Eco-logic Books

The best place to find books on landcare, sustainable living, permaculture, good living, death, sheds that look like turtles, and other quintessential texts. Peter Andrews lovingly compiles this smorgasborg of goodies - why go anywhere else?

The Permaculture Association

The Permaculture Association is the hub of the Permaculture network in the UK. As good a place to start as any!

The Permaculture Magazine

The best source of information on what is happening in Permaculture in the UK. Contains course listings, articles, handy tips, and a good set of links.

Transition Culture

Visit only if you are prepared for a journey that starts today and will take you for the rest of your life. This is perhaps the most intriguing website of them all. . . Take a look at the realities of Climate Change and Peak Oil in the warm company of the Transition Movement who offer hope and heart in the form of a massive community response. For such challenges action must start with the individual but then build into grass roots commuinty action. Jump aboard.

The Willow Bank

This is Steve Pickup's willow catalogue site with more details of willow varieties, how, where, and when to plant willow.

Fruiting Bodies

Ragmans Lane has close links with this company who are pioneering the cultivation of medicinal and gourmet mushrooms in the UK. If you are interested in tintures of Shiitake, Reishi, or Trametes, check them out.

Wilderness Discovery

Bushcraft experiences in the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean.

Elemental Solutions

Nick Grant runs elemental. If you are looking for advice on rainwater, greywater, septic water or anything remotely connected with it - go here. Its a good website, and worth a visit.

Seed Savers Network Australia

Jude and Michel Fanton run Seedsavers. They taught our 1996 permaculture course here at Ragmans, and co wrote the Seedsavers Handbook, published by eco-logic books in 1997.

Shift Bristol

Shift Bristol has been formed to support local sustainable community action with useful and innovative training.

Land Reaserch Associates

Land Research Associates specialises in all aspects of soil science, land quality and rural land use.

Our Approach to Soil Fertility and System Health ~ by Matt Dunwell

February 15th 2017 POSTED BY: Ragmans Farm




Ragmans Farm is a 60 acre organic farm in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. We use farming practices that regenerate the land, using permaculture as a guiding design principle. Between the three main enterprises at the farm – Ragmans Lane Farm, the Willow Bank and Ragmans Market Garden, we provide employment for about 8 people.

Ragmans Lane Farm has eight acres of organic apples and we make our own brand of apple juice. We also host a series of courses throughout the year on land related issues.

A course led by Jairo Restrepo in 2015 introduced us to a new philosophy of system health, based on building healthy soils.  This had a profound effect on the farm, and led us to set up a full time research post to develop these principles for temperate climate agriculture.  Our research manager, Juanfran Lopez, is half way into a three year programme and this blog is predominantly about his work here at Ragmans. 



Our research goal is to gain expertise in making soil amendment preparations. We will then measure the effectiveness of these biological techniques on system biology and mineral balance on plant-soil health and growth. Over the last twelve months we have put in place a series of soil and plant tests and taken baseline data.


We are testing for pH, salinity, conductivity, a wide range of trace elements and also available nitrogen. In addition to this, we are developing a high quality range of preparations and techniques such as biofertilisers, aerobic teas, mineral chelations, mychorriza, chromatography, lactic acid bacteria, and native microorganism reproduction among other methods….

The objective of this practice is to reproduce the local microbiology, as bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, algae and protozoa working in a complete harmony in a healthy environmental system (forest, farm or even animal and human system).

Whilst it is tempting to try to produce a range of products for sale, we are wary of claims that certain microbe mixes are ‘silver bullets’ to be used in the same way as chemical fertilisers or herbicides. 

We believe it is more important to get a good understanding of the science behind this approach, and then for farmers to tweak them into individual requirements or situations, thereby having a positive impact on the farmer´s autonomy and viability and hopefully reaching a broader scale.

An example of how we can work through these preparations can be seen at Ragmans currently.  We have in the past sampled our soils and found them lacking in certain trace elements.  A conversation with any good soil lab will furnish you with the trace elements needed, normally in the form of salts – magnesium sulphate etc. These are supplied and put out onto the land with a spreader.


The addition of trace elements in this way can be ineffective as both the soil and plant are looking for elements in a bioactive form – ie easily digestible. For this reason sometimes the addition of trace elements can be disruptive and almost always there is waste.

When we make biofertiliser on the farm we build a biologically active system using fresh cow manure that has the gut flora and fauna of a ruminant. To this we add various ingredients – including molasses, yeast, native microbes from the forest soil.   A ferment takes place into which we can place trace elements in minute quantities over a period of three or four months.  These minerals are cycled through countless generations of microbes becoming more and more biologically available.


When the preparation is ready we spray onto the leaves and soil thereby feeding the system through the plants that in turn will feed soil microbes with essential micro nutrients.

This is a basic example of our approach as taught by Jairo Restrepo. We are only beginning to understand the potential of natural agriculture, and there is very little knowledge at all of this work in temperate systems. 

We are also running a six day course with Jairo at Ragmans from June 29th to July 4th 2017.  Jairo's book 'The ABC of Organic Agriculture' is now available in English from our on-line shop.




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