1 October 2024

For our revival of Permablitz BOP we joined together at the inspiring Ngapeke Permaculture in Welcome Bay to help them out with some Spring jobs.

Since 2019, Ngapeke Permaculture have been transforming their 42-acre block from a monoculture crop farm back into a stunning nature inspired, environmental haven. They have put in mara kai, perennial forest gardens, syntropic agriculture, native areas, wetland areas as well as running many workshops, open days and more. They practice permaculture and kaitiakitanga simultaneously to take care of the earth (papatunauku), the environment (taiao), and their community (hapori).

Our Permablitz day began on a misty morning which turned into a beautiful sunny day; we began with some introductions from Ngapeke and a round of intros from the amazing turnout of people.  This was followed by Sarah Jane Board, who was our lead designer for the day, introducing the activities. It seems at Ngapeke that everything runs smoothly with no worries, nothing is rushed and everyone feels comfortable, and that is exactly how our Permablitz at Ngapeke went.

We split off into four different areas; the first helping to work on the new outdoor kitchen, the second helping to prick out seedlings including natives propagated at Ngapeke, the third planting some donated fruit trees as well as clearing grass, pruning bananas and mulching banana circles, and the fourth collecting nitrogen and carbon to create a large hot compost pile.

We finished the day with a delicious shared lunch, some shared notices of other things happening in the community and some really good banter and networking. Thanks to Ria, Chrissy, Ole and the team at Ngapeke for having us! Keep an eye out for our next Permablitz coming soon!