Aspie Permaculture Guild of Australia? Why not!!

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Hi! I'm new today. Trying to be new every day, but it's only this year - after my only son has grown and left home - that I figure out I'm Aspie. The world turns upside down, then all the bits start resettling ... but in completely different places. That's a lot to get used to at my age. Luckily (?) I'm used to adapting ... starting all over again ... from scratch.

Barely two years ago, I moved to my present home in a smallmind smalltown. The air is good; the silence what I need. I didn't know this would trigger the demise of my precious 7.5 year relationship, and wouldn't have moved if I had known it. At a frightening rate I found myself cycling rapidly through friendships - more precisely, making friends then having them suddenly disappear, without further contact, without explanation. I suppose they think I'm weird in some way, but I'd only be guessing. It may not even be about me; perhaps it's just their own weirdness; I don't know because I'm new to this cut-off-without-a-soul thing. Have always been immersed in community (first motorcycling, then politics, then music) before, so I supposed I always would be. Then came parenthood, a long flirtation with 'normality' (a poor fit, but the silent bargain I struck for the privilege of being a sole parent), and a gradual implosion of my former rich community life as I tried so hard to go straight.

So I hit on a new plan: on the principle that 'forewarned is forearmed', with my most recent new friend, I picked the moment then told her about the Aspie thing. It was a bit rocky. Later I had to tell her, 'It's not just about acknowledging the existence of this thing called Asperger's and then it's over; it actually has ongoing implications for how it will sometimes be, to be around me.' She was amazing. She took on board everything I said about 'It will sometimes seem as though I am ignoring you or being in some other way rejecting or rude.' I gave examples. 'Sometimes I just reach overload and have to withdraw to recharge/recover. Sometimes I use my computer to do that. I brought my computer in here so as not to be rude about it, so I could withdraw in your company.' (Mm-hmm, yep, I actually said that, because I'd actually done that.) She asked if it had been difficult for me to tell her all that. I just now realise she might have inferred this from the fact that I said the whole thing, haltingly (I am usually a very fluent, confident speaker), to a cupboard door without once looking at her. I think she was right that I shouldn't tell everybody. But she's still my friend.

So about this Permaculture thing. I have a quarter-acre block in the semi-arid zone and I'm keen to get a food forest and annual veggie garden going. I have so far seen modest successes and catastrophic failures; thrillingly picked, cooked and shared my own beautiful organic produce; and declared war on gourmet bugs and cat excrement. I would love to hook up with like-mindeds who are weird like me so we don't have to take offence at each other just because of bluntness or sharpness or silence. I find the other thing SO exhausting. It can be so good to share an external focus, without the need to endlessly draft and redraft things for fear they will be taken 'the wrong way' (which is actually 'the right way', but everybody is so bloody mealymouthed these days you can't make the simplest constructive suggestion without someone feeling their life has ended and they need 10 years of therapy just because someone said 'Have you thought about doing it this way instead?').

I hope you want to talk to me after this ramble. It's not always like this; sometimes I barely speak at all. I am just delighted to have found this site, and do so look forward to 'meeting' you. Please act on the urge to say hello any time. Namaste.

Welcome!

To WrongPlanet!! !

I am definitely into community gardening and I am working three 4' x 8' plots growing tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, squash, beans, and cucumbers.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
More photos can be found on my facebook page. Just click my www button.

Hey, Richie! Thanks for the sunny welcome and for sharing your beautiful pics. I am green with envy at the fecundity of your plots - oh, for a temperate-zone garden, sigh. I also have terribly alkaline soil (living on a limestone hillside) to which I must add yellow sulphur to lower the pH. I did manage a couple of good tomato bushes last year, and an aubergine bush, and a couple of potatoes seem to have settled in for the long haul, but after some bugs eating my carrots (twice) and erstwhile-thriving herbs overnight, I have declared war on beetles, earwigs and locusts and am starting to think up terrible ways of despatching them that would make any self-respecting Buddhist scream and rush for the exit. Oh yeah, wait a minute, also got 20 kilos of beautiful cherries off the one tree. Starting to remember the good stuff again now, phew! Happy gardening, and I'm always happy to see more pics.

Last edited by HighPlateau on 21 Oct 2011, 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thank you for the welcome, Brainfre3ze_93. Bet that name gets hard to pronounce ...

Welkome to WP!

Mick

You can try growing things in 5 gallon buckets. We have a lot of city dwellers who do this sort of container gardening on porches, balconies and
fire-escapes.