Permablitz #171 in Kew
The lovely Sunday Blitz in Kew saw around 15 happy helpers arrive at Michelle’s rental garden. For the vast majority it was the first Permablitz ever. Sunny as it was, the eager Blitzers started off removing a Mirrorbush and some dead branches from the existing Quince, Mulberry and Peach trees. We also gave them a prune just in time for Spring.
We wanted to use the prunings for creating a hügelkultur bed in the back of Michelle’s yard. But first the trench for the future veggie bed needed to be dug. We excavated two spades deep and then started filling the hole again with woody branches and grass sods that we got from the naturestrip garden.
There was also some clean up of existing garden beds that were overgrown with weeds and weedy trees. Michelle provided some great snacks and out-of-this-world brownies for morning tea which drew us away from the garden only briefly. After the raised veggie beds were reinstated, we planted them with scented plants and some vegetable seedlings. After that it was lunchtime and Michelle and friends provided amazing food of all colours with some homebaked bread, salad, curries and more.
The place where the mirrorbush (Coprosma repens) was removed we discovered some concrete pavers under the grass and had to change plans to accomodate the sheet mulched medicinal garden bed. But the blitzers were quick to repurpose the pavers as edging and create a lovely garden bed without much digging.
We refilled the now filled hügelkultur bed with soil and manure and mulched it with peastraw. We also built a pallet compost under the close supervision of Matt. This freed up some space for our little introduction to Hoola Hooping which was thoroughly enjoyed by the Blitzers.
The toughest part of the day was digging out the Kikuyu grass on the nature strip to make room for some native plantings. But the amazing crowd made short work of that section and even included a wishing well around the existing tree. The only part which we couldn’t finish was the concrete trough which Michelle just needs to equip with some aquatic plants.
All in all it was a great day which left the host, the Blitzers and designers happy and exhausted looking forward to the next time!
