Permablitz – Eating the suburbs – One backyard at a time

Dan Palmer, the permablitz visionary.
Photo: Shaney Balcombe

Permablitz: new word, noun

1. An event in which volunteers use permaculture principles to transform a suburban garden into a place that produces its own food. A combination of the words permaculture – a design system for sustainable living and land use – and Backyard Blitz a television program in which backyards receive a makeover.

The rules of a permablitz are simple: if you want a permablitz crew to turn up to your place, you have to help out on at least two other working weekends before they will do so. In addition, Palmer defines a permablitz as a day in which “two or more people come together to:

a. create or add to edible gardens where someone lives;

b. share skills relating to permaculture and sustainable living;

c. build community networks;

d. have fun.

What happens on the day of a permablitz?

Every blitz is different. But you can expect to be welcomed with a cup of tea. There will be an intro circle in which the design for the day and the ideas behind it will be explained and then we’ll get to work. There will be tasks like weeding, planting fruit trees, digging paths and swales, making vegetable beds with no-dig methods or implementing greywater systems. You’ll be shown what to do and be working with others, and there will be short workshops relating to the activities. There will probably be some other workshops on the day too.

The host will provide a shared lunch — bring something if you would like to share, but you don’t have to. By about four o’clock we’ll break and thank everyone. By then, quite a transformation should have taken place! You’ll hopefully go home brimming with ideas, having met lots of wonderful people, having had a taste of permaculture design and having been learning by doing.

See article: Blitzing the ‘burbs.

See Permablitz website.

Imagine having forty volunteers, some of whom you’ve never met, come over to your place to build you the perfect, sustainable backyard. Sound too good to be true? Well its not, and its called Permablitz. Costa spends an inspirational Sunday in suburban Melbourne and meets the heroes behind this garden revolution.

See Costa’s show on permablitzing a garden in Melbourne here.