Event Review! Funky Happy Sunday: A Permaculture Digging Smash Success!
This weekend was our permaculture digging extravaganza Funky Happy Sunday. The forecast was for rain all weekend but we put on our magic reality creation hats and changed the weather! I’m not kidding!
The day was beautiful, the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and we were digging!
First up, Joan Stevens!
The event started out with a wonderful lecture from Mama Botanica herself, Ms. Joan Stevens. Joan explained us the who, what, why, and how of sheet mulching, and gave us the 3 main benefits for the sheet mulching process:
- It helps conserve water into the Earth!
- It creates rich soil life and encourages the critters to chomp, which leads to lots of nutrients for your veggies!
- It stops weeds in their tracks! No need to weed! How sweet is THAT!
Next up, Tony Moss!
After Joan finished, Tony Moss gave a wonderful tour of the garden, explaining the philosophy of edible and sustainable landscaping and showing how he has used these principles in designing this garden. Tony also stressed the importance of designing a garden for the inhabitants who actually live in it! For this reason, he focused on perennial vegetables like kale and squash and fruit trees, which are all low maintenance allowing everyone who lives at the New Reality Garden to live their artist’s life without having to become a full-time gardener!
We Start to Dig!
Now we were in action! The sheet mulching process is a 3-step process that in our case became 4 steps! We had an additional step to take in the beginning because we were dealing with Devil Grass! Devil Grass is grass that will just grow no matter what you do, that’s nearly impossible to stop unless you pull it all out! So that’s just what we did! We pulled it all out and dug a trench around our space so that the cardboard could block out runners from coming in from the side.
After that, we put down a thick layer of overlapping cardboard which was moist and ready to block weeds and turn back into trees! I didn’t even realize that, silly as it sounds, that cardboard is just made of trees. Trees become paper become cardboard. So cardboard is a natural thing to put into the ground!
Once the cardboard was in, the tough job began. We collected 5 inches of compost from our compost pile and shoveled it on top of the cardboard. This is how the good stuff is gonna grow in the garden. The critters will eat that up and the vegetables will blossom!
Finally, we put a layer of straw and peat moss on top which helps hold everything together and acts as mulch to prevents weeds from growing and to look extra pretty! And that was that!!!
We Eat and Celebrate!
After that, we were treated to a phenomenal feast of raw food from Jenny Funkmeyer. We had kombucha tea, cauliflower pate with nori rolls, and of course cheesey cheese cheese kale chips made without cheese! Everyone loved the food–our proof is that it was gone so fast that we didn’t even have a chance to take pictures!
It was a wonderful day and we learned a great technique for the garden and enjoyed our new reality together! What more could you ask for!?
Gardener’s Butt!
Well, I guess you could ask for THIS! Our shot of the day! The infamous gardener’s butt! And with that, we bid you adieu!
Much love,
Jenny & Otis!
Original Flyer and Announcement! For the sake of Posterity!
Hello friends,
Come and join us at FUNKY HAPPY SUNDAY: Permaculture Digging Extravaganza Workshop.
JOAN STEVENS, famous permaculture diva, known to the in crowd as Mama Botanica, will lead us in a hands-on cardboard sheet mulching workshop and teach us how to plant a ground crop to prepare the soil for winter. We will plant a grapefruit and an apple tree too.
TONY MOSS, designer of the Funkmeyer Garden, permaculture designer, Mr. Green-Thumb Giant himself will walk us around the garden and talk about what has been planted and his vision of the New Reality edible backyard garden.
OTIS FUNKMEYER, the Uncle of Funk, will do an electrifying robot dance performance for you and teach you the moonwalk!
JENNY FUNKMEYER, Kwan Yin-Embodiment of Love, will serve you a raw food lunch of Jenny’s Crazy Good Cauliflower Pate and Oti’s Mo Better Cheesey Cheese Cheese Kale Chips (made without Cheese). Refreshments of homemade Kombucha tea and Alkalinized water drenched with love vibration await your arrival.
FEE for this event is $15 in advance and $20 at the door.
This is a limited engagement so be sure to register in advance.
Event Information:
Funky Happy Sunday: Permaculture Digging Extravaganza
December 13th
11am to 3pm
New Reality Garden – 2033 S. Spaulding Ave., LA, 90016
so fun!! you are creating such a beautiful world!
i love you guys
cinma