The Greening of Gavin

Kev’s Patch Revisited

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It has been a while since we had an update about this campaign, and thanks to Michael of Canberra, we finally have an outcome for Kev’s Patch.  I had admitted defeat in a previous post and mentioned that it was not a success. 

How very wrong was I!  Kev and Therese actually planted out a veggie patch at the Lodge, and to drive it home, they had chickens as well.  See these articles titled “If there’s dirt under the PMs fingernails, it’s because he’s going for growth” and “Lismore ‘chook tractor’ for Rudd“.   So cool, but I wonder what happened to the patch and the chooks when he and his family moved out of the Lodge last week.  I hope he took the chooks with him and that someone is watering the patch ready for the next PM to arrive.

In fact, it makes me look at the bloke in a whole new way.  Anyone who takes up growing their own food cannot be all that bad.  What upsets me the most is that I didn’t have the chance to send him a congratulations letter in the post before he got ousted by our new Prime Minister.


All I can say is that small actions work.  Many thanks to Darren and JulieG for working on the campaign with me and to everyone who wrote letters to the then Prime Minister.  It obviously influenced him in some small way to follow the growing groundswell of home vegetable gardeners.  Well done Kevin, Therese and kids.  I just wished you had have promoted the fact a little bit more and started it at the height of your popularity.  Other Australians just might have followed suit.  Such a wasted opportunity.

Kev’s Patch – Round 2

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I promised you all that I would not give up regarding the Kev’s Patch Campaign that a few other bloggers and I are involved in.  Here is my second letter back from the leader of Australia’s department.  Only my address has been omitted for obvious reasons.

Australian Government
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT BARTON
Reference:C09/43828

20 August 2009

Dear Mr Webber

Thank you for your letter of 17 August 2009 to the Prime Minister regarding my previous reply about the growing of organic produce at The Lodge and Kirribilli House. I have been asked to reply on the Prime Minister’s behalf.

The Department is currently investigating various environmental initiatives including water capture at the residences. Water tanks are already in place at Kirribilli House which has reduced the amount of town water used there.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to the Prime Minister.

Yours sincerely
 

Suzanne de Smet
Assistant Director
Official Establishments Unit

Thanks for the reply Suzanne.  I do appreciate the time you take to reply on behalf of our PM.  Really I do.

So readers, what do you think?  Another fob off?  Not much detail in this letter, but at least we now know that Kirribilli House has rainwater tanks and that they use them.  I believe this response deserves an third reply asking for details of the “various environmental initiatives”.  Maybe there might be an organic vegetable patch in there somewhere even though there is not a lot of reference to it in this letter. 

If at first and second you don’t succeed, try, try again and again and again!  Kev’s Patch will become a reality.  Please join the campaign, visit the Kev’s Patch website and participate in this fine piece of environmental activism by sending our PM a letter.  Even if you are not Australian, still have a go at getting the leader of your country to plant their own veggie patch at their official residence. 

Just as important though, please take the time to plant some vegetables of your own.  It is nearly spring, so have a look at Gardenate to see what you could grow in your area.  It currently covers climates for Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  Growing your own food is as simple as putting a seed or seedling in the ground and watering it.  It nature can do it, I am sure you can.  Go on, give it a go because you will never regret it!  Even a balcony pot or two are a good start if that is all you have available.

Lets all lead by example, see how many of us can start our own organic veggie patches, and keep applying the pressure to Prime Minister Rudd.  Tell him in your letter how well your garden grows, with or without water restrictions in your area.

Here’s a thought.  If the PM had his own veggie patch, he wouldn’t have to borrow as much money to pay for all these handouts to big polluters that he is proposing in the CPRS.  Now that is something worth fighting for!

Gav

Water Restrictions are not a valid excuse Kevin!

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Back on the campaign trail for Kev’s Patch last night after some inspiration from Julie and littlem over at the Kev’s Patch campaign website.

Here is the second letter I wrote to the Hon Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Subject: Kev’s Patch – Organic Vegetable Gardening at the Lodge

Dear Prime Minister Rudd,

I am writing to encourage you to reconsider having a vegetable patch at The 
Lodge or Kirrabili House.  I received a reply back from you stating that 
water restrictions was the main factor for not starting an organic vegetable 
garden at the Lodge.

Recently we have seen Her Majesty The Queen, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and  President Barack Obama add vegetable gardens to their place of residence.

A productive edible garden can be used to illustrate the solution to a number of important issues facing all Australians.

– Growing our own fruit and vegetables reduces carbon emissions by reducing the transportation of produce, and reduce household waste with composting.

– Home-grown vegetables save water. David Holgrem states that “every 
dollar’s worth of fruit and vegetables has needed at least 103 litres of 
water to mature. Every equivalent dollar’s worth of home grown food uses 
only 20 litres.”

– Water conservation can also be demonstrated with the use of rainwater tanks and greywater systems– one of your Government’s own initiatives.

– There are a number of drought tolerant edible plants (amaranth, beans, 
broccoli, cucumber, quinoa, rockmelon, tomato, watermelon) including 
Australian natives (bush tomato, davidson’s plum, lemon myrtle, midyim, 
native lime, native ginger, native rosella, scrub cherry, riberry, warrigal 
greens, wild raspberry) that could be grown to show that drought conditions
are not an impediment to having a productive garden.

– Gardening is a good way to exercise and can assist families save money in 
these trying economic times.

Clive Blazey of the Diggers Club has worked out that you need “only 24% of 
the potential water from roof collection or just 37% of the potential 
recycled greywater” to grow enough fruit and vegetables to support a family 
of four. Clive’s article uses figures that are based on Melbourne, which 
has a similar annual rainfall to Canberra. Alternatively, Sydney has a higher 
rainfall and more relaxed water restrictions, so there’s no reason why 
Kirrabili House couldn’t have a vegetable patch.

I would love to see the Australian Prime Minister take the initiative on this 
relatively inexpensive project to set an example on how gardening can play a part in tackling water conservation and climate change.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin

For more information and other letter templates that you can use to craft your own campaign letter, visit www.kevspatch.com for more information.  Join the campaign and help the future I attempted to describe yesterday to become partly a reality. 

Watch out Kev, or I will send the chooks around! Edwina can get mighty grumpy when she doesn’t get her daily greens!