During the PDC, I moved to my own place in Romsey in the Macedon Ranges. It’s a unit with a small garden in walking distance to my town’s main street. For the last few years, I’ve lived here with my dog and a small flock of chooks. Inspired by our PDC visit to The Plummery, I’ve turned the garden into a productive veggie patch with fruit trees along any spare fenceline.
My first year living in Romsey, I ran a Transition Streets group at the neighbourhood house. This was a great exercise in ‘observing and interacting’ in a new place. I made some community connections through this, and at the end of the program, we decided to start a community garden. We got a tip that Romsey Primary School had a disused kitchen garden and an established orchard that needed some TLC. With support from the school, the neighbourhood house, a grant from the Council and small but passionate band of volunteers, we’ve been working on regenerating this amazing collective resource. We’ve shared heaps of food with our local food share, offered some to the school’s own kitchen garden program, and eaten plenty ourselves!
Being part of the community garden has shown me that integrating really is better than segregating. I love being an active contributor to my town and learning from experienced gardeners who I volunteer with.
After the PDC I also did Farmer Incubator’s Pop-Up Garlic Farmer program, and was lucky to have growing space just down the road from me at Wildwood Organics, an organic market garden run by Ben Dunn. After the program I ended up working a day or two a week for Ben and continued to grow my own crop of garlic there. This year, with my friend Clare (who I met in the PDC), we’ve been trying our hand at growing cut flowers for sale, using the permaculture principles we learned in the PDC. It’s a been a real learning curve!
This year I’ve made other changes based on what I learned in the PDC. I’m expecting a baby later in the year, so I’ve had to rethink my available energy and resources to re-design a living and social system that will work for my little family. I’ve rehomed my chickens and decided to turn my garden into a pollinator haven for the next couple of seasons, focusing on less maintenance and food production, and introducing some native lawn (yes, lawn!) for a growing kid to crawl around in. I’m taking a break from market gardening projects and have invested time, love and energy in strengthening my village of family, friends and community connections. Meanwhile I’ll keep volunteering at the community garden, giving what I can and taking what I need, knowing that there’s plenty to go around. I hope this reflects my favourite permaculture principle: creatively use and respond to change.
