Carmen C Nottingham BA (Languages) (1979), HD Personnel Management (1980), Permaculturist (1991).

Carmen was born in the Belgian Congo in 1958 and came to South Africa in 1962. She completed school and university in South Africa, and worked in the corporate world for two years. Carmen has traveled extensively, and has lived in Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi and also in the Caribbean, Bahamas and USA – where she worked on yachts, sailing and traveling. Upon her return to South Africa, with the ocean so far away, and having physically witnessed many scenes of environmental destruction, she decided to help heal the soil (our inland “sea”) and studied Permaculture, Organic Gardening and Indigenous Plants. Since 1992, when she formed Planner Bee Plant Care, her work includes landscaping, garden maintenance, consultation and design along Permaculture and organic principles; as well as production of Fertilis Earthworm Castings. She also offers training and workshops in Permaculture – healing the soil, healing the people. She has been involved in several community projects – all to do with greening and sustainable, organic food security – in Soweto, Vosloorus, Atteridgeville, Orange Farm, Ivory Park (Midrand EcoVillage). She initiated and implemented a schools Permaculture project in Chiawa, Zambia, in the mid 1990’s.