THE NATURE HARMONY HUB

Human activities too often degrade our soil and the nature that depends on it. Land regeneration aims to reverse this process, helping to restore the health of our green spaces. Our solutions for regeneration are unique for every project. Our clients are a keystone species in each undertaking. The way they want to use the land is what puts processes of land regeneration in motion and is the foundation for our vision for that land. The specific conditions dictate the solutions we can choose to achieve the desired outcome. Careful site analysis and knowledge of the local ecosystem are crucial to success.

Regeneration always starts with soil health. This doesn't necessarily mean aiming for the most nutrient-rich soil, as in a traditional vegetable garden, for example. Our goal is to create improved conditions for a community of soil flora and fauna to develop and evolve. An essential aspect of this is limiting soil disturbance, such as tilling. We also ensure that the soil supports the intended purpose for the space. For instance, a wildflower meadow typically thrives in soil with low fertility, while a productive forest garden thrives on a soil full of mycorrhizal fungi.

Other factors that always remain at the forefront of our activities are considering ecosystem services—the various benefits that humans derive from healthy ecosystems. Directly, for example from food they harvest, and indirectly, such as a more resilient ecosystem that supports human health and wellbeing.

Ecological landscape design

Our ecological gardening services help people to create a beautiful garden that combines your needs and wishes with benefits to the broader environment and local ecosystems. It aligns with principles of conservation, biodiversity, and responsible resource management. It is not a one-off garden makeover. It is careful process where plans evolves as the garden changes over time.

It starts with a concept, the vision that incorporates aesthetics, desired outcomes such as food or attracting specific wildlife, potential of the site and available resources. The next step is a plan, followed by the exciting step of setting the process in motion. This can range from doing absolutely nothing, to site clearance followed by initial planting. And then comes the garden editing. We observe what happens, how it aligns with our concept, and carefully curate things as they grow, sometimes adding for increased output or for aesthetic effect.

It is a different way of thinking. Instead of a planting plan, dictating where what plant will go, we think in plant communities. And instead of order, we encourage chaos, as this will result in a robust ecosystem that requires minimal maintenance. We are there to guide you, to help edit, and to do the labour at the stages that you need it.

Rewilding

Sometimes the best we can do is to intentionally allow natural processes to unfold and create a habitat that mimics the wild, encouraging native flora and fauna to thrive. This approach often includes minimising human intervention, celebrating volunteering native plants, and providing essential resources for local wildlife. We can stop the natural succession of ecosystems when we feel it is at a point where we want to be, and this can range throughout space. The result could for example be a mixture of meadows, shrubs, and small woodlands.

Rewilding gardens and landscapes not only promotes a healthier and more biodiverse ecosystem. It also offers opportunities for people to connect with and appreciate the natural world. Your greenspace might be small, but collectively we can create a patchwork of nature for wildlife to travel through, to secure their food and to breed in. The more of us that do it, the more impact we have. A small but important green revolution.

Creating habitat

By incorporating features like wildlife-friendly plants, diverse vegetation, water sources, and shelter, gardens support biodiversity by attracting and sustaining a variety of insects, birds, and other wildlife. This helps create interconnected ecosystems within urban and suburban spaces, contributing to the conservation of native species, enhancing pollination services, and fostering a more resilient and balanced local environment.

Permaculture & agroforestry

Often we want our greenspace to provide us, or even a wider community, with food or other useful products such as firewood or natural fibre. Although we apply ecological garden principles, we add plants that produce our desired outputs and mix them in with the ecosystem, mimicking natural plant communities. This is typically more labour intensive and requires more order then a plant community that naturally has coevolved. Yet careful planning and continued observation, and moving to more long lived perennials instead of short lived plants, can all help make the growing of produce and products manageable. As always, sustainability and soil health are at the forefront of all the work we do.