A Visitor from Holland

We had a request from a student asking to visit Incredible Edible, although we cannot always oblige we like to when we can.

Fiona is a British MSc. Landscape Architect student from a university and research centre in the Netherlands (Wageningen University), presently doing thesis research into urban permaculture, and is in the last week of a short stay in Manchester doing a site study of Wythenshawe, a regeneration area of social housing on the periphery of the city.
I met her train and after a look at the station beds we went first to the health centre, there are loads of fruit bushes and strawberry plants ready to take their place in the beds.
As Fiona is studying urban growing and permaculture with special interest in the effects and interactions with social housing we then went to Longfield. Where, as well as these raised beds, there are 79 newly planted fruit trees.

We stopped off at “Fair View” ( Barney and Rosey’s place) to take photos of the town.

We take these views for granted, but we really are so lucky to live here.
Then to the Omerod beds, the college, graveyard, and the Burnley Road herb garden. Which can be seen on yesterdays blog here
Fionas camera was in overdrive, not only shooting the growing beds but taking photos of everything, our fab architecture, our town and our wonderful hills, something they don’t have in Holland.
Time for question and answers session so back to Mary’s for coffee and cake.

Around the kitchen table where the Incredible Edible idea and name was born, Mary explained about our ethos and and some of our future plans, and Cid wore my hat. Fiona really understands the scheme and what we are about, and we feel we have made a new friend.
This clever lady will be using our ‘movement’ and area as a case study within the theoretical part of her thesis in order to inform her design which will inturn be a document the Wythenshawe Regeneration Trust will be able to refer to.

We are also promised a copy which will be an incredibly valuable asset to us.

We know Fiona has to go home to Holland but there will always be warm welcome here in Tod. We all learned from each other today, it was great and the sun even shone.

it don’t get much better than that