Today I’m reflecting on the brilliant opportunity I got given this week to co-teach the forest gardening day at Shift Bristol with the brilliant Matt Dunnwell of Ragmans Lane fame!

The opportunities for practising Permaculture Principle #4, ‘Apply self-regulation and accept feedback’, were endless as I grappled with imposter syndrome, co-created a teaching day that was new to both of us, worked out what a reasonable amount of time was to spend on cutting out to-scale tree canopy sizes for our design base maps… and probably spent too much time doing it, but enjoyed every minute of it!

It was a privilege sharing what knowledge I have with this interested and engaged bunch of humans. Showing them round the forest garden at Grow Wilder was so joyful and felt easy – I realised it was because I was in my element.

I was grateful for Matt’s knowledgeable and wise presence on the day, and for all his feedback, including: Keep it simple! …Which sounds simple enough, but is not at all easy.

The day has lit my fire to inspire and empower more people to turn their hand to forest gardening, regardless of the amount of space available to them. I’ll keep the cogs turning for some forest garden workshops…