Permablitz #184 – Northcote
The Pitch
A beautifully simple plan. So you’ve got a fab north facing front yard urban farm and dark, narrow and a bit sloppy south facing backyard. What to do? Keep the back as your dog’s private jungle playground or transform it into a wonderfully productive orchard?
The designers cleverly devised a plan that incorporated the natural landscape into an almost self-watering orchard by creating a swale in the middle of the yard (see pics). The planted trees included two avocados, a couple of cherry and a plum trees.
The Weather
It’s always sunny on permablitz days. Obviously!
The Gnome
Gnomes Farming Co-operative is a not for profit organisation who are dedicated to growing organic vegetables in urban spaces around Melbourne. Rebecca is one of the gnomes. Her urban farm already has a productive verge and a front yard with crops ranging from traditional kale to a field of garlic.
The Antics.
The day was spent weeding and digging but not without Lifestyle channel-esque interludes. Anthony led the charge with his archaeological dig and education about the bygone era of Melbourne. Did you know that some of the backyards were extended by acquiring the adjoining laneways from the council? We suspect the same happened with Rebecca’s dwelling as we manage to dig up a pile of pretty blue stone cobblestones.
Grubs – yum!
Forget farm raised edible crickets: in true Bear Gryll’s style Anthony also demonstrated that you can start eating insects – allegedly one of the best sources of protein – using the locally sourced grubs (see pic). Although delicious and juicy the grubs were not as good as Rebecca’s lunch! We all know that blitzes are all about the food and again this blitz did not disappoint.
Unfortunately siestas are not permitted for permablitz volunteers and in an effort to lift the morale of the afternoon workers Tim x 2 Ben and Mauro united to form the group Hot Compost. Utilising nearby garden tools and tapping on mother earth the group created inspiring earth beats to inspire and motivate the workers for their afternoon toil (download the single The Beat-roots from itunes or just go to permablitz insta).
The Workshops
Hot compost. Luke gave us a run down on hot compost making. In a nutshell, it’s a lot of free soil/compost ready in three weeks. All you need is grass clipping (yours or your neighbours’), brown matter such as autumn leaves, paper (yours or your neighbour’s) and a bit of manure (next time you go up to enjoy spa treatment Daylesford get some on the way home. It’s easier than you think.
Hot composting in action!
Bee hotel. It’s functional garden art. We all know that plants are useful and beautiful but they need some bee assistance to procreate. So how do you summon these creatures to your garden..? By offering air B’n’B, of course.
A bee hotel under construction
So join us for more fun in the sun with some dirt at the next blitz!
You can check out some more happy snaps here!
