Franco's permablitz - October/November 2009

The permablitz held at Franco's house in October and November 2009.

It's hard to know whether to call this a permablitz at all, since it was held on three days over a period of some seven weeks, instead of getting everything done in one fell swoop. Eric and Franco share the garden in an ongoing arrangement, which is how we were able to organise the three afternoons. Still, the spirit of the permablitz was there on all three days.

On 5 October (skip to 0:04), we got the weeding out of the way, and we got rid of most of the grass and rocks from the back yard. Some of us got together again on 24 October (skip to 4:51) to plant some seeds and seedlings - mainly tomatoes, but some pumpkins and climbing beans as well. The last afternoon was 22 November (skip to 6:21), when we returned to plant our new seedlings (and a few donated by Laura) and weeded the front garden.

Thanks to everyone who joined in (Dave, Tamara and the kids, Cherie and her rabbits, Rohan, Andrew, Amanda from Transition Adelaide West, Laura, and myself). Special thanks, of course, must go to Franco, who was a gracious host and fed us well with pasta and his famous strudel - which we now call "Frudel" in his honour.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• permaculture
• suburban
• Adelaide
• house
• garden
• permablitz
• perma
• blitz
• franco
• strudel
• frudel
• bunnies

[jwhite731]

A rewarding experience isn't it?

[AaronGNielsen]

@jwhite731 Absolutely! I'm not a gardener myself, so I'm learning a lot of practical things about planting. I might even have a permablitz at my own place in the not-too-distant future!

Thanks for your video response. Looks like you guys on the other side of the world are having as much fun as we are! :)

[pdsavage]

Lots of digging and pulling stuff up,didnt see any no dig or raised beds.Where is the mulch to keep moisture in?

It just looked like regular gardening and not permaculture.

[AaronGNielsen]

This is now a productive garden, designed with deliberate choices of species and placement, and it's almost totally organic. Raised beds would have required a lot more construction and materials we didn't have.

No, you don't see any mulching in the video, but there is a lot more ground cover now. All it ever needs now is the occasional watering. It's even survived two Adelaide heat waves unscathed.

I'm not sure what of this is "not permaculture", and successful permaculture at that.

[bashomatsuo]

Ahhh memories of weeding Franco's garden!