A Kitchen Garden in Every Blue Mountains Home

In February 2008 Cittaslow - Katoomba/Blue Mountains plans to launch an ambitious but very exciting project "A Kitchen Garden in Every Blue Mountains Home". As part of this project two members of the Blue Mountains Permaculture Network, Susan Girard and Lizzie Connor, conducted two free pilot workshops for beginners at the Blue Mountains Community Garden's Festival of Joy on 20 October. They were based on creating and maintaining a simple container-garden in a re-used styrofoam box with 10 easy-grow summer vegetables.

Lizzie and Sue prepared and presented the workshops as part of their work on Cittaslow's Kitchen Garden Project sub-committee; BMCC funded some bulk potting mix; and participants were also asked to donate $5 to go towards the cost of the seedlings. Three other members of Blue Mountains Permaculture Network, Vickie Walker, Belinda Selke and Maryanne Bell, also came along to help in various ways.

The workshops were aimed at people who had no vegetable growing experience, and were either renting or had no garden space. Information was distributed by flyers at community centres, the Korowal Eco-Fest, and by email to interested groups (including the Network's email list). Both were booked out and the participants gave enthusiastic evaluations. Several have been active in email Q&A since.

A word on our choice of container-gardens. This was the suggestion of another member of the sub-committee, John McNaull, but Lizzie and Sue embraced the opportunity to explore this way into growing food. The aim was for beginners to learn about how vegetables grow and what problems might occur, rather than for them to learn about sustainability as such.

David Holmgren's first two designer principles were the focus: Observe and Interact (easier if the plants are close to the house and within sight) and Catch and Store Energy (seeing how plants catch and store energy from sun, water and fertile soil). His third principle: Obtain a Yield, was relevant in the sense of beginning to understand what's involved in getting one. And his fourth principle: Apply self-regulation and accept feedback, was the underlying motivation for the whole project and for participants' attendance.

JUST ABOUT TO START
On Saturday 1 December Lizzie hosted a follow-up morning tea, which 6 people attended and for which 8 gave their apologies. They discussed what they had learnt so far and what they would like to do in the future, and also did a quick tour of Lizzie's container garden and larger garden in drizzling rain. 20 people have booked in for a shared harvest lunch at the Katoomba Community Gardens on 16 February 2008, with 2 apologies, and that morning we are also conducting a no-dig-garden workshop, at which we expect about 10 people.

The Cittaslow sub-committee is also planning another series of beginners workshops in March based on growing winter vegetables in containers. On Saturday 8 December Lizzie and Sue are conducting a similar workshop for 40 graduates of BMCC's Earth Works courses in 2007. BMCC are funding the costs of the workshop materials and also a modest fee for the two presenters.

We hope this will be just the start of an ongoing collaboration. If you haven't attended the Earth Works courses yet, we really recommend them, particularly the tour of Katoomba's Waste Management Facility (you also get a free compost bin). Email Lizzie for more information about this project.

Lizzie and Susan

Spring Newsletter 2007

Welcome to the Spring Newsletter 2007 for the Blue Mountains Permaculture Network. Here we have some of the articles that have already made it into the new format. To read the articles, just use the links below:

Working Bee - Space Invaders - Maryanne Bell
Working Bee - Bed building and weeding - Pete Sharman
Of Course You Couldn't Feed the World with Permaculture! - Maryanne Bell
Creating a Kitchen Garden at School - Lizzie Connor

You may also notice on the right keywords. You can use these to find previous articles that contain these words. Just click on the word and the article/s will appear on your screen.

Finally, you will notice at the end of each article there is a link called comments. You can leave your comments or questions on the article and the author will (hopefully) reply. Other people may also reply. These will be moderated, and comments should relate to the article they are posted against.

We hope the Summer Edition will be completely in this format. And we would like your feedback - just use the comments option at the end of this article and tell us what you think. Do you have any suggestions for improvement? What do you like / dislike about the new format ?

You might like to submit an article for publication? Easy to do ! Email Pat on bmpermac@iinet.net.au as before and send your draft in. The Edit team will work on it and it will appear here in the Summer Edition.

Happy reading
Pat, Celeste, Maryanne, Pete, Lizzie and Sue G.

