Pat Foxwell

Tutors: Pat Foxwell, with Aranya & Phil Gamble
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Pat Foxwell teaching in her forest garden, WIDTH=This course offers a first opportunity to spend four inspiring days at Ourganics Evolving Systems, living with the land & learning how Pat Foxwell runs her debt-free permaculture project & business.Pat became steward of the land in 1999 & since then has created a project that attracts hundreds of visitors & helpers every year who come to learn from her & get a taste of the lifestyle.Come & learn how to walk your talk & to live your dream.These four days will be a 'full immersion' experience in living this way, with Pat sharing how she set Ourganics up, how she gathered in the help & resources she needed, what she learned about commercial growing, marketing the business & how she went about getting temporary planning permission to live on the land.Most importantly she will be sharing her thoughts about what she would do differently with hindsight - saving the rest of us the stress & cost of learning the hard way!
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Pat's accumulated wisdom & infectious enthusiasm usually has people hanging around far longer than they originally intended... . We will be looking at some theory behind running such a project & business, but many of the sessions will be taught through practical experience.We will also be having a lot of fun & savouring the best bits about living this way!The course will include preparing a stall with Pat for the local producers market on the Saturday morning where we will be selling the food we help to harvest from the garden.
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It is a working permaculture project set up by Pat Foxwell in 1999 with its own detailed design that participants will have the opportunity to learn about.It is a venue that has already been used for apprentice design work on previous design courses, and that also regularly hosts tours by local schools & groups.Pat started Ourganics because she wanted to run her own business that was sustainable and debt-free unlike so many that run in constant debt.She wanted to show that permaculture principles could go hand in hand with being Soil Association-registered to create a land-based, self-financing and viable business which would provide affordable organic vegetables, herbs, salads, fruit and flowers for the local community, with produce going out direct from the field as well as via farmers' markets, box schemes, farm shops etc. Ourganics has the extra label "evolving systems" because like anything organic, the project is continually evolving, responding and changing.

Click here for location map
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Learn from Pat how she set up & runs her project & debt-free business Learn how she integrated permaculture design with Soil Association standards on the land

Pat FoxwellDesigned Visions - Courses - Guest Tutors - Pat Foxwell
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Pat grew up in the Gloucestershire countryside, with a beautiful garden, an orchard, open fields, streams & ponds around her.The sound of a working mill wheel could be heard day and night.Her love of growing things, trees, water, making fires and building shelters (which always leaked) started early.Over the last twenty years she have been saddened to see whole woodlands cut down and not replaced, and old hedgerows taken out to create fields for large machinery.This and many worldwide catastrophes alarmed her.It reflected the lack of respect and consideration we show to each other and the land we are dependent upon.She gave up her job and lifestyle and looked for a piece of land to live in harmony with.Her aim was to create a haven for plants, wildlife, trees and people.She realized that she couldn't change the world alone, but she could take responsibility for what she ate, where she slept, her waste, and how she interacted with others.

Pat traveled around Ireland & some of England looking for land & along the way attended many courses, including a Permaculture design course, a hedge-laying weekend, a growing mushrooms weekend, an organic gardening course & two woodland and willow weekends.She also visited many places, asked many questions & read books long into the night.Then in 1999, right on her doorstep she was offered five acres of water meadow to become guardian of, which has become Ourganics Evolving Systems.Her aim has been to demonstrate that Permaculture principles and Soil Association certification can work together to create a viable debt-free business.She grows seasonal salad, vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers, selling them locally & now has an abundance of valuable experience to share with others wishing to follow a similar path.Ourganics Evolving Systems has become her portfolio of design work which in July 2006 earned her the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design.

Tutors: Pat Foxwell, with Aranya & Phil Gamble
...
Pat Foxwell teaching in her forest garden, WIDTH=These modules each offer an opportunity to spend four inspiring days at Ourganics Evolving Systems, living with the land & learning how Pat Foxwell runs her debt-free permaculture project & business.Pat became steward of the land in 1999 & since then has created a project that attracts hundreds of visitors & helpers every year who come to learn from her & get a taste of the lifestyle.Come & learn how to walk your talk & to live your dream.Each four days offers a 'full immersion' experience in living this way, with Pat sharing how she set Ourganics up, how she gathered in the help & resources she needed, what she learned about commercial growing, marketing the business & how she went about getting temporary planning permission to live on the land.Most importantly she will be sharing her thoughts about what she would do differently with hindsight - saving the rest of us the stress & cost of learning the hard way!
...
Pat's accumulated wisdom & infectious enthusiasm usually has people hanging around far longer than they originally intended ...
...
The late spring & autumn modules will also include preparing a stall with Pat for the local producers market on the Saturday morning where we will be selling the food we help to harvest from the garden.
...
It is a working permaculture project set up by Pat Foxwell in 1999 with its own detailed design that participants will have the opportunity to learn about.It is a venue that has already been used for apprentice design work on previous design courses, and that also regularly hosts tours by local schools & groups.Pat started Ourganics because she wanted to run her own business that was sustainable and debt-free unlike so many that run in constant debt.She wanted to show that permaculture principles could go hand in hand with being Soil Association-registered to create a land-based, self-financing and viable business which would provide affordable organic vegetables, herbs, salads, fruit and flowers for the local community, with produce going out direct from the field as well as via farmers' markets, box schemes, farm shops etc. Ourganics has the extra label "evolving systems" because like anything organic, the project is continually evolving, responding and changing.

Click here for location map
...
Learn from Pat how she set up & runs her project & debt-free business Learn how she integrated permaculture design with Soil Association standards on the land
...
or call Pat 01308 482455 (for course content enquiries)

Pat Foxwell checking one of her bee hives

Designed Visions - Sustainability through Permaculture - Courses, Design and Consultancy

Pat Foxwell Pat grew up in the Gloucestershire countryside, with a beautiful garden, an orchard, open fields, streams & ponds around her. The sound of a working mill wheel could be heard day and night. Her love of growing things, trees, water, making fires and building shelters (which always leaked) started early. Over the last twenty years she have been saddened to see whole woodlands cut down and not replaced, and old hedgerows taken out to create fields for large machinery. This and many worldwide catastrophes alarmed her.

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