Save the Vegie Patch
Rejoice! For this permablitz newsletter is so pressurised with good news be careful how you open it lest you be left with optimistic grin splashed all over your face.
Did you know home grown produce can be grown with less than a fifth of the water of broadacre produce, and can actually sequester carbon in the ground!?
Is it starting to sound like there’s nothing growing vegies can’t do? In the last few newsletters we’ve also mentioned saving money, saving energy and making your kids less psycho. Trust me if it was single malt whiskey, or fast cars, or booty music, we’d be all over that. Heck if it was cheap port, we’d be all over that. But it’s the vegie patch which offers all this and so much more. So let’s “Save the Vegie Patch”! Go to the window and yell it!
As part of a campaign to introduce water allocations for home food producers this Wednesday there is a public Save Water and the Vegie Patch forum with great presenters — more below…
~~~ Upcoming Blitzes ~~~
Blitz #52: Reservoir October 5, 2008 10:00 am
Come help Michelle and her 3 kids Liam, Lachie and Freya get their Permablitz off the ground. We’ve got a chook run to create. Fruit trees and climbers to plant. Compost bays to make and a raised herb garden. Of course not to mention the centre of it all the rotational vege garden. More…
Blitz #53: Let’s help Tess in Noble Park October 8, 2008 10:00 am
A weekday blitz: Everybody is welcome to come and learn more organic gardening skills as we help Tess start her home food growing adventure. We’ll be running workshops throughout the day as we work together to build a 60cm high raised vege garden, create a beautiful back-door herb garden, plant 2 or more fruit trees, share a meal and meet new people. More…
Who can come to a blitz? Anyone. Even you.
Get yourself blitzed: contact us
~~~ October Intro to Permaculture course ~~~
Feedback from the last course:
“Inspiring and fun!”
“Above and beyond expectations! Energetic, informative and empowering. And entertaining. It is awesome to see what seemed to be quite esoteric and intimidating a subject IN ACTION.”
And from a past participant: “A. is pregnant and parenthood awaits us. Conceived not long after our intro course….must have been the knowledge of permaculture principles that increased the fertility of the appropriate regions.”
Get fertile: next course 18-19 October @ Port Philip Eco-centre St Kilda: More…
~~~ Lots of New Permablitz Photos ~~~
~~~ Save the Vegie Patch! Public Forum ~~~
I’ve told you about the Food Gardeners’ Alliance in past newsletters. So far their meetings have not degenerated into the predicted pitchfork waving dischord you might expect from angry gardeners. But we do not want to see that side. Ever. So lets make this peaceful public campaign to get water allocations changed work. They ask not for more water, just the ability to water at different times, as vegetables need more than twice weekly waterings in summer.
Come along to public forum this Wednesday at the Brunswick Town Hall from 6:30pm. (Gold coin donation). Speakers include Jane Edmanson (Gardening Australia), David Holmgren (Permaculture co-originator), Clive Blazey (Diggers Club) and Helen Tuton (Sustainable Gardening Australia). Details here: http://www.permablitz.net/
There is an associated postcard as part of the campaign. Find one on the night or at your local cafe to be sent to the water minister. The photos were taken by your humble newsletter writer.
~~~ Permablitz Giant (or Weird) Vegetable Competition: Online! ~~~
Last week my housemates and I pulled this monster broccoli out of our garden, so big even our dinner party to celebrate could consume less than half. Can you do better? Or weirder? As the season progresses, send us your big vegetables, or just plain weird ones, and we’ll add them to the gallery. Win vegetative glory, and a prize yet to be announced. [email protected]
~~~ Organic Food to be Cheaper than other Produce! ~~~
Did I mention good news? The Daily Telegraph reports on a new British study suggesting that “the price of oil could soon make cereal crops grown with fertilisers more expensive than those produced more naturally”:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
~~~ Italian Grows Eggplant and Tomato Tree! ~~~
Imagine the sinister pleasure of fusing three lifeforms together, as Giuseppe Marino achieved when he grafted both eggplant and tomato to the so called ‘devil’s fig’, a relative of both, to create a highly productive multigraft tree. As far as unnatural acts go, we say brilliant!
http://www.italymag.co.uk/
~~~ Goats are Back! ~~~
A herd of 100 goats was recently hired to clean up brush in LA. “Officials said the goats were cheaper and more environmentally friendly than human workers with gas-powered weed whackers.” More of it!
http://www.thedailygreen.com/
~~~ So are Sheep! ~~~
My brother and I spotted these sheep grazing on grass growing up from the cracks in the concrete in an abandoned petrol station, in downtown Moe last summer. As an allegory of peak oil, urban decay and the renewal of agrarian sources of sustenance, however, I found the the symbolism a little heavy handed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
~~~
That’s it for this blitz newsletter. Hope to see you soon at a blitz!
Adam @ Permablitz Decentral
