Tips for hosting a productive and fun garden working bee

Building my city permaculture garden over the past two years has been a lesson in learning to ask for help — uncomfortable as it felt, at first. In return, I've offered my own time when others needed a hand — transforming a barren street verge into a lush ornamental garden, revegetating a huge rural property and building wicking beds in a city backyard. Across all these projects, a few key steps ensured each garden working bee ran smoothly while everyone stayed safe and had fun. I'd already spent a year creating a strategic permaculture plan for my city garden, which then served as a guide for each of my 'permablitz' working bee projects. I've been so lucky to have friends, family, neighbours and even the odd stranger lend a hand as I pulled apart my little urban garden and put it back together again, this time according to permaculture design principles.