Design with Nature; Wednesday 25th

Wednesday 25th :

11.30 : Ecology of a BackGreen - Nim Kibbler

12.30: Drama Games - Jonathon White

2.30 : Make Poetry Now - Harry Giles

2.30 : An Alloted Space - Gordon Peters

Gordon Peters rents an allotment plot in Inverleith – across the road from the Botanics West Gate – from Edinburgh Council, beside a hundred and thirty or so other plots. He has worked in health and social development in countries far away from Scotland, but now spends more time observing closely the nomadism of local plants and animals, rather than his previously nomadic life.

Gordon will demonstrate the space of his allotment and describe what he grows and his approach to urban gardening – companion planting, observing what grows well, co-existing with the animal life, going with the seasons, keeping a wild aesthetic alive but still talking to the neighbours. He is also an occasional poet [will be at Courtyard Readings beside the Scottish Poetry Library some days during the 16-27 August fortnight] and will bring a poem or two inspired by being in his plot, to this session beside the yurt.

He has been influenced by Patrick Geddes, Henry Thoreau, and Kenneth White, amongst others, and hopes to interest people in how you can use an empty space, or a grown over space, in a town like Edinburgh, and realise where the natural world, the urban world and the personal world can come together rather than split apart.

3.30: (TBC) - The Botanical Plinth - Bring your writings - read them out...!