Working Bee - Space Invaders

This article illustrates the importance of controlling invasive weeds by describing a recent working bee at my house in Hazelbrook. Last year I completed the PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) course in Katoomba delivered by Rosemary Morrow and guest lecturers. It was a comprehensive and well designed course that has given me the knowledge to help rejuvenate the land, starting with my own backyard (pictured) and it has put me into contact with like-minded people who are willing to provide time, muscles and knowledge.

THE WORKING BEE & NEIGHBOURLY CO-OPERATION

On Sunday the 15th of July, three volunteers: Peter, Celeste and Francoise, helped me clear much of the weeds that were coming through the wire fence from the adjoining property. To do this, my neighbour gave us permission to work in her yard to clear a metre buffer zone along the fence line.

We moved an old rabbit hutch, a tyre, dug out agapanthus and "oyster plants" and bagged up the carpets of trad or "wandering dew or jew". Peter worked the mattock both sides of the fence, Celeste and Francoise removed the trad from the neighbour's side and I delegated duties. Oh, and I worked too! I used a rake hoe and secateurs to cut down the agapanthas and oyster plants in preparation for Peter's mattock.

My neighbour was appreciative of the work. Over the years she has watched me working in my yard and has always taken an interest in its transformation. She was pleased to meet my "permies" and later Celeste commented that this "working bee" was a good method to meet and maintain good relations with neighbours and perhaps influence their gardening practices.

ZONE 5 HABITAT & COMBATING INVASIVE WEEDS

It has been said that a definition of a weed is "a plant in the wrong location"; well I think that is misleadingly simplistic. If one adopts a wholistic view of our environment rather than just our fenced properties, we soon realise that weeds displace native vegetation; compete with useful plants for water, nutrients and light; pollute ecosystems; poison humans and domestic animals; and do not provide food for living creatures, be they beneficial bacteria or blue tongue lizards.

"By developing an awareness of your land and its needs, you can develop effective weed-control strategies that avoid the use of herbicides completely." Earth User's Guide to Permaculture 2nd Edition 2006 Rosemary Morrow. This is why I have chosen to manually clear the land on both sides of our fences, taking care to remove the obstacles that provide havens for weeds and hinder easy access. I had thought to insert a physical barrier between our properties but now see that weeds are an indication of disturbed or unhealthy environments and therefore I intend to continue improving the soil and will plant appropriate plants and continue sheet-mulching any exposed soil.

Rosemary taught us that one of the most important points to consider when creating a design was firstly to provide a healthy habitat along its boundaries for beneficial wildlife; and this will necessitate looking over the fence and talking with your neighbours.

That Sunday, the weather was kind to us and two sun filled hours flew by. We finished with coffee, savoury scones, Peter's veggie quiche and conversations that helped to reinforce our permaculture practices. Bring on the next working bee, I'm ready!

Maryanne Bell

Working Bee - Bed Building and Weeding

On Sunday 8th July we enjoyed a successful working bee at the Sharman house. Four keen permies, namely Kathy, Celeste, Maryanne and Pat turned up bearing a vast array of gardening implements, along with piles of newspapers for mulching purposes. The grown-ups were abley supported by Addie and Laurie (the kids).

The brief was two-fold;
1) To weed the back garden, and;
2) To build a third vege garden on the north-east side of the house to complement the existing two.

The back garden comprises mainly exotics and it had become quite overgrown. It needed weeding, mulching and a general tidying. The permie army did a fantastic job of clearing approximately 20m2 which was then covered with several layers of saturated newspaper, to prevent light reaching the weeds.

The trusty (and rusty) wheelbarrow served as the vessel to hold the water in which the newspaper was soaked. Once the soaked paper was applied several layers thick and overlapping, we mulched heavily with lucerne and the garden was beginning to resemble it's former glory.

The fine working crew can be seen assembled in the photo at top.

On the other side of the house Celeste and I were building the new vegetable garden. The design was to match the other two beds which were constructed using 100 x 12 x 1800mm hardwood timbers stacked three high and screwed into 50 x 50mm posts driven into the ground. Hardwood was used instead of treated pine to avoid potential contamination of the soil and veges. We toiled hard, often having to dig through sandstone in order to embed the posts. However the work was satisfying given the weather was a tad chilly.

By knock-off time we had achieved much. We now had one quarter of the back garden cleared and mulched and a third vege garden well on its way. We then downed tools and headed inside for a delicious lunch of chicken hot pot, vege hot pot, roasted potatoes, quiche and cake. After tea and coffee it was time to bid fond farewells and look forward to the next working bee.

Permie Pete