Well, it’s official: I’m a dirty hippie. I thought, maybe, for awhile that it could be avoided. But I think it’s official now. I’m sitting inside on a rainy, cold(ish) winter day drinking organic tea with organic milk and blogging about gardening. Every time I wash my hair and put on a pencil skirt and heals for work I feel like a fraud. Where I really want to be is out in my garden!
So as some of you may know I have taken over coordinating my local community garden. I have a lot of fantastic help but it is still a major amount of work. A little background for those of you that I haven’t already told: Jane Street Community Gardens were destroyed in the 2011 floods. Everything was washed away. This was before I was here obviously but the damage is still evident at the garden. The volunteers at the garden at that time were ready to just walk away– it was too much to rebuild.
Photo by Jacqui Purse
That’s when Permablitz stepped in. Permablitz is this amazing group of volunteers from all over Brisbane involved in the permaculture movement. They come together to “blitz” peoples’ yards. They take away drab, water-hungry lawns and replace them with veggie gardens, chickens, water gardens, and most importantly food security and sustainability. They are able to do in one day, with an amazing mob of volunteers, what it would take one person years to accomplish. Permablitz heard about what happened to Jane Street Gardens and stepped in. They helped rebuild raised beds and rescue plants and clear rubbish and mud and the garden was able to slowly reestablish itself.
18 months goes by. We’re slowly still rebuilding the garden but it’s a lot of work for just a few people and most of us don’t know how to use power tools (for rebuilding raised beds, etc) and one day of work for three or four of us hardly makes a dent. Enter Permablitz again. They agreed to come back and help us finish up rebuilding the garden! And guess who got to coordinate it 
Yours truly!
Me directing. Photo by Sally Baker
Some of the photos of our amazing day are below. We had almost 70 people descend on our little garden. I was so humbled and excited to have so many wonderful people take an entire day of their weekend to help us. We now have 7 more plots to rent out, our orchard is rebuilt and much much more. If you want to see more pics please visit our Facebook page at Jane Street Community Garden. We’re also working on getting a website going.
Garden Pre-blitz. A big mess and lots of bare ground! Photo by Sally Baker
Building new raised beds. Photo by Sally Baker.
Here’s our orchard after it’s been all rebuilt and filled in with soil. See my banana trees? Now they won’t be so alone! We planted guava, Brazilian cherry, lime and coffee trees! Photo by Sally Baker.
Here are three raised beds after they’ve been finished. They don’t look so pretty now but they soon will when someone gets veggies planted in them! Photo by Sally Baker
Group shot! Photo by Sally Baker.
You are doing an amazing job and wish I could be there to be a part of this. Retirement does not come soon enough for me to be out in the yard every day. You and my Dad would have gotten along just fine with garden talk.
Cool orange vest, you look so important! love, your proud mother