[Scpg] Grow Food Party Crew Ventura /Eye on the environment: Volunteer crew relishes creation of edible gardens

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

Eye on the environment: Volunteer crew relishes creation of edible gardens
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/nov/01/volunteer-crew-relishes-creation-of-edible/
By David Goldstein
Guest writer
Saturday, November 1, 2008


How do you get dozens of teens and adults to voluntarily landscape 
other people's backyards? Throw a party.

How do you get these energetic volunteers to not only provide labor, 
but also supply equipment, music, food and in some cases money? Give 
them something to believe.
The volunteers are motivated by a philosophy called "permaculture" 
and organized around a "movable feast" called the Grow Food Party 
Crew, which focuses on creating edible gardens. The group is the 
brainchild of Devin Slavin, a Ventura-based advocate of permaculture, 
combining "permanent" and "agriculture" in a way that promotes 
environmental principles.

Slavin traces his philosophical and gardening roots to the 1970s, 
when Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren came up with a set 
of principles and techniques designed to produce food, reduce energy 
use, conserve water and create beautiful landscapes. Mollison and 
Holmgren called their philosophy "permaculture" and dedicated 
themselves to sharing their beliefs and methods.

Since Slavin started Ventura County's first Grow Food Party Crew, 
branches of the gardening group have grown in Ojai and Santa Cruz. 
The Ojai group is headed by Dulanie Ellis, who also chairs the Food 
and Agriculture Committee of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition.

Two months ago, a joint event hosted by the Ventura and Ojai Grow 
Food Party Crews attracted 80 people to the Ojai Community Center. 
The group watched the YouTube debut of a documentary about their work 
and heard a lecture from Rose Hayden-Smith about World War II victory 
gardens.

Recently, the Grow Food Party Crew of Ventura hosted a workshop 
called "Essentials of Permaculture Garden Design." More than two 
dozen people paid $25 to $50 to attend a lecture at Ventura's Bell 
Arts Factory, then applied their permaculture principles to a 
backyard the next day. Rachel Morris, a local environmental activist 
known mostly for her work with VC COOL, a local nonprofit 
organization fighting climate change, was the recipient of the new 
garden.

The crew first shaped the ground of Morris' backyard, designing and 
building contours to capture runoff water and channel it into the 
garden. It then planted more than 200 fruits and vegetables, focusing 
on "companion planting," or placing plants into mutually beneficial 
groups where the shade and growth of one benefits another. The plant 
choices also considered the principle of "time stacking." For 
example, broccoli takes 100 days to flower, so next to it the crew 
planted radish and lettuce, which will grow and be harvested in time 
to give the broccoli room for growth.

Often, people benefiting from the new landscapes provide donations 
larger than the cost, but in cases where they cannot afford to pay, 
the group has organized a benefit concert, dessert tasting or other 
fundraiser at the host's house. According to Slavin, average costs 
for a new 600-square-foot landscape are $75 for plants, $25 for 
compost and $150 for irrigation.

The Grow Food Party Crew is willing to work anywhere - at a home, 
school, business or community organization. Slavin expects requests 
for the parties to quickly grow, saying, "Our society is growing to 
appreciate the abundance of nature."

Listen to permaculture advocates long enough, and you might hear a 
dark undercurrent they are reluctant to acknowledge, a sort of 
doomsday/survivalist streak within their philosophy. Behind their 
joyous talk about harvesting nature's abundance, their vision of 
neighborhoods' providing their own food also considers, in Slavin's 
words, "community resilience in a time when the economy isn't doing 
well."

The next Grow Food Party Crew event will be a big, citywide weekend 
party in Ventura featuring several groups, each creating multiple 
gardens. Organizers hope to create 100 new gardens in one weekend.

The event, called "Growing Gardens of Gratitude," will take place on 
the weekend before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21-23. If you'd like to keep 
your eye on the environment by learning permaculture while 
volunteering, contact event organizers at growfoodpartycrew at gmail.com.
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