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Published on Monday, 04 September 2006 12:32
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Written by dan
A couple of months of getting settled into our new Northcote home, its come time to attack the lawn and start eating our backyard. We've got lots of space and amaaazing soil and a landlord who says 'you plant vegetables anywhere everywhere is good'. so what are we waiting for? well, a permablitz of course... (www.permablitz.net) we're inviting all gardeners, gardener wannabes and 'non-gardeners' to come to our yard-warming blitz at 8 Waterloo Road, Northcote from 11.30 Sunday, September 10th. exciting activities will include: ~ a skillshare on lawn-to-bed conversion / no-digs... then actually doing it (led by clare, bed maker extraordinaire) ~ a companion planting & backyard design workshop... then applying that knowledge to some of the new beds (led by megan, queen of the plant nerds) ~ a compost making skillshare & build-a-thon (if we have time & materials after no-digging) ~ a fruit tree maintenance skillshare (calling out for anyone who may have some knowledge to share) ~ hopefully a plant pathology 'what's going wrong' skillshare' (again, calling out for anyone who can help with this!) ~ a villi (something like yoghurt but easier) making workshop and eat-a-thon (thanks to adam the master of ferments) ~ a yoghurt cheese making workshop ~ muchos salsa dancing with the south american folk from the south side - www.codemo.org.au ~ sharing a well deserved meal ~ and becoming a movie star... or at least being filmed for a documentary being made on peak oil. ~ plus anything you want to bring to it... It'd be fanastic if you could bring some food to share, seedlings to plant/swap, cuttings to swap, something that could be used as a trellis, hand trowels, pitch forks, shovels, spare precious compost, manure, lawn clippings, mulch, saw dust, friends, family, loved ones... or even just yourself. Hope to see you then Asha, Josie & Damian 9489 1784 / 0407 605 518 (A) 8 waterloo road, northcote
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Published on Sunday, 06 August 2006 00:34
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Written by dan
Permablitz Siete: - A Description of the Day from DiThe day started with a beautiful blue sky and zephyr breeze. The Evans’ kids hung their “Open Garden Permablitz, all Welcome” sign they’d made the night before, on the fence and people rocked up, some on foot (neighbours) or mostly bikes (those from further a field). By 12.00 the little mandala front garden was buzzing with friends, neighbours and dedicated permies and the miraculous silver chook dome gleamed in the sun looking like some futuristic space ship – we hope it is a sign of the future and that very soon everyone in Melbourne will have one in their front garden!
Read more: Permablitz Numero Siete
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Published on Tuesday, 25 July 2006 19:10
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Written by dan
Redefining American Beauty, by the Yard By Patricia Leigh Brown The New York Times Thursday 13 July 2006 Lakewood, California - When Cecilia Foti, a seventh grader at the Bancroft Middle School here, was asked to write a "persuasive" essay for her English class in the spring semester, she did not choose a topic deeply in tune with her peers - the pros and cons of school uniforms, say, or the district's retro policy on chewing gum and cellphones. Instead, she addressed the neighborhood's latest controversy: her family's front yard. "The American lawn needs to be eradicated from our society and fast!" she wrote, explaining that her family had replaced its own with a fruit and vegetable garden. She argued for the importance of water conservation, the dangers of pesticides and the dietary benefits and visual appeal of an edible yard. "Was the Garden of Eden grass?" she reasoned. "No." In this quintessential 1950's tract community about 25 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, the transformation of the Foti family's front yard from one of grass to one dense with pattypan squash plants, cornstalks, millionaire eggplants, crimson sweet watermelons, dwarf curry trees and about 195 other edible varieties has been startling.
Read more: Redefining American Beauty - By the Yard
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Published on Monday, 10 July 2006 00:00
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Written by Web Master
On this page:
Permablitz Defined
Permablitz (noun): An informal gathering involving a day on which a group of at least two people come together to achieve the following:
- create or add to edible gardens where someone lives
- share skills related to permaculture and sustainable living
- build community networks
- have fun
Permablitzes are free events, open to the public, with free workshops, shared food, where you get some exercise and have a wonderful time. To be defined as a permablitz each event must also be preceded by a permaculture design by a designer with a Permaculture Design Certificate. The network runs on reciprocity, and in order to qualify for a permablitz you usually need to come to some first, although there can be exceptions in this case. We'll explain more about all these ideas below.
The permablitz story
 Permablitzes began in 2006 in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs as a collaboration between Permaculture designer Dan Palmer and friends and a South American community group. Rather than retell the story we suggest you check out Asha Bee's article and Katherine Kizilos' excellent article for The Age newspaper. As of Mid 2011 over 100 permablitzes have been held in and around Melbourne, and others have been held in Sydney, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Darwin, Canberra, Tasmania, Bega, the Sunshine Coast, California, Montreal, Istanbul and Uganda.
Who comes to permablitzes?
