One of the blitzers built a compost pile out the front and with everyone's creative input throughout the day it became the most magnificent compost pile you will ever see! A tropical style complete with palm frond boarders. And we surely needed one with all the plant matter cut down/pulled up from the backyard. (Hopefully Tim Davies has a photo of the pile?)

There will be a half-day 'mini'-blitz on this Sunday the 28th of April at Morningside.

Further details here.

News just in from Angela at Sandy Creek:

I thought you and the Sandy Creek blitzers would like a progress report….

I have attached a few pics of the garden beds and half of Saturday’s pickings.

I have been eating salad and herbs from the garden in plentiful amounts every day for months now and am getting amazing veges now ready to go.

The beetroot and squash have gone bezerk and I am about to be hit with a tomato glut!

Thank you again to everyone for their help with getting all this underway.

On the 4th of November a keen crew of blitzers and members of the permaculture designers guild visited Trent in Toowong. Again.

Trent had his place blitzed about a year prior. We were all very interested in what the outcome of the 12 months was, which included a very wet summer and a very dry winter.

We were all blown away by how green and lush it all looked! Trent had been under seige from possums and so had erected a vast bird netting castle to defend the garden. Some aspects of the design were adjusted, as circumstances changed.

Overall trent was very happy with the design and the results of the blitz. He said he had enough produce to make a salad from the garden every day. He is also producing herbs, zucchinis, and mulberries. The bathtub worm farm was running very well, producing copious fertiliser for the garden. Hello plant growth hormones, plus humic and fulvic acids - great fungal foods!

The wicking bed out the front was performing acceptibly, and Trent found that he could control the moisture content of the soil since it was under the eave of the building.

As expected light was limited during winter months, making it difficult to produce thriving plants year round.

We all pitched in and helped Trent do some weeding, and also split up a taro plant in the bog area.

The afternoon was wound up with snacks and a salad produced from the garden. We also visited the nearby Corner Store Cafe where I manage a herb and vegetable garden. We walked away with a few kilograms of pigeon pea.

At Sandy Creek, 90 km north-west of Brisbane spring blew in cold south-westerlies and 24 keen Permablitzers – tents, coffee mugs, shovels, generous seeds and seedling offerings and all – oh, and a small dog named Rupert.

Dick Copeman was there to meet and greet the happy campers and after Tim Auld gave an overview of the plan and Moira appointed people to appropriate priority tasks, the first Brisbane 5 acre, 2-day camping Permablitz began.

I am sure that, despite the willingness and sunny disposition, many a Brizzy Blitzer was thinking “OMG, there is so much to do!! Where do you begin on 5 acres?”

Zone 1, of course. Tim had drawn up a practical and logical design for Angela , the owner, with her requests (read: high expectations) in mind. Two key feature areas evolved. First, a garden of Australian native food plants and banana basins on the north side was established. Trees had to be removed first (by truck, in one instance).

Second, 3 swales were dug on the south side with 3 pine and post retaining walls placed due to the degree of the slope.

No dig garden beds were made and a few citrus and wind protecting trees were planted for good measure.

By the end of day one 2/3 of the retaining walls were finished and the Australian food garden was ready to plant into. What did Angela learn by the end of day 1? ….That retaining walls take a long time to build (and not to overfill the rice cooker with rice).

Special thanks to all those who were so impressively dedicated to getting the retaining walls finished – especially Martin, who had all the tools an know how and everything, including the kitchen sink, in his trailer. And thanks to Coby who found one of, what I hope to be, the first of many worms.

Best laid plans…..

Angela had a vision we would all be dining around the campfire, singing songs and toasting marshmallows. Not so… unusual arctic temperatures drove us all inside around the fire and cosied up together eating curries and drinking well-earned beers and wines. All stayers were packed off to their tents with extra doonas and hot water bottles and a tub of left over curry.

One of the wonderful things was having locals turn up to help, cook, sell local honey, pull out trees with their ute(all Blitzers on the back to add weight) – meaning that the word Permablitz is spreading. By the end of day 2 we had successfully built and planted out over 50m³ of garden beds, made new friends, gained new skills. Many thanks to all those who expressed interest in coming back to visit. I can be contacted through Permablitz.

Thank you all for my edible and medicinal garden and the first step of….a big project…with special thanks to Tim, Dick and Moira for their organisation, planning and skills.