We’ve held our Garden share once a month, for over 5 years now.  We get together in our community center, where we share ideas, produce, and stories of successes and failures in our backyards. The main idea is to welcome neighbors and get to know them, building community. To that end, we bring snacks and tea or some cold drinks, sharing and communing with friends.

Gradually, we have also added things other than produce and home made snacks. These include books, household items, pots and planters, and even clothes.

During all this time, we have had one big Permaculture workshop, where about 25 people participated, building a grow box, and learning about Permaculture. The workshop was led by Alden, a local who helps run the Sky Mountain permaculture institute. [photos below]

We have also had a show and tell of tools used in the yards, notably a 3 in 1 tool that caught folks’ imagination.

Our latest event, on April 15th., called a Sustainability Hack, drew over 30 people, which we consider quite a success, especially for a first event  such as this. We had specialists talk about Bokashi, regular and worm composting; people showing videos and photos of their Native-plant yards, along with the edibles they are growing; one person showing people how to make small succulent planters out of corks; youngsters having a lot of fun with used, recyclable material; one girl making very cute and useful bags from old T-shirts; henna at one table; stringing of jasmine flowers at another, both of which drew curious and interested spectators. One person made smores in the solar oven, which came out ok despite the cloudy skies. We even had a demonstration of a small wood chipper, and shredder of cardboard for mulch.

Youngsters were interested in calculating their carbon footprint at a table, along with elders. The guess the fruit/vegetable table drew a lot of interest, along with the CO2e of different diets.

All in all, we all had a great time learning from each other, and sharing food and ideas. We will certainly do this again in a few months.