Ballyvourney permaculture talk poster 14th May 2026

Sustainability talks and events May 2026

Paul LynchLeave a commentUncategorized, , , ,

I’m looking forward to attend these two sustainability themed events in county Cork this May: 14th May Ballyvourney Permaculture Talk On Thursday the 14th of May at 8pm I will participate at the “Cainteanna an Earraigh” (spring talks) of the Acadamh Fódhla Talamhaíochta group in the Muskerry Gaeltacht. Access for the talk as at the rear of the building. For access questions please contact the building at: 02645366 I’ll be sharing the platform with my colleague Donal O’Leary from Waste Down: https://wastedown.com/ During the talk I will give a general introduction to permaculture and its application in the Irish context, and there will be plenty of time for discussion and questions. Presentation will be bilingual in Irish and English with projector slides in English. This series of talks is happening at the “Campas Íosagain” in Ballyvourvey. Finally the impressive old Coláiste Íosagáin building which was unused for decades is being Continue Permaculture Story

Orchard Care Poster

Orchard Pruning Workshops Feb 2026

Paul LynchLeave a commentUncategorized, , ,

Firstly, On Feb 21st we will have the regular winter pruning workshop with a focus on the formative pruning of young trees.
Then a week later on 28th Feb 2026 we will have a winter pruning workshop focusing on the restoration of mature and older neglected trees, which involves additional skills, considerations and concepts.
Both workshops will cover all the basics in orchard care, but each with special focus areas.
There will be plenty repetition of key points between the two courses, which would be highly beneficial to anyone seriously considering mastering their own orchard care.

Dripping with apples

Orchard Review 2025: An Epic Fruiting Year

Paul LynchLeave a commentOrchard, , , , , , , , ,

From the springtime of this year 2025, I was already drawing parallels with that fictional but very realistic epic harvest year in the Shire. In the spring there was a quality to the flowering trees I had never seen the like of, and can only describe as magical. The following fruit-set kept bearing along those epic lines, and most people with fruit trees noticed the bumper crop, and were scrambling to make provision for some worthwhile use of all that fruit.

orchard pruning ireland

Summer Pruning Workshop Story

Paul LynchLeave a commentOrchard, , , , , , , , , ,

The pruning workshop covered the following topics: Why prune at all; the natural shape of an apple tree; the purpose of grafting; its effects and side-effects; summer pruning vs winter pruning; vegetative and fruiting wood; orchard guilds and design considerations; pollination; tools and tool care; disease pruning; pruning demos; plant succession mulching, and importantly, the Lorette system of summer pruning.

cartoon wind

Teaching Children Permaculture

Paul Lynch1 CommentCourses and Workshops, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Permaculture farm in Dunmanway County Cork hosts summer language students from Bilbao It’s all happening around Dunmanway County Cork these days. Since I began my professional permaculture design practice, the area between Drimoleague and Dunmanway County Cork has shown to be a consistent hot-spot for permaculture projects. A few years ago I worked on a farm permaculture design for the Kingston family near Coolkellure, now known as Nowen Rock Regenerative Natural Habitats. Recently John Kingston and I have been collaborating on the build of another local permaculture project in that area. Teaching Children Permaculture John asked me if I spoke Spanish and if I would do a day teaching permaculture for a group of English language students coming from Bilbao to visit his farm. Of course I was delighted to get involved and do more teaching. It was quite a new challenge however as I had not taught children permaculture Continue Permaculture Story

Teaching permaculture

Garden Design Talk for the Kenmare Gardening Group

Paul LynchLeave a commentCourses and Workshops, , , , , , , ,

Sustainable landscape design solutions for gardening and climate problems Earlier this month I was delighted to give a presentation on permaculture design to the Kenmare gardening group at the Gateway Methodist Church in Kenmare Co. Kerry. The church setting was fitting as I had some biblical analogies regarding creation, gardens, fruit, floods and sustainable landscape design. I put extensive research into this lecture and went as far as to write a whole article on my preparatory thoughts, partly as an exercise in putting my thoughts in order and partly to give an insight to my readers on this process. You can read this article here: https://permaculturedesign.ie/2025/05/30/sustainability-talks-for-local-groups/ In particular that article focuses on “design” as a cleavage term in society. When we hear that word, some people envisage a something pleasing to look at or behold in an aesthetic sense, while others think of something being “well designed” when it functions Continue Permaculture Story

Sustainability Expert

Sustainability Talks for Local Groups in Ireland

Paul Lynch1 CommentCourses and Workshops, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In my permaculture design practice I have often noticed a parallel phenomenon: the most difficult, most constrained project sites are invariably the easiest to design and the best sites, in a conventional sense, are the hardest, requiring the most careful observation to design well.

The darling buds of May

May Orchard Update – Bumper Fruit Crop Forecast for Ireland in 2025

Paul Lynch1 CommentOrchard, , , , , , , , ,

A-May-zing weather for fruit trees God bless the spells of bitter cold, snow and frost we had during the winter and God bless the beautiful calm, warmth and sunshine this spring. I expect that most gardeners couldn’t fail to notice the widespread, spectacular flowering of both domesticated and wild fruiting trees this year. Gardeners and non-gardeners alike traveling about the countryside will have been greeted with an almost exotic display around each corner from the hawthorn trees laden in white. With the limits of brilliant white exceeded, an abnormal fraction of the May trees have changed clothes this year and blossomed in pink instead, as if they couldn’t wait longer and ripened themselves instead of setting fruit. Fruit tree “chill hours” requirement Even that winter cold spell – now a distant memory – was good for the trees. Proper cold winter weather has a role in regulating the apple tree Continue Permaculture Story

Organic home vegetable beds

Flood and Drought Resilience in Wales and Ireland

Paul Lynch1 CommentHorticulture, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was delighted to present at a recent Lantra Wales “Farming Connect” webinar titled: “Making Your Horticulture Enterprise Drought and Flood Resistant”. The event was free of charge courtesy of Lantra and the Welsh Government.

Flood and Drought Resilience Event

Making Your Horticulture Enterprise Drought and Flood Resistant – Free Webinar!

Paul LynchLeave a commentUncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m delighted to present at a Lantra Wales “Farming Connect” webinar titled: “Making Your Horticulture Enterprise Drought and Flood Resistant”. The event is free of charge courtesy of Lantra Wales. The event will take place at 12.30pm on Tuesday the 16th April 2025. I’m looking forward to maintain and grow my Wales Permaculture Connection and to listen and learn from the other presenters. Event listing and how to book: https://wales.business-events.org.uk/en/events/making-your-horticulture-enterprise-drought-and-flood-resistant Flood and drought Resilience Webinar Details This is the event description on the Business Wales Event Finder: “In a time of accelerating climate change, this webinar aims to address the vital techniques we might use to make our farms resilient in the face of both flood and drought. We aim to move beyond the paradigm which frames water management as a problem, to one which recognises water management as an opportunity; we will discuss ways of using living systems and Continue Permaculture Story