My Permaculture Journey from 2021 to 2025

This is a continuation from My Permaculture Journey from 2016 to 2020.

On 2021-01-22 I started visiting and volunteering at Food Forest Eindhoven. At that time, it was one of the few activities I could physically go to due to the restrictions imposed on all of us at the time. It felt really good and healing to connect with people and to work with them in nature.

This year I took over full responsibility for the allotment garden. Ina had grown frustrated by the expectations and demeanor of the allotment association's members. I continued my work as a secretary to the board, being at the allotment association almost every Saturday.

In addition to the work I was doing at the allotment, I continued to work at Proeftuin Meerhoven most every Sunday.

In June 2021 I attended the workshop Zomerstekken at food forest Den Food Bosch.

In July 2021 I organized a workshop Introduction to Permaculture. It was attended by 17 people.

Ina discovered Vedanta, a spiritual path rooted in the Vedic traditions of India. I joined as well and we went to a weekly meditation class. We have been practicing ever since: meditating, reading about Vedanta, singing and listening to mantras and attending a weekly meeting where we discuss these matters. This seems to have been the major driver behind developing a spiritual life for both Ina and myself.

We did a few more experiments that I briefly summarized.

In 2022 Ina and I experimented a lot with wool: cleaning, felting, carding, spinning and knitting. Among other things, we made a scarf and a hat from alpaca hair.

It was also the first year I started collecting seeds from stinging nettles

We did even more experiments that I only briefly summarize on that page.

In 2023 I created a peg loom and tried weaving with it. We have created one small and two big rugs from it.

I attended a community work day at samen-moestuin in Zeelst (a part of Veldhoven). It was lovely to connect with people over clearing the garden and having a communal soup for dinner.

We had a lot of rain at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. It started raining in July 2023 and the rain did not stop until the middle of 2024. The toad pool at the allotment association flooded and about ten percent of gardens were unusable for most of 2024.

In 2024, I experienced a bit of a lull in the amount of experiments.

In December 2024 I quit the allotment as well as my position as member of the board. My activities at the allotment were costing me more energy than I got out of them. I have been able to make a lot of people happy with the plants from my allotment. At the end of December, the whole plot was empty. It felt like the end of an era.

I also felt a huge responsibility lift from my shoulders. I have not missed the allotment since. Because I have a number of other gardening projects I'm involved with, I am still outside working the gardens a few days a week.

In 2025 I did a 10 day darkness retreat among other experiments.

My journey continues.