Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute

Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute

3 days ago

It's International Compost Awareness Week and one of the most awe-inspiring group of young people on the planet just spent the day, soaked to the bone and working through the cold wet day, to build a compost hub at the PCYC Lithgow! Now all the kids that come to PCYC Lithgow OOSH can bring in their veggie scraps to be composted.
The young people built a cubic metre 'Cambodian Compost' with donated palettes. It consisted of layers of carbon (25cm straw, dried leaves, cardboard), nitrogen rich organic matter (15 cm grass clippings) and manure (5cm), with the layers repeated until it reached a metre high. They were blown away by the heat it started producing almost immediately! It will be the compost bay for all the grass clippings when the grounds of the PCYC are mowed.
They also dug a pit, which they filled with cardboard, wire and three more compost bins donated by Donelda Campbell and Lithgow City Council These were surrounded by wood chip and one began to be filled with the fabulous autumn leaves that are falling all around Lithgow at the moment. One will be for grass clippings and leaves, one for carbon matter (eg. leaves, shredded paper, egg cartons, straw) and one for kitchen organics, alternating with carbon and coffee grounds.
This work is SO important because it reduces carbon and methane pollution by avoiding landfilling organic materials at the same time as building healthier soils. Waste is transformed into a resource!
They're learning it all through the new Lithgow Transformation Hub and the Permaculture Design Course being held there.

Happy International Compost Awareness Week from Lithgow! ... See MoreSee Less

Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute

1 week ago

Like the mycellium, which weaves its threads throughout nature, turning rocks into soil and building symbiotic relationships between species to grow and support life, we're really excited about the connections and the magic that the Lithgow Transformation Hub has already begun to weave!
By providing an inspiring space for young people in Lithgow, it's enabled the Pluriversity's Permaculture Design Course to happen. The Big Fix, Blue Mountains Pluriversity and The Lithgow Sprint were able to source support from Wentworth Healthcare and its Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network to run the course and ongoing programs with young people and the wider community for the rest of this year; the Rotary Club of Blackheath District 9685 donated money to build the PCYC Lithgow permaculture garden which we began building today; and Family First Credit Union has provided funding for a Youth Mental Health First Aid Course which the young people are keen to do after the Permaculture Course is over.
Check out our before and after photos of the PCYC garden after just one day of work today ... these young people are seriously awesome and thriving with a small injection of social mycelium! The minute the garden was finished, the young children from OOSH (Out of School Hours Childcare) were thrilled to check out the garden and taste the Oca leaves (NZ yam) we'd planted ... which they said tasted like green apples! They LOVED the new garden in their patch. ... See MoreSee Less

Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute

1 week ago

The young people in the Pluriversity's Permaculture Design Course were thrilled to be considered 'official' guests yesterday at the launch of Maldhan Ngurr Ngurra - The Lithgow Transformation Hub. During the day they were learning about soil, so were pleased that worms and mycellium were also present on the campus to symbolise the Hub's ongoing commitment to regeneration and learning about our critical relationship with the rest of the natural world. They shared Lithgow Sprint seeds and marvelled at the new high tech Zoom room ... as well as enjoying the fabulous food provided at the Launch! ... See MoreSee Less

Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute

2 weeks ago

We have a big week ahead at Maldhan Ngurr Ngurra - The Lithgow Transformation Hub!
The Pluriversity's Permaculture Design students will be learning what they can do to help restore and create soil, then they’ll be meeting with Donelda Campbell from Lithgow City Council to be briefed on setting up a Community Compost Hub at the PCYC Lithgow.
After that, they’ll be heading to Eskbank House Museum at 3pm where we’ll be doing a workshop on Plants and Heritage Seed Saving. At that session we’ll be launching The Lithgow Sprint Seed Library. One of the unusual ’seeds' we’ll be sharing with the young people is Yacon or Peruvian Ground Apple. They tasted the tubers at Blackheath Community Farm and loved them. If you have any locally grown and acclimatised heritage seed (or any excess seed you’ve purchased elsewhere), we’d welcome any donations to get the Library started! Pop on over to Eskbank House at 3pm or ring Lis on 0407 437 553.
Then, on Friday, we’ll be doing a Permablitz and building a herb spiral, veggie gardens and a compost hub at the PCYC. We would welcome any of the following donations: cardboard, woodchip, edible plants and herbs (including bushtucker plants), manure, straw or other mulch, rocks or bricks for a herb spiral, netting, star pickets, trellises, compost bins and compost, worm farms ….. ring Lis (number above) if you’re able to contribute.
Please share to all your networks. ... See MoreSee Less

Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute

2 weeks ago

What a joy it is to see young people enjoying learning and growing community on the Western Sydney University Campus again! This time around, in the new Lithgow Transformation Hub, we're demonstrating that there are many ways to learn. Today we combined more traditional slide show-based classes, with a site visit to the Lithgow PCYC, where we gathered soil samples and began the process of creating a permaculture design of the site ... as well as getting hands-on experience of pruning back a very prickly grevillea hedge that had grown over one of the paths. Annabel interviewed the inspiring Julie Favell from the Lithgow Environment Group Inc. about how her deep love for the natural world has grown from her bushwalking and photography with her botanist husband, and has motivated her to then want to work really hard to protect it. Annabel will go on to write an article for The Lithgow Sprint and The Big Fix, but the rest of the class thoroughly enjoyed observing and joining in with the conversation.
It was all made even more enjoyable when Alex spontaneously and hilariously decided that we needed a yoga break! All of us are looking forward to being together again next Thursday ... which will also be the official opening of Maldhan Ngurr Ngurra - The Lithgow Transformation Hub. ... See MoreSee Less