Guild Session #8 – Richmond
We had a fantastic and engaging Guild Session in Richmond on Wednesday the 22nd of July at the Richmond Community Learning Centre. Thanks to all who joined us!
Our presentations and discussion surrounded two key elements of Permaculture – the design process and the importance of people and community.
Adam Grubb of VEG recalled his first Permaculture designs – without any reliable books or guides detailing a design process, he felt sometimes he didn’t know where to start or ended up getting stuck. While the rest of us feel that way sometimes – the good news is we’ve got resources like Adam!
At the session, Adam worked through a backyard garden design brief with the group. We analysed the site elements together, discussed the client wishlist, and placed the elements of the design on the site. Along the way, Adam presented VEG’s design process which gives simple steps to work through observation of a site and client, design, and implementation. It was a fantastic exercise for new and experienced designers!
In case you missed it – or forgot to take notes – you can find our more on this awesome & illustrated VEG blog post about it. Check it out!
Following Adam was Paul Shelton of Growing Spaces. With his background in education and community development, Paul offered some great examples of resilient community networks and some dos and don’ts of community design and group building.
Paul gave some background on Permaculture-influenced Transition (Transition Towns) movement. Transition seeks to create local solutions to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability. Paul’s own experience is as part of Transition Darebin and he shared with us their efforts to create a self-supporting web of community efforts and services. In contrast, Paul closed by giving a few local examples of efforts where beautiful designs fell flat because of a lack of community support and engagement. It was a good reminder not to forget the people!
A big thanks to Adam and Paul – we appreciate you sharing your skills and ideas! And thanks for all those who attended, we hope you got a lot from it and enjoyed yourselves.
Announcements
Interested in aquaponics? Guild member Leah is organising a tour of a backyard aquaponics system in Moreland. If you’re keen to go along and check it out, send her an email leah01 [dot] reynolds [at] gmail [dot] com. You can always email us at [email protected] for more details!
As a reminder, these Guild Sessions are designed as a way to gather, share skills, and meet the other great people in the Permablitz network. Even if you are new to Permablitz – come along and find out more. The Sessions are hosted at rotating locations across the city. Keep a look out for the next meeting which will be held in September.
