Thomas Street in the Community

Well things cruising along here at Thomas Street, touch wood, with the garden continuing to feed us for the moment, and a busy week of excursions to various permaculture projects out in our community. Here's what we can remember out of what's happened in the last 7 days along with a few pics:

Monday
We visited a 14-acre block a few hours out of Melbourne to check out a property a friend is thinking of buying for permaculture usage. We gave it thumbs up. Friend Adam harvested some field mushrooms which we cooked up for dinner when we got home. Cat brought back some stinging nettle which makes a fine tea.


Tuesday
In addition to turning our compost pile, six of us met around the fire to discuss the little permaculture design consultancy we are planning to start called Permaculture Solutions. Exciting stuff!



Wednesday
Today we visited Vilma's house in Dandenong to transplant more seedlings into the garden we set up there on one of our Permablitz days. We can't resist because Vilma always cooks up delicious pupusas afterwards.

Thursday
Some locals came by on Thursday. Willie from Chile was after some plants for the veggie garden he says we've inspired him to start, and an elderly lady from down the road was keen on some of our compost.

Friday
On Friday we all headed over to our friend Di's place to help her design her backyard orchard. Di is cool and is growing lots of vegies in front of her house for all to see. She's on the verge of making a chook tractor which has got to be a good thing.


Saturday
On Saturday Thomas Street was a part of a food garden working bee at St Paul's Primary School in Clayton (organised by Megan and Tash from Cultivating Community). Fantastic to have this happening so nearby and we want to give it all the support we can. Also, during an afterlunch stroll, Dan found a Greek lady ripping up chilli plants to make room for her lettuce. An hour later the 10 or so plants were in Vilma's garden. We hope they'll handle the transplant and survive the winter so that next Summer we can look forward to some spicy pupusas!


Sunday
This was the day of PERMABLITZ #3 at Monica's house in Moonee ponds. It was a great day with a garden makeover, broad bean planting, cheese making, sprout making, peanut butter making, wheatgrass, fruit and veggie juice making, house tours and a talk by Monica about her plans to develop her house into a fully-fledged demonstration of sustainable living. See some photos in the gallery here. A bunch of interested locals showed up and will hopefully start having regular permablitzes in that area.

During the week we also planted heaps out in our garden, other highlights being that one of our tagasastes started flowering and the brocolli in our chook-tractor brassica bed has started forming heads!