With so many avid gardeners amongst us, the branch team jumped at the chance to support local community group Permaculture Out West when they approached us to support their Seed Swap event earlier this year.

Permaculture Out West (POW) is a network of people living in the western suburbs of Melbourne, learning and practising Permaculture with members coming from the Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Brimbank, Wyndham areas and beyond.

Their vision is to nurture, empower and create resilient communities in the west with a focus on environmental sustainability and self-sufficiency facilitated through local initiatives such as food swaps, community nursery and gardens, workshops and working bees.

Supported by an innovative and creative group of volunteers, their Seed Swap soon developed in a festival “Pollinate the West” which involved collecting seed donations from the community leading up to a day long seed swap event at the Seddon Uniting Church including guest speakers, information sessions and children’s seed planting activities.

Unfortunately the event could not go ahead as planned due to lockdown restrictions, but once again the team were able to adapt and the seed collections were distributed to letterboxes within 5km zones by their volunteers on bike.

Next step, we hope to see everyone’s seedlings flourishing in photos online and maybe some produce by the summer months. And we have no doubt, with such a determined team behind the event, we shall enjoy the full event in 2022.

Learn more – www.pow.org.au

Suzanne Saunders