodland setting. I firmly believe that it's small projects like this, with a bit of land and woodland, where we'll be able to develop and show people the ideas, designs and techniques that will help people all over the world to adapt to whatever is around the corner...

CUURENT COURSES AT INVERQUIECH

I have lots of woodworking courses coming up, including some new ideas, of course... ALL CURRENT COURSES HERE.

Another class on the popular Basic Woodwork One course, I'm always delighted to see how much fun everyone has and how they often surprise themselves by making something from scratch with very little or no experience.