Permablitz #25 – Kensington
Well, going by yard-size it certainly wasn’t the biggest Permablitz, but people-wise it certainly was. It was incredibly energising to see so many people keen to learn about permaculture and share their time to help us make our yard edible and productive. About 50 people came along throughout the day to get our perma-backyard started. A huge thank-you to all. We achieved a lot on the day, and inspired by this Scott and I have added a lot in the week since. We’re keen to host an afternoon tea in the coming weeks so that people can come along and see how it finished up – keep an eye on the website for the date. So what happened on the day?
On Saturday our backyard was covered by kikuyu lawn grass, with a Pittosporum tree and Silver birch being the major eye-catchers. By the end of Sunday, the Birch and Pittosporum had been removed and replaced by an apple tree, nectarine tree, plum tree, passionfruit vine, blackcurrant shrub, chilean guava and a host of Nitrogen fixing acacia shrubs. The whole lawn had been covered in cardboard (sheet-mulched) and 3 beautiful no-dig vege patches had been added. A herb spiral was started, a tank was placed ready for attachment to down pipes and trenches dug for connecting pipes. Some neighbours left-over fencing was used to start building a chicken area! We started a low-cost worm farm and Adam ran a workshop about ‘Soils’. By the end of the day the place looked a mess, but an amzing process towards a permaculture system had begun.
Since the day we’ve added two more no-dig vege areas (including one in the front yard) and planted into them, planted a grape vine to grow up over our front porch, finished off a beautiful looking herb spiral (and planted into it), mulched the pathways, connected the tanks, planted a lemon tree and more acacias, built more of the chook area and enjoyed a backyard fire in the social area that had been put aside.
We are extremely thankful to all who came along. You’re all more than welcome to come for a cuppa (email [email protected]) and we hope to see you at the follow-up afternoon tea in a few weeks time. Peas to all! Paul and Scott
