Backyard Permablitzes
I was chatting with one of the leaders of the Transition movement in South East Queensland Rolf Kuelsen the other day and we got on to the topic of community gardens. Now Rolf has had a lot to do with community gardens and lives near one of the big ones southside. So it was interesting to hear Rolf say: Backyard Permablitz’s are better than community gardens. Community gardens on council land drink up resources and burn people out.
I agree with Rolf and have long thought this although I’ve never wanted to dampen the spirits and enthusiasm of anyone who is prepared to put effort into a community garden.
Having a fruit and vege garden at your own back door is quite a different thing from participating in a community garden.
So what is a Backyard Permablitz? And what are the main differences between doing it in your own backyard and helping others do the same and a community garden?
Well a Backyard Permablitz is where a group of people get together on a cooperative basis to have a working bee on one person’s garden at a time. The date is set. The person who is having their garden done by the group makes a big effort to collect all the materials that will be needed and to have them on site for use on the day. They put in a stock of sunscreen for the workers. They also take care to prepare things like great refreshments and food to feed the willing workers and to generally make it a great day. They might arrange photos to be taken and even get it into the local paper.
The people whose property it is will want to do some careful design planning in advance for the garden and for the work to be done. They may think they have the skills to do this themselves or more likely they will work with members of the Permablitz team who are qualified Permaculture Designers. This planning process is important and very rewarding. It is also essential to know in advance what materials will be needed for the day when the Permablitz is done.
The people whose property it is will be responsible for acquiring the materials needed for the day but they might get some help in this part too. The materials might be purchased or they might be recycled. They might like help with bulk purchase for example bulk purchase of hay or cane mulch to get it at a much cheaper price. They might like help with trailers. They might like help with plants that other members have taken from cuttings. It helps to have a big supply of things like old newspapers too which people might be keen to help out with.
On the day all the willing volunteer workers turn up with their gloves and hats and shovels and garden forks and good work boots and sunscreen.
The plan for the garden and the tasks needing to be done will have to be communicated by someone who is in charge and knows the plan. This will be arranged beforehand.
Many hands truly do make light work and a lot of people also makes for enthusiasm and a great deal of shared learning about the processes involved.
Backyard Permablitz’s don’t have to be strictly an exchange of cooperative labour – “I’ll be part of the team working on these gardens and I expect that my garden will be done sometime as part of the process” – but that works best. It is not about a group of workers doing a lot of work on other people’s properties while nothing gets done on their own property.
Most of us are daunted about getting started on setting up our backyard as a full-scale food producing system. It is simply too big a challenge to do on our own both in labour and in knowledge. But if we join a Backyard Permablitz team the effort becomes easily manageable and we all learn from each other. After one morning of full-on work the garden will be transformed and ready to go! This is very inspiring stuff indeed.
By doing it locally we build a network of great friendships from working together.