Guerrilla Gardening
Monday, April 28, 2008 at 07:57AM 
Gardening as a form of protest? you betcha!! Went to the totally inspiring Permaculture workshop on Sunday, given by Virginia Stearns, a student at the Kinsale Further Education College. What is permaculture?
"Permaculture is an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor. It teaches us how to build natural homes, grow our own food, restore diminished landscapes and ecosystems, catch rainwater, build communities and much more." (thank you Permaculture.org)
It was a great overview lecture and I feel very inspired to learn more and do more! I loved that permaculture is a solution-focused practice, as opposed to problem-focused. So much great information was given in this workshop about urban gardening and composting, and in sustainable solutions in general.
At the end of the class we implemented an immediate no-dig urban garden in the middle of cork; both a subtle form of protest (there are currently no plots in the city for people to use to grow their own food) and an engaging activity to show us how quickly you can start up a useful green space in the city. Virginia had done some scouting prior to the workshop and found a sad cigarette and weed filled little space in front of a solicitor's office downtown for our project. Then it was let's get dirty time, yay!!! Manure was first, followed by a layer of cardboard and newspaper. Next a whole lot of seaweed!! (You can imagine the wonderful smells...) Then mulch and finally digging in to our earthy layer cake to plant all manner of growing things, among them lemon balm, wild strawberries, chives and so many more that I can't remember (my gardening experience prior to yesterday was virtually nil). And it took less than an hour!!
Sometimes a big change takes almost no time at all and is much more simple than you might imagine...
Reader Comments (3)
nice to see a bit gardening by you :-) i do think you will find that no dig or not, the garden will benefit from attention. Also, if this is an edible garden, you will have other creatures that will want to enjoy the fruits of your labors.
unrelated: do you know anything about this site: www.quamut.com ?
yes, gardening is FANTASTIC!!
haven't heard about Quamut.com, but from preliminary looks its a great how-to resource!
thanks for the positive feedback from both of you!