Blitz 155 in Northcote
Permablitz 155 was an amazing summerly-productive-smile-event at Rosa’s house in Northcote.
Many new Blitzers came together with a few veterans on a cloudy day on the 12th January for the first Blitz of the year 2014. As soon as the weather god saw what the Blitz people were up to, it rewarded our efforts with great sunny weather that made working in the garden a bliss.
The designers Nick and Lydia had big plans for Rosa’s place, which included a food forest in the recently liberated from section of the house, a shady vertical scent garden on the veranda, a little green-house for propagation and a couple of wicking beds to grow veggies in the back of the house.
Interested Blitzers started trickling in and one or the other neighbour also stopped by to say hi. After a brief design introduction and peaceful warm-up the Blitzers were ready to roll.
Quick progress was made with the food forest which saw sheet mulching, manuring and application of tree mulch. Everybody had lots of fun digging and planting two apple trees, a lemon and a lime in the front yard and arranging various herbs, flowers and berries amongst the mulch. Another team of eager handymen started working on building planter boxes for the vertical garden while the back was tidied up.These boxes were then installed on the south facing wall on the patio and planted out with the largest variety of lovely scented plants in Melbourne 🙂
Another group of Blitzers converted a former table/bed into an amazing little greenhouse with multiple levels for different plant requirements and pot sizes.
In the lunch break everybody shared a lovely vegan and vegetarian meal that was appropriate for the now hot weather and amazingly tasty.
There were a few unforeseen material shortages which were eventually overcome and work could begin on the wicking beds. The idea behind the wicking beds was to re-use the old corrugated fence that collapsed a few weeks prior on the side walls and then line the inside with builders plastic before filling it with scoria. Works on the frame took longer than expected so that only the frame of one bed was finished.
By the end of the day the Blitzers successfully transformed a hard to maintain yard into a productive foodie wonderland with smells and colours abound. There might even be an opportunity for a follow-up Blitz for those who missed out to finish up the back yard with wicking beds and more planting.
