Permablitz in the Media, a new Guild Session and Living With Less
It’s been an exciting time in Permablitz-land of late – we were stoked to see Hannah Maloney showing the audience of Gardening Australia what a permablitz is all about, and a mere few days later we saw a three-page article about little old us in the latest edition of Pip Magazine! And if that’s not enough, we’re simply thrilled to bits to be re-launching the Guild Sessions for the amazing designers who enable the blitzes throughout Melbourne. You can see details of all this below.
Oh, and the Collective has got a brand new member! Homesteader and aquaponics man Ben joined us last month, so we’re becoming more resilient as an organisation every day – hooray!
Looking out the window, last year’s winter was relatively mild, so many of us could be forgiven for forgetting what a real winter feels like! As such, our song of the month is a cold winter song… called Cold Winter Song by singer-songwriter Jay Sparrow.
Permablitz News
Who saw Permablitz on Gardening Australia?
If you missed Gardening Australia earlier this month, we’ve got you covered. Check out the article to see Hannah from Good Life Permaculture showing Australia what a permablitz is all about – we reckon she smashed it!
Permablitz Revisited: Brunswick West - 20 months later
20 months ago, a team of twenty volunteers transformed Sandy’s back yard into a more productive space, removing kikuyu grass and even planting a subtropical zone!
With a garden that now provides a variety of greens, veggies and even bananas, the design by Anne, Clare and Terry has changed the way Sandy sees her garden – or indeed her place in the suburbs.
Now when she walks her dog in the streets, she can’t help looking at gardens and wishing there was “just one zucchini, just one pumpkin” in there too!
Permablitzing in Pip Magazine!
Pip Magazine has been spreading the good word of permaculture across Australia since 2017, and we’ve been following them every step of the way.
And now, Permablitz has been featured in a three-page spread!
The latest issue of Pip Magazine is out now, be sure to nab yourself a copy to read the full article yourself!
The Guild Sessions are back!
A site analysis and assessment performed recently by Martin, Martijn and Jon
It’s been quite a while, but the Guild Session is back!
As a reminder, these sessions are primarily a networking and knowledge sharing forum for our Design Guild members. We welcome all interested in Permablitz or Permaculture to come along and see what’s on offer.
This event is intended to boost PDC graduates’ confidence in working on designs – whether that be for a permablitz or a client.
This will be the perfect primer for anyone who has completed a PDC and has been thinking about designing a permablitz, but may feel nervous about taking that first step.
We will be running this in a suburban backyard in Heathmont and numbers are limited.
Hero of the Month
Carob
Carob trees can live for over 100 years, grow to 15m and produce a trunk girth of up to 3.5m. You can plant them wherever an olive tree will grow, and their pods are delicious as a chocolate substitute.
The Carob in the Dunstan Reserve food forest is only 5 years old, but it already stands over 2 meters and produces lots of pods.
A big thanks to Libby from Moreland Community Gardening for giving us our Hero of the Month!
Beets and Pieces
Urban forests: Melbourne’s plan to green the city
Australia’s second largest city has unveiled a $19.1 million plan to unleash a sea of green across the city by boosting urban forests and decorating buildings with ‘vertical greening.’
The plans will also see council increase the quality of green roofs and vertical greening across the municipality, where there are already 40 green roofs, according to council.
Budget documents describe plans to “progress a planning scheme amendment to improve sustainability performance and deliver green infrastructure on buildings.”
Parks and gardens across the city will get a makeover under the budget pledge, with council making a $19.1 million investment in projects to make the city more sustainable, including $7.1 million in upgrades across 480 hectares of parks and gardens.
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You can read the full article in Government News to see community response to this announcement.
Live With Less Waste
The team from Happen Films recently spent a couple of insightful days with the Carter family.
The Carters are an awesome family of five who are as low-waste as you can imagine. The sum total of their rubbish for the last two years resides in a not-quite-full jar on the kitchen bench; all of their recycling for the last two years is a fist-full of foil that they’re about ready to send off in their otherwise empty recycling bin. An impressive achievement by anyone’s measure!
Inspired? Why not check out Plastic Free July for how you can reduce your plastic usage.
You can watch the new Live With Less Waste doco here – it will be 8 minutes well spent!
In the Garden
It’s bare root season! If you’ve got room in your garden, now is the best time to get a fruit tree in there – but be sure you know what you’re getting! Here’re some good tips to keep in mind when choosing your tree – as well as tips on the best way to plant them!
Of course, if you’ve got enough trees, you can always get perennials – if you already have these, now is the perfect time to divide them. It’s also a great time for winter pruning around now – if you don’t know how, check out the many training sessions that are around at the moment.
There’s not a lot of things that will take off in the cold soil right now, but you can definitely give the following plants a go:
Seeds that do well in July include…
- Beetroot
- Lettuce
- Mustard Greens
- Onions
- Peas
- Radish
- Shallots
- Snow Peas
- Strawberries (seeds and runners)
Remember: some seeds do better starting off in punnets, some in pots and some in the ground. To get the best from your seedlings be sure to check the best methods first!
