Our first mission: Surrender!!

Feb 8 2015

Today was the first time that our newly formed group went to a community who wanted to start a kitchen garden. This community, Surrender, has some amazing gardens, but one of the youngest buildings had yet to start one. Following the steps of other people before us, like Krishna and the Localicious team and incredible edible, we dug a trench around a rectangle in the garden, which we turned into a kitchen garden.

We filled the trench with organic matter, starting with the thickest logs at the bottom to attract the worms in the area. Then we filled those spaces between the logs with green manure, full of nitrogens and other nutrients, and finally added palm leaves and other dry leaves, making sure that some space was left throughout to allow oxygen to play its part in the biodegrading process.

The island surrounded by the trench was the intended space for the allotment so, after aerating the soil [without tilling or revolting], we covered it with soil mixed with compost, dry mulch and charcoal. Finally a big layer of mulch was added on top, in order to allow the Surrender people to start their own small nursery and plant the seedlings that they will prepare, after we show them this new method of preparing the nursery that we learned from our dearest consultant Mimmo.

It was very interesting to work following Mimmo’s instructions, as for us he’s a walking encyclopaedia and he loves to share his knowledge with us. We are growing and improving everyday just by listening to him and observing his approach to nature.

Practically speaking, today we were a team of eight, comprised of Robi, Ricky, Mimmo, our friend Piero and four members of Surrender. It was great to see them fully engaged and participating in the process while having loads of fun together.

It is really not Permaculture without having fun!

Wednesday we will go back there to bring them some seeds, such as chilly, lettuce, beans, spinach tomato etc.. and show them Mimmo’s easy technique to start a small-scale nursery, along ways to dry and save their own production of seeds for the future.

It was a great day today, our hands are falling apart but the sensation of working together, doing something useful and fun on this Sunday morning is a great motivator for us to continue.

Community building can really happen around self-production and local food, but we see everyday that the loving, relationship-building element gains the outmost importance, if we desire people to choose this lifestyle.