Dan Palmer

Nathan Edwa...

Adam Grubb

Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD (VEG) is a collaborative business which has grown out of the permablitz network (www.permablitz.net).  A permablitz is a day on which volunteers come together to install edible gardens, share knowledge, build community networks and have fun.  Through our studies and practical application of permaculture and horticulture, we know how easy it is to grow your own food -- if you get your design right and follow a few key principles.

Through our volunteer activites we already dedicate a lot of our waking hours to making the city a more sustainable and edible place to live. Our core motivation in forming VEG was to make a livelihood doing something we believe in: helping to create a healthier, more prosperous and fine flavoured future. With lots of edible folliage in it.

Very Edible Gardens was launched in January 2009 by permaculture designers and teachers Nathan Edwards, Adam Grubb, Dan Palmer and Paul Fogarty (who's since gone on to found a composting business).

History

Adam was a widely recognized energy writer, Dan was a psychology and philosophy academic with a teaching job in New York, and Nathan was a professional musician. Although we've all been gardening for years, as little as five years ago each of us would have been surprised to know how much it would become central to our lives.

So how did it happen? In our separate ways we found ourselves wanting to work on positive, productive activities which addressed some of the world's environmental and social issues. We found some answers in permaculture.

Permaculture is an ethically underpinned design system for sustainable living and land use, actually much more wholistic than a form of organic gardening.

The standard permaculture course is a two week or 72 hour Permaculture Design Certificate.  After Dan took one, he concluded that he had learnt more of local and global relevance in those two weeks than almost three decades of formal education. He vowed not to wear a tie again, and traveled under the mentoring of some of permaculture's best known names.

Adam, still writing and editing for the global energy news clearinghouse he founded, Energy Bulletin, found that permaculture was providing him with insights he could use in commenting on global issues, while also helping him grow vegetables.  Sweet!

Nathan, well he stayed a muso for a while.  I mean, fresh food, healthy living and saving the world are all well and good, but you know, how's it supposed to compete with the rock and roll lifestyle?  But even he eventually began a permaculture design consultancy, working on urban and ecovillage projects, and has long been employed by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Gardens Project at a Northcote primary school.

Permablitz

In 2006, Dan was teaching English at a neighbourhood house for a South American community group called Codemo.  He helped organise a backyard make-over for one of the members, Vilma from El Salvador in Dandenong.  Soon he and others were facilitating these events, which became known as permablitzes every other week, helping to fast-track people in the suburbs towards healthier, lower resource usage lifestyles, and having a lot of fun doing it.  For more information and the permablitz story, see permablitz.net or read this article by Katherine Kizilos in The Age.

Over 60 permablitzes have been held in and around Melbourne since 2006, and through these we've been testing and observing, and we've honed our design skills, seen what works and what doesn't work.  We've gone a long way to systematising basic urban permaculture garden design for the Melbourne climate, always working with the hosts to design and implement systems that work for them. 

Our Ethics and Principles

Our ethics are based on the three core ethics of permaculture.

1) Care of Earth

Carbon-neutral/Carbon-positive: a) Home-grown food significantly reduces our clients carbon emissions, and b) Growing food increases client awareness of seasonal changes, effects of drought, and other climate change indicators.  We are dedicated to:

• Improving soils
• Reducing waste and landfill by recycling organic wastes
• Efficient water use
• Increasing bio-diversity
• Ethical sourcing of materials

2) Care of People – including self and local community

We want ourselves, our employees and our clients to be involved in rewarding and positive work. Our clients and customers are helped to develop food growing and cooking skills, and empowered to live out a positive response to modern environmental concerns.

3) Share Surplus – Time, skills, money, food.

Through the iVEG section of this website we will share growing tips, harvesting advice, recipes and much more.  We want to work with local councils and training bodies to help keep prices down for our courses so that anyone can take part.

Compromises

When we're faced with challenges, we look for creative solutions before compromises.  All decisions will consider the environment, society and economy, to balance the negative and positive impacts.

-- Nathan, Dan and Adam