Working Bees in February

Working bees are good opportunities to accomplish many garden design projects with the aid of BMPN members who have a wealth of knowledge. It is therefore more than just a case of "many hands make light work".

In February, BMPN decided to have two working bees in order to prepare two permaculture gardens for visitors from the Australian Permaculture Convergence 9 (which took place over the Easter holidays); and while most of the activities occured in North Sydney, there were opportunites for participants to see a variety of permaculture gardens in the Sydney Basin area. We visited Lis Bastian's Blackheath property in the morning and later we "converged" at Sue Girard's Katoomba property. Here are some of the photographs:

Blackheath


Lis surprised us with the news that her permaculture garden was only a year old. She explained that she had brought in compost and manures and then fed the beds with homemade compost so that what was once a hard clay lawn is now a number of rockwalled retained beds teaming with mycorhyzas and healthy vegetables. We admired the edible ground cover of nasturtiums and Lis was particularly proud of her very nutrititious Cavallo Nero or black kale (she also had the red and curly varieties).


The chicken coop featured a secure house and yard with a surrounding separate run containing fruit trees to provide nutrition for her foraging rare French Faverolles chickens. Lis obtained these chickens from a breeder attempting to save this endangered breed and simultaneously was able to interest her children in environmental issues in a most tangible manner.

Another project was the creation of a recycled brick bordered garden to prohibit the encroaching lawn and more importantly to improve the health of the soil and old roses in the garden bed.


Note the use of a garden hose as a means to create an organically shaped border that serves to increase the "edge" and provide more planting opportunities. Kathy delighted in maintaining order to the diagonally placed bricks and the soil really looked magnificient.

As with all working bees we stopped work after about 2 hours and were treated by the host to a delicious lunch. In a very convivial mood, Lis happily distributed some much admired surplus plants and seeds. Again this is typical during working bees.

And then it was off to Katoomba to Sue's more established garden where we spread mulch in the front garden, weeded in the orchard and the keyhole designed garden and finally helped complete the chook run.

Katoomba


Sue designed her long and narrow chicken house and run to best fit the narrow garden block; a different arrangement to Lis' more traditional rectangular design. The arches were later covered by netting to keep chickens in and foxes out.


Sue has incorporated several water sources and one is an attractive pond complete with plastic snake; ponds are valuable ecosystems that bring useful predators such as frogs to feed on harmful insects such as grasshoppers etc.


So that was a busy but rewarding day for garden owners and helpers. Consider asking for a working bee at your garden by contacting Celeste bluemountains@permaculturesydneybasin.org.au.