Next HLPG Meeting is...

The next Hills Local Permaculture Group Gathering will be on Saturday 20th April 10am - 12pm at Christine's property in Morangup. Details below.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

MARCH GATHERING

The Hills Local Permaculture Group met on Saturday March 17th for its first monthly gathering for 2012. In keeping with our 2012 intention to assist each other and other local groups to learn about and implement permaculture in our daily lives, we joined with others to support the regeneration of a tiny part of our local waterway ecosystems.

This ‘Zone 5‘ work took place beside a tiny stretch of Nyaania Creek in Morgan John Morgan Reserve in Glen Forrest. This section of the creek meanders alongside the newly-approved site for Glen Forrest Community Garden. Our ‘task force’ included members of the local Friends of the Reserve group and the Glen Forrest Community Garden Group.

The group gathered in the shade of tall marri beside the creek to learn something of the place and the tasks of the morning. In contemporary times the creek is a winter waterway, and at this time of the year the dry creek bed is thick with paspalum, kikuyu, and watsonia along with multitudes of other opportunistic weeds.

To begin the morning the group heard from Val about ongoing conversations with South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council in relation to management of the system of underground and aboveground waterways of Wadjuk country, of which Nyaania Creek is a part. In carrying out our intention to contribute to the regeneration of this part of the creek, the group acknowledges the traditional and ongoing ownership of the Noongah people, and the essential knowledges of local Noongah Elders in managing restoration of local ecosystems.

We were joined by local bush-regenerator-extraordinaire Kathy Woods. Kathy gave a short talk and demonstration of ways to assist in revitalising the creek’s natural plant and animal systems. The group heard that rather than simply removing the weeds, creating more disturbance and inviting new crops of these same and other weeds to move in, we would be planting small clumps of endemic rushes within weedscapes. Once established even a little, these local rushes such as juncus pallidus and juncus subsecundus will provide protection to endemic creatures such as frogs and bandicoots from foxes, cats, dogs and other hazards to creek systems.

The group divided into small teams to plant the rushes. We first ‘scalped’ small patches of paspalum and kikuyu on the edges of the creek, using small pickaxes or spades to remove roots and dig holes in the baked earth. Once an initial bucket of water had soaked into the hole, we planted the rushes with some water-holding granules, watered them well again, and covered with stone-and-stick mulches. We planted rushes in groups of two or three to optimise protection for small animals.

An important part of the morning was the careful bagging and removal of all scalped weeds soil in order to minimise and prevent further spread. Weed seeds are likely to inhabit about 30 cm of the top soil profile.

The rushes will need some water supplied as we are probably still some way from substantial rain, and we will be keeping a close eye on the new plantings until the rains come.

We’re looking forward to watching as the creek slowly transforms itself with the assistance of the local rushes and animals which will find their way back once protective habitats begin to be established.

Many thanks to all who came and to those who sent their good wishes for the day. A special thanks to Robyn from the Mundaring Garden Centre for supplying the juncus seedlings for planting.

Updates on the progress of this tiny patch of creek regeneration will appear here in the blog.

The next Hills Local Permaculture Gathering will be on April 21st 2012 at the Silver Tree Steiner School in Parkerville.

Hills Happenings 2012

Greetings from the Hills Local Permaculture Group Core Team for 2012. We’re looking forward to a year of hands-on permaculture in our local communities and lives, and to connecting in with and being part of change-for-life in the wider world community.

The team met for a visioning/planning morning in February, keeping up the best traditions of the Convene Team with a fine spread of food to share, inspiring conversation and a magnificent salad of ideas for the year. We finished with a bonus tour of Nathalie's amazing water-thrifty garden, which managed to look well-kempt, beautiful, productive and lush even in the shrivelling heat of February.

As with the last few years, we have a core team of five, with a slightly changed membership. Sharryn and Elizabeth are continuing on the team this year, joined by Nathalie, Krystylee, and Trish.

Thanks go to retiring team members Silvia, Rosemary and Joy for the amazing amount of work and care that has gone into every aspect of HLPG over the last few years, from vision-holding to producing newsletters with global cult followings(!), keeping everyone in touch through emails, maintaining records, liaising and being available on the phone, planning and organising, making sure there are enough chairs and cake ... all the small and large details that have kept HLPG life humming along. Best wishes for the unfolding of the new ... looking forward to seeing you all during the year at HLPG events.

This year the Hills Local group will be focussing on sharing and assisting each other with the small and practical details of implementing permaculture in our lives. We will still be gathering on the morning of the 3rd Saturday of each month, still sharing a cuppa and potluck morning tea or lunch, and we will also 'do and learn' a small something...' This may take the form of an activity such as pruning fruit trees, or building a biodynamic compost pile at someone’s house, or jumping in the creek for some revegetation work, or designing a chook pen for someone’s odd-shaped back-yard ...

One of these gatherings will be at the Silver Tree Steiner School, as a very small thankyou for their very kind assistance in providing a venue for us to meet at for the last couple of years. The new 'sustainable' school is looking amazing, and has come along even further since our tour there in December last year.

There will also be a couple of slightly larger-scale events. We will be teaming up with the wider Permaculture West mob the first Hill's Permablitz at Kristylee's in June. We hope to be able to build on the learning that P/West has been harvesting through permablitzes around Perth, to make the organisation of further mini-blitzes and full-scale permablitzes in our local group easy and fun.

And later in the year we plan to host a local 'surplus-share'-fiesta... an opportunity to share produce, seeds and cuttings, skills, learning, inspiration, ideas, food, fun and time in the name of permaculturing the world starting with our local community/ies.

The Hills Local Permaculture Group meets once a month on the third Saturday of each month, 10am to 12pm. The next Gathering will be on April 21st 2012 at the Silver Tree Steiner School in Parkerville. See web page at xxxx for details.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Milkwood - How to make Compost Part 1

Milkwood Permaculture are a wonderful source of information. A link to their site and their other videos can be found under the 'Interesting Links' tab.

This video is the first in a set of 3.

Welcome to the Hills Local Permaculture Group!

This is our very first post on what we hope will be an informative, useful and inspiring blog, dedicated to all things Permaculture in a Hills context and keeping you up to date with the workings of the HLPG.

This is also a place to share ideas, knowledge and experience, so if you have a garden or project you'd like to share, some tips which would help us, a favourite Permie website you love, or even a big brag from your vegie patch, let us know via a comment and we'll share it with everyone.

Hope to see you again soon!

The HLPG Team :)