My garden started as pretty much a blank slate.  A lovely, sloped, north facing blank slate.   I knew I wanted a grass free back yard, fruit trees and a native habitat section.  I also wanted a bike shed, chook house, and possible a goat shed!  I decided on the design with some expert advice from the permablitz team, then bought all the stuff we’d need, like soil, plants, building material, cardboard, rocks and mulch, so that on the day we we ready to blitz.  For the main part of the garden, which was going to be built up garden beds and paths, we had to cover most of the grass/weeds with cardboard to suppress them, so my new garden beds and paths will be as weed free as possible!  Then we dug a trench around the marked boarders (I had hammered some stakes into the ground and tied string around them to demonstrate how the beds and paths would go) and started putting in the rocks.  As the walls started to take shape pepople started to bring in barrows of soil and soon the plants were getting planted.  We also laid cardboard over in the designated native habitat section and planted some lovely plants in there and mulched it all.  We had some great talks about installing grey water systems and goat and chicken care.  We never got around to building any of the animal or bike shelters, but we did move the compost heap and create a beautiful little stone path to it and all of the garden beds got done, so a very good result all up.

Thanks to everyone who helped!

allie

Rohan & Hamish discussing finer details of greywater system…

]]> http://www.castlemainepermablitz.com/2009/11/photos-from-permablitz-4/feed/ 0 http://www.castlemainepermablitz.com/2009/11/permablitz-4-rohan-vanessa-lucys-cosy-cottage/ http://www.castlemainepermablitz.com/2009/11/permablitz-4-rohan-vanessa-lucys-cosy-cottage/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:16:41 +0000 jika http://www.castlemainepermablitz.com/?p=128 Hello good folks,
just a quick note to let you know of the upcoming permablitz this Sunday, 8 Nov, at Vanessa, Rohan and Lucy’s house:

2 Roderick St , Castlemaine.
(house on corner, Roderick is paralell to Duke st.  the house in question is in the vicinity of Wesley Hill Bakehouse, if you get to there, its only a block away!)

a beautiful shady garden – come and see how practical meets beautiful in this cosy little space and learn how to use every inch of your yard effectively.
among other things, we’ll be setting up a greywater system, building and learning about a chook area, and learning new waterwise tricks for small gardens.

10am – 5pm.
as usual, yummy refreshments and lunch provided, please bring gardening gloves, trowels and rakes if you have any.

limited play space for children – board games and colouring books (calm type activities) etc welcome.

we’ve been noticing – some people come for the whole day, some just for a couple of hours – both are equally fine, whatever time and energy can be spared is highly appreciated.

thank you, hope to see you there,
Jika.

Caithlin, Nathaniel & Charlie hunt for suitable rocks.

Nathaniel with handpicked rocks, detail of an existing wall in background.

Sun 11th October,  10am – 5pm,  Lot 8, White Quartz Rd, Fryers Forest.                                                                                   

All permablitzers new and old are invited to the third Castlemaine Blitz, to be held in the Beautiful Fryers Forest Eco Village! 

It’s at my place (yurtland) and we will be doing activities such as stone wall building, gabion filling, forest management for fire prevention, vege garden building, planting stuff, pesky wallaby exclusion techniques, sticking the odd sustainably harvested bush pole in the ground and more..

Come see the principles of Permaculture at work and be a part of that process…

To get there, go to Fryerstown, turn right into Market street, go right up past the CFA sheds, follow White Quartz Road to the village where you will see the Visitors Car Park. Walk from here to the ‘T’ intersection, turn left and walk for another 50 meters to the little dam, this is my place. See you there!

food and refreshments provided. Bring rakes, wheelbarrows and gloves, maybe a spade or stone working tools.

Cheers

Hamish                                                                                                                                         

 

 Vern Howell and Duck Dave for all their amazing work – too much to list!

Dale Harris of StudioInk design for the poster and endless technical help.  He’s also good at fencing (creating a fence.)

My Uncles and Aunties, and Grandma in Boort for the help with sand, colonial wire and 5 beautiful gates.

Castlemaine Garden Supplies for a discount on all the soil, gravel, compost and mulch, and delivering it in such neat piles.

Forest Creek Nursery for a discount on seedlings and trees and being so nice.

Tara Gilbee for her beautiful photography and gardening in between.

Sprout Bakery for the generous donation of 5 loaves of yummy organic wholegrain bread.

Aunty Anne Gelsi for making & delivering  heavenly slice & bikkies early in the morning.  essential to permablitz- bikkie with cuppa!

Rebecca & Iris for awesome huge pot of fried rice and lovely sweet chinese dumplings in syrup.

Gary for super yummy vegan curry.

Tim Read for equally yummy pot of pumpkin soup.

Sas for the trays of seedlings she grew herself and donated to Castlemaine Permablitz.

Ian Lillington for the lovely olive tree, and Steven and Maureen for delivering it!

to all our fantastic permablitzers, kitchen goddesses:and feedbackers: 

Yoshi, Helena, Lochi, Arwen, Louise, Jovian, Pippa, Dale N, Willow, Ella, Dave M, Lisa, Vanessa, Jacqui, Harrison, Isabelle, Zak, Myra, Luke, Oliver, Rowany, James, Yau Ga, Hin Hin, Sunday, Annette, Spring, Alan, Gary, Priyah, Helen S, Sandy, Sue, Nikki, Lucy, Chelsea, Jason, Eva. 

James working diligently, with a smile

Lovely Sass, who also donated seedlings she grew herself.

 

just a few of our gorgeous gardeners…

                     

                                                                                                    

Chelsea, amazon digger! she came from afar & stayed the latest )

 

bark is beautiful!

a big part of the preparation for a permablitz is gathering the materials needed for the big day.  Some blitzes need more things than others, depending on what the host requires for their garden.

for mine, i required:

bush posts, for interior fences, Guildford gravel (cream colour) for the paths, mushroom compost, organic mulch, large rocks for the swales, pedestrian gates, wire, seedlings, fruit trees and tools.

the idea is to have everything neatly stacked/in piles where its accessible to the crew on the day. 

so a-collecting we went!

Hamish cutting bushposts from sustainably managed forest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks and Blessings to the Fryers Forest eco village for allowing us to resource some of the bush posts from the thinning for our fences.

Hamish's hat, reluctantly removed for safety requirements. (chainsaw=earmuffs)!