Anyone and everyone can come to a permablitz. Skill level and even physical capacity aren't problems at all. We especially welcome first time gardeners. Just come and contribute anyway you are able. People from many different backgrounds and from nine months to ninety in age turn up. Because everyone has to eat, and food gardening is relevant to almost everyone, so you're sure to meet interesting, friendly people of many stripes and persuasions at a permablitz.
What happens on the day of a permablitz?
 Every blitz is different. But you can expect to be welcomed with a cup of tea. There will be an intro circle in which the design for the day and the ideas behind it will be explained and then we'll get to work. There will be tasks like weeding, planting fruit trees, digging paths and swales, making vegetable beds with no-dig methods or implementing greywater systems. You'll be shown what to do and be working with others, and there will be short workshops relating to the activities. There will probably be some other workshops on the day too. The host will provide a shared lunch -- bring something if you would like to share, but you don't have to. By about four o'clock we'll break and thank everyone. By then, quite a transformation should have taken place! You'll hopefully go home brimming with ideas, having met lots of wonderful people, having had a taste of permaculture design and having been learning by doing.
How to get involved
Getting involved is easy. Sign up to the Melbourne Permablitz Newsletter to stay in the loop about upcoming blitzes and courses. (Put your email in the Permablitz newsletter box in the middle column of this website and click 'Subscribe'.) Or just come back here regularly and look out for upcoming blitzes on the calendar.
You'll get dates and addresses, and then you can just show up, or RSVP where asked. Generally it's good if you can bring some gardening tools, and if you like, some food to share. The host may put out some extra requests for things like newspaper or excess seedlings if you happen to have any to bring along. But it's fine just to bring yourself too.
Reciprocity & how to get blitzed
If you come to three or so permablitzes we can help organise one at your house. That's right. The permablitz network is based on reciprocal volunteer support. Once you've been to a few we can help connect you to a volunteer or professional permaculture designer, help you plan your blitz, promote it, and co-ordinate it on the day. For free. Sweet deal, no? Once you've been to a couple and you're ready, see our Get Blitzed section.
Before and After: Stages to a permablitz
Each permablitz is part of a longer process including a pre-blitz design visit or visits by permaculture designers, prior organisation of materials needed for the blitz, and after-the-blitz follow up visits to see how people are going with their new gardens.
Permaculture design
To stay true to the concept, each permablitz must have the input of someone with a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC), the most basic permaculture qualification.
What is permaculture? Permaculture is a design system which helps integrate people (and their needs, habits, skills, desires, money and time) and place (the physical limitations and potentials of a site such as a backyard) in ecologically harmonious systems providing a good portion of the needs of people living there (with things like water, vegetables, fruit, and eggs). Permaculture systems work more like natural systems such as forests than industrial agriculture, requiring no artificial inputs and producing no waste.
To learn more about permaculture see permaculture as defined in wikipedia.
Who co-ordinates the permablitz network?
The Melbourne permablitz network is currently entirely volunteer and informal. There is a Melbourne Permablitz Collective who amongst other things:
- produce guides for designers, facilitators, hosts and new networks,
- facilitate linking together potential hosts with potential designers and facilitators,
- promote specific permablitzes and the permablitz concept in general,
- maintain the website,
- write newsletters,
- co-ordinate the documenting of blitzes and sharing lessons learnt,
- organise gatherings of designers for mutual education
Note that the Collective promotes but does not organise particular blitzes beyond providing resources and helping designers and hosts get together. The rest is done by the designers and hosts.
The Collective are involved in the back-end admin because it's actually generally fun, we're learning all the time, doing something which we believe in, and meeting wonderful people along the way. Past and present coordinators and members of the Collective have had names like Dan, Nelson, Paul, Jessie, Cam, Clarisse, Kim, Trav, MC Feecee, Neil, Steve, Adam, Asha, Katherine, Kat, Angela, Seila, Charlie, Martin and Thomas.

Charlie, Angela, Thomas, Asha, Kat and Adam of the Melbourne Permaculture Collective after accepting champagne and the winners award in the Community Action category at the Yarra Sustainability Awards 2011.
Beyond the Collective, there is the Melbourne Permablitz Designers Guild, which as of June 2011, has around 150 graduates of Permaculture Design Certificates from around Melbourne. The "Guild" exists as a pool of volunteer designers for permablitzes; people wanting real world experience. It also sometimes meets for educational purposes. If you have a PDC and would like to join the mailing list, we'd love you to join: click here.
Beyond that there's a newsletter mailing list of over 3000 people around Melbourne and many others who aren't on the mailing list who have volunteered their time on permablitzes. You can sign up for the newsletter on the home page.
Although Permablitz is all volunteer in Melbourne, some of us are also professional permaculture designers and teachers. (Check out the Permaculture Design Consultants page to find us.)
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Welcome message |
Welcome to Permablitz Melbourne - this site has been set up to help people get together and have fun learning about, designing and implementing suburban permaculture systems. Our focus is edible gardens, and our ultimate aim is to make the suburbs edible enough such that should food become unaffordable, we don’t even notice. See above for the next permablitz and feel free to submit your own onto the calendar. Check out photos of blitzes 1-6 here, and photos of more recent blitzes in our gallery.
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