It's on again ladies and gents! July 8, 9 and 10 at the Nambour Show Grounds. Costa is coming to play this year, along with Colin Campbell and Annette McFarlane and a bunch of other clever garden types. The Big Kitchen Garden is always a lovely permaculture haven. You'll find me there looking at the chooks with my arms full of new plants.
I did end up looking at the chooks with a clutch of plants in my hands... Costa is a great speaker. I missed the first few minutes because I was dashing from the other side of the Show ground where I had been listening to Ross McKinnon - the curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens - talking about medicinal plants. That was good too, but Costa has stolen my heart! He really is very short and very hairy (shorter and hairier than he looks on the telly!), and had us all entranced and laughing along. Without ever mentioning "permaculture" he spoke about how everything starts with our soil and how important it is to feed it, and covered beneficial bacteria and fungi, composting and compost teas, not disturbing the soil by digging, not spraying with biocides, how weeds aren't weeds, how rubbish is a resource - all good solid permaculture principles. I'm trying to think of reasons why I need to spend my Sunday back at the expo rather than with my kids.....
