We'd joined about 50 others for a permaculture day in nearby Yarralumla. In the intro Dan our host was at pains to stress that the day was as much about learning as digging and scraping, "It's not a working bee, but just a chance to meet others and learn."
We watched Nick (who Amy had met at a Permaculture weekend earlier this month) show us how to plant trees. The secret is in the lengthy and considered preparation. He was an expert in tree planting - his principle was simple, if you spend time and effort getting the ground prepared you could get trees to grow even in difficult spots. He stressed that if you plant trees without due consideration then many of them will die and that's just crazy economics "I'd rather spend time than money" he told me after I told him we'd planted a couple of trees in our garden just the day before using none of the forethought and sense which Nick recommended. Hopefully our trees will survive although both Amy and I did consider uprooting them and trying again when we got home!
There was lots to learn from compost to mulch, vegetable patches to tree planting. We enjoyed lunch and I chatted to a guy who owned 10 pigs (and he showed me some pictures of them on his phone in a similar affectionate way as to how you would with children) as we feasted on delicious pumpkin soup and tasty bread.
The school owned a lovely garden area which would have been improved by the touch of us keen volunteers. The half dozen hens they owned would also have appreciated our visit and the grubs Eli had thrown to them.
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| Amy helps the kids with some rakes |
1 comment:
Looks like a fun, productive and yummy day :)
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