The day of Permablitz #10, Saturday August 24^th dawned misty and wet…in the Waikato… Luckily it was a quite the opposite in the Bay of Plenty where our hosts Peter and Jacquie  live,  south of Katikati.

With a crew of about 24 enthusiastic permablitzers eager to learn about Food Forests we couldn’t have asked for a better day. After the introductions Marie  gave an informative talk on the benefit of planting a Food Forest, which involves planting multi-layers of food producing plants in one area where each plant benefits the other in many ways. Trish then explained the design for the Food Forest that she and Marie prepared for the Faulkners.

 Then we got straight into preparing the 90 square metre area for planting, making several compost heaps from surplus material around the garden and planting some of the key fruit trees.

Ruth gave a very in depth workshop on fruit tree pruning and Sue Peachey led a workshop on planting Blackcurrants and Cranberry’s. Trish  shared her learning about preparing the ground for planting kumara later in the year. Heather  and Marie  prepared two large compost heaps.

 Peter and Jacquie not only provided us with a delicious lunch but also talked us through Miso making and preservation of Olives. Following lunch we had a discussion about all of the lower canopy plants to be planted beneath the fruit trees, including edible and medicinal herbs and weeds, perennial vegetables, corms and tubers and seeds. It was good to learn about new plants and how to cook them, the (f)artichokes a favourite!

It was all hands to the weeding, planting, seed sowing, labeling and laying of sawdust to the path then we stood back to enjoy the results of our labour.

 

A satisfying day for all and a big thank-you to Peter and Jacquie for your hospitality. We hope to see a photo or two on Facebook of the garden as it matures.