The fence and gate enclosing our garden are made of coppiced sweet chestnut timbers. The gate, shown in the picture below, is more than 2 metres tall and is very heavy – we estimate that it weighs around half a tonne!

We need the gate to be mounted on the side of our factory to make access to the garden much easier however, due to its weight, we couldn’t just use standard hinges. So we have employed a local blacksmith, Conan Sturdy, to make some hinges for us.

The first stage of planting for our permaculture forest garden will take place very soon and we need your help! We are organising 3 volunteer days to kick start the project.

The first will be on Saturday 25th November and on this day we will be building compost bins and wormeries so that we can start composting our food waste.

The second and third days will be on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th December and on these days we will be planting the first set of trees in the garden.

If you'd like to volunteer for one or more of these days, please contact Joanna Southernwood by email on joanna@alara.co.uk.

Hope to see you there!