Birch Cottage has a new website of its own
Visit the Birch Cottage website to bookWelcome to Lackan Cottage Farm
We’re Steve and Claire Golemboski-Byrne, we live here off grid with our daughter, our dog, cats and horses. We make all our own energy using wind and solar, grow as much of our own food as we can (it varies widely) and have used permaculture design principles to help us create a great place to live.
Here on the website you’ll find stories about the projects we’ve undertaken – what works, what doesn’t. You can come stay in our guest cottage – Birch Cottage and we will show you round, or maybe you just want to find out how to do some of this stuff. Either way, welcome.
Great reasons to plant trees
An incredible 35 tonnes of carbon will be locked up over the lifetime of the trees we will plant for those who have so far pledged to our crowdfunding campaign - as well as being beautiful:) We're planting a tree for everyone who gets involved, as well as lots of...
All fired up
We're all fired up - not only because the benign weather has allowed us to share food around the fire for a few days, but because after just three days of campaigning we have reached over 30% of our funding goal! We're full of exciting plans for the build that looks...
Making raised (lazy) beds
Today we created a simple raised 'lazy' bed, although why they are called that I've no idea - making them is strenuous enough. The first step is to mark out and then turn over all the sod on your bed area. At this stage the bed is pretty flat looking. Then, we cut the...
Please help to crowdfund our new project
An Eco Classroom for Lackan Cottage Farm from Steven Golemboski-Byrne on Vimeo. As many of you will know, we welcome all sorts of different people to the farm, all the time. From local and international volunteers, to the GIY group, permaculture courses, and the many...
Regenerating hedgerows
As a living resource and habitat, it is hard to beat hedgerows. They provide somewhere for wildlife to shelter, birds to nest, a source of food, they attract pollinators, they provide shelter, they look and smell wonderful, they can provide a source of fuel, act as a...
Coppice growth
Last winter we began to coppice our birch woodland, and it is encouraging to see how quickly new growth is emerging from the cut trees. These stems are now 30 inches tall, and within 10-15 years should be ready to harvest for fuel. Coppicing effectively "resets" the...