International Permaculture Day celebrated in Coffs community garden Coffs Coast Coffs Coast - popup ad Coffs Coast News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - May 3, 2024 The flourishing garden grown by Linda Woodrow and Peter Lewis at home in Park Beach using permaculture techniques. SUNDAY 5 May is International Permaculture Day. With renowned permaculture educator and author Linda Woodrow living locally in Coffs Harbour, she’ll be sharing her tips on the big day. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Linda will host a free introductory permaculture workshop at the community garden in Combine Street with her partner Peter Lewis, the president of the Coffs Regional Community Garden. The pair have a flourishing oasis surrounding their home in Park Beach, proving all the positive points of permaculture. “Permaculture was described once as Australia’s greatest intellectual export,” Peter told News Of The Area. The three ethics of permaculture are ‘earth care’, ‘fair share’ and ‘people care’. At its centre is how to grow food sustainably. Permaculture is about developing long term solutions for food production rather than looking for a quick fix. “It’s about using intelligent design to work with nature rather than against it. “It’s using insects that like to hunt for your plant pests rather than sprays and poison. “It’s about providing habitats for multi species pollinators year-round,” he said, “habitats for frogs, lizards, birds that eat slugs, snails and grasshoppers.” Linda has been teaching permaculture for over 30 years. Her book, ‘The Permaculture Home Garden’, has become a Bible for how to use permaculture to create abundant food production. As well as his role at the Regional Community Garden, Peter works as a facilitator at Baku Court Community Garden. “Together we’ve had over 40 years of learning from our mistakes,” said Peter. “We spent a year in Havana in 1998, experiencing firsthand the impact of the country’s international agricultural industry collapse which led to re-evaluation of urban agriculture using permaculture principles.” Taking place on the same day is a workshop entitled ‘Gardening Without Pesticides’. An agronomist, consultant and researcher heavily involved in the Landcare movement, Phil Bowden will facilitate the workshop. For more information visit www.coffscommunitygardens.org.au. By Andrea FERRARI Permaculture educator and author Linda Woodrow is looking forward to celebrating International Permaculture Day 2024.
