We’ve just completed another very successful Queensland Garden Expo in Nambour. I hope you were able to make it. The weather was glorious and we had a great time promoting Permaculture Noosa. Thank you so much to all the volunteers who gave their time both in the lead up and during the three days of the Expo. 

This year we shared a joint marquee with Yandina Community Gardens and Northey Street City Farm from Brisbane—an SE Queensland permaculture hub. And we were joined by other notable stall holders in the Giant Kitchen Garden from Morag Gamble and Robin Clayfield to Spare Harvest, and many great products for sale or demonstration, to make a strong statement to the public about the importance of an organic sustainable approach to our gardening and our health and well being. 

The alliance between our sister organisations is continually strengthening. Next year in April Northey Street City Farm is hosting the Australasian Permaculture Convergence and YCG and Permaculture Noosa are already talking about how we can be involved—a special opportunity for us to promote our organisations and the great benefits we provide for our members and the community. If you would like to be involved in any capacity or have any ideas on how we can showcase our region, please get in touch with me over the next few months. 

Permaculture Noosa is having a really successful year, evidenced by our turn out at Club Nights, our increased membership, the support for our regular events like Open Gardens and Living Bees, the new volunteers at our working bees at Cooroy Community Permaculture Gardens, and the fantastic success of our Festival last month. To help make improvements and to keep in touch with our members’ wishes, we are conducting another online survey next month. It should appear on our website around August 12 and will run for approximately 3 weeks. Please get involved.  It is open to all our supporters—you do not need to be a member to participate. We welcome your feedback and you can remain anonymous if you choose. 

We have an incredible depth of knowledge within our membership at Permaculture Noosa, and it’s wonderful to be able to share it at our Club Nights. This Thursday we have a real treat. Sue Anderson, our Seed Savers and Propagation coordinator will talk about planting by the moon—what it’s all about and why we’ve chosen to use this method at our community gardens whenever possible. And of course, our main speaker Stuart Andrews from Forage Farms will be talking about Natural Sequence Farming, the internationally recognised technique of regenerative agriculture and land care. His talk is not to be missed. So we hope to see you on Thursday night for another incredibly informative evening. 

Remember, Permaculture Noosa is your organisation, and we always welcome your feedback. Email me at president@permaculturenoosa.com.au if you have any suggestions.

Latha Matters