Member Share Night

November is when members share their insight. This is going to be an evening packed with information and we can not wait.

Sarah Millar, from Willoughby Local Group, will talk about how the Repair Café fits into a Permaculture model. She’ll give an overview of Repair Café Sydney North and how it began as an idea four years ago at a local group meeting.  Sarah, the sewing queen, uses her skills to operate the sewing station at the Repair Café and has played a huge role in breaking the cycle of buy, use, toss it out.

Matt and Katerina Elphick from Hornsby Local Group will be sharing their personal permaculture journey. In a short two years, they have transformed their garden into a productive permaculture garden with the front yard set up as habitat for the native animals intermingled with bush tucker plants and the side of the house set aside as a kitchen herb garden. Their backyard has been transformed from a lawn and ornamental garden into a productive space, with a mix of edible and medicinal plants, hot composting bags, banana circle, worm farm, chicken run, European and native bees. The Elphick’s are passionate about managing their environmental footprints and have designed their garden to help manage their household waste and minimise what leaves their property.

Pat Hicks, Living Skills Coordinator, and Cathy Batts will present on all the amazing workshops that occurred at the Living Skills monthly meetings throughout the year and what to look forward to 2020. The in and outs of making soap, sourdough bread, body lotions and creams, jewellery, ferments and more will be explored. 

Selina Cheng from Hornsby Local Group will be talking about Permabees: what they are, what can be achieved at them, and going over helpful tips for hosting one and getting the most out of a permabee day. Selina’s garden is on a suburban block of 1/6 acre, it holds over fifteen fruit and nut trees, six garden beds, a banana circle, a food forest fence, a bathtub pond, compost bays, worm farms, rainwater tanks, and chooks. The edible gardening began 5 years ago when she moved into the property which was previously lawn, and rock-filled garden beds. With the help of PSN Permabees, she started transforming a front garden bed into a fruit orchard, and the backyard into a series of garden beds maintained through sustainable and organic principles, and is constantly learning and adapting new techniques for growing fruit and vegetables while reducing household waste and conserving water usage.

Kiki, aka Elisa Tripp, from Ku-ring-gia local group, is managing the planning and construction of a community garden at Mount Druitt Ethnic Communities Agency (MECA) which provides support and education for refugees during their first year in Australia. She oversees the managing, planning and implementation of the Social Enterprise Encouragement and Development (SEED) program to support refugees to start sustainable social enterprise related to gardening, cooking, or making sustainable products. The SEED program includes a TAFE Horticulture course, workshops, and one on one mentoring.  

Free for members, small donation for guests. 

Doors open at 6:30pm - a good time to check out our members' library & catch up with other PSN members. 

Please join us for supper after the talk.