Interview with Bridget Ginnity in the Clare Champion July 17th 2022 (link below). Féidhlim Harty, director of an environmental consultancy company tells Bridget Ginnity, how being a bad windsurfer led him to specialising in reed bed system design and other eco-friendly sewage options. Feidhlim Harty at his farm pond where he grows wetland plants and willows for waterway re-wilding and wetland projects. Photograph by John Kelly For as long as I can remember, my family was interested in environmental things of various sorts, whether it was beach clean-ups, chemical or sewage pollution in Cork Harbour area. My grandmother was Myrtle…
-
-
Link to podcast (Apr 9, 2022): https://www.drewpearlman.com/?powerpress_pinw=784-podcast. Féidhlim Harty is a writer and director of an environmental consultancy company specializing in reed bed and other eco-friendly sewage options. He is the author of various books such as Get Rid of Your Bin, Septic Tank Options and Alternatives as well as Toward Zero Waste: How to live a circular life. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two daughters, vegetable garden and lots of Willow trees. This episode’s sponsor is Chelsea Green Publishing: Chelsea Green is recognized as a leading publisher of books about restorative living, diet-focused integrative health, organic…
-
Féidhlim Harty tracks the principle of succession in a wild garden. First published on Nov 22, 2021 in Horticulture Connected (link below). We bought our house in 2008, just as the housing bubble was at its most inflated. I’d never really wanted to move, but it had been on the cards and now it was time. We got the keys in April. I don’t think there was a single day that summer without rain. The back kitchen door opened south onto grey skies and a growing puddle that swelled to a broad shallow pond as the days lengthened and then…
-
Posted by Burrenbeo Trust on 18 Nov 2021 for the participants on the Hare’s Corner project (https://burrenbeo.com/thc/).
-
First published in Horticulture Connected on May 19, 2021. Link below. Féidhlim Harty explores the boundless potential of and benefits from creating river corridors throughout our countryside Perfect Storm Globally we are in a perfect storm; and I’m not referring to the Covid pandemic. On many different levels, Earth’s health indices are at critical levels. Climate breakdown isextensively publicised, but is compounded with multiple other issues. Biodiversity losses are so great that it is claimed that we have entered the sixth mass extinction event on our planet. Our current trajectory feels akin to sawing off the branch we are sitting…
-
Féidhlim Harty explores the marriage of science and art that brought about an ethical and principled design revolution. First published on December 18, 2020 in Horticulture Connected. Link below. Permaculture; that’s, like, organic gardening but with more of a hippy twist, isn’t it? Well, if that’s what you want in your garden, then perhaps, but really it’s a lot broader than that. It is essentially the science and art of designing sustainable systems of any sort that support human needs while protecting the environment. The term permaculture derives from permanent agriculture or permanent culture. It is a design approach that…
-
Published in Horticulture Connected on August 13, 2020 (link below). Féidhlim Harty describes how ‘rewilding’ can produce landscapes with an abundance of plant and wildlife with opportunities for people to thrive socially and economically We are beginning to recognise that if we don’t manage our landscapes in a way that supports the natural world we may well find ourselves without all sorts of things we currently take for granted. ‘Rewilding’ is all about bringing nature back to life and restoring living systems and allowing nature to flourish. It’s a relatively new term, coined by conservationist and activist, Dave Foreman, and…
-
Writing during the lockdown, Féidhlim Harty asks, has the pandemic been all bad for the planet or society? First published in Horticulture Connected on August 1, 2020 (link below). Last year, both British and Irish governments declared a climate and biodiversity emergency in response to public pressure and a growing international scientific consensus. Yet despite the declarations, politicians have dragged their feet with unbridled enthusiasm, clearly more concerned with bolstering economic growth and meeting the many demands of the industry than addressing these pressing issues. Crisis exists. Emergency declared. Essentially, no action is taken. Meanwhile, events in Wuhan have created…
-
Féidhlim Harty explains how to maximise the potential for biodiversity in your next stormwater management project First published in Horticulture Connected on April 3, 2020 (link below). Flood control is very much on the agenda in this period of climate consciousness; fuelling an increase in planning requirements for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) across Ireland. But the ecological benefits of SuDS go far beyond flood mitigation; they engage in carbon sequestration and biodiversity habitat creation as well. How can we use SuDS as a springboard to maximise the ecological benefits of the developments we work on? Two questions can act as…
-
Permaculture offers a design approach for meeting human needs without impacting negatively on the natural world. Rooted in core ethics and guided by an evolving set of permaculture principles, it can be a wonderful tool for any design process, from a back garden to a greening of your city. Inherently, permaculture design has the natural world as an overt focus. Thus we can use this as a way to design landscapes, gardens, farms, businesses or communities that are both productive (yielding the things we want to achieve) and regenerative (for people, planet and the future). Edible landscaping, as the name…