A very exciting weekend...

So many exciting things happened this weekend that it is hard to know where to start!  Early Saturday morning I made my way down to CERES to do the weekly vegetable shop prior to heading down for the first session of the Introduction to Permaculture course with Justin Caverley.  What an amazing day.  We were introduced to the basic principals of permaculture, and provided with a huge amount of practical information on gardening and sustainable living in general.  What I have found most interesting so far is the overarching, completely inclusive nature of permaculture principals, focussing on cyclical and efficient behaviour that just makes so much sense.  I also love the fact that a lot of the work that needs to be undertaken in gardening is purely observational, that we need to slow down and actually observe the activity that is happening in the garden.  We spent most of the afternoon wandering around CERES looking at the gardening systems in place there that work so well, and tasting a plethora of bush foods that grow onsite.  I'm really looking forward to undertaking an assessment of our backyard as a permaculture design exercise and exploring it further at next week's class.  I met a great group of like minded people that also took part in the session, one new friend who introduced me to a great new community garden that is being set up in East Brunswick...

Fast forward a day and I am now the proud owner of a community plot at the Luscombe Street Community Garden in Brunswick!  I had prepared myself for a twelve month plus wait for a plot down the road from home in Hawthorn and now, very excitingly, have my own little space in Brunswick.  It will work really well as I enjoy heading to CERES on a Saturday morning to gather our fruit and veg for the week and will pop past to tend to the garden on the way home!

The new garden is located on a vacant block on Luscombe Street and is run by two Brunswick residents that live next door to the block.  They are renting the property and have gained permission from the landlord (who also owns the block next door) to utilise the vacant land for a community garden until they obtain planning approval to develop the site.  So it may be that we will only be able to stay onsite for a limited time but the owner has said that he will give us fair notice when he decides to develop the site, and is really supportive of the community garden onsite.

After raising money earlier in the year to purchase apple crates and nine cubic metres of soil to fill the garden beds, the crates were delivered last Thursday ready for setup this weekend.  Today was spent moving the crates and filling them with soil ready to plant out.  It was hard work but well worthwhile as we all have ready made tall beds that we can grow our own vegetables in!  Hot diggity!

My plot is located right in the centre of nine planters so will hopefully receive an even amount of sunlight which is great.  It will mean that a lot of the plants that I propagate at home I can bring out to the garden and grow.  I will still be growing a few varieties at home but will try to maintain a larger crop in Brunswick to feed us through the seasons.  Very exciting!