Entries Tagged 'food + gardens' ↓

Here’s the planting layout for the community garden as of this week.
(Click on graphic to see it full size.)

More planting taking place this Saturday 13th (3pm on).

Jonah G @ 46.

On one of those magical Summer days, February 13, the community garden saw its first harvest – whilst one group picked the beans, another crew shelled them (over a little wine and Jonah’s excellent dips) and a good time was had by all.

Spuds will be next and the beds are now being prepared for autumn / winter crops of beetroot, wom bok, kale and a variety of other crops.

For anyone interested, next Saturday (20th Feb) will do more bean harvesting and planting of seeds and seedlings. For the record we have 30 garden beds, each of them allocated to a person or family to manage.

Thanks to Dave Graddon for the photos.

Compost is good for the soil. And right now there are lots of weeds growing (like fennel, pictured right and red valerian, below) which you can use to make great compost.

Weeds for compost need to be:

• Free of woody material (so the compost breaks down fast)
• Free of seeds and fruit (so the compost doesn’t spread weeds).

Red valerian, fennel and the new growth on willows are all abundant in the valley at the moment and will probably all make great compost – ready in time to protect your soil against driving rain through Autumn and Winter.

Jonah @ 46

Two working bees in November and the community garden (28 beds) is now all planted with its first crop of beans and spuds. Thanks to everyone who came along. Contact is Jonah.

Its that lovely time of year, so here are three delightful garden enterprises.

• Food in my backyard:
If you are new to gardening, or need help, Christine and Juliet from FIMBY run a neat little local (South Hobart) enterprise that is proving to be really popular. Have a look at their friendly website

• Tarremah Growers:
Catherine in Fern Tree advises that they have for sale a fabulous range of tomato seedlings, including those vanishing old tasty varieties. No website sorry, but you can download their tomato catalogue here and place an order.

• Woodbridge Fruit Trees:
Too late for fruit tree planting now, but do keep this one in mind. For close to 30 years this family group has been preserving old fruit tree varieties on dwarf stock suitable for home gardens. Great varieties and a big range of fruiting times. Take a look at their website and place your order before next Winter.

Sustainable houses throughout Australia will be opening their doors for you to look inside on Sunday 13th September.

See the real benefits of sustainable housing up close. Learn what you can do with your own home. Meet the professionals and find out about useful products.

Check out the sustainable house day website for house locations in Hobart area. Admission to all houses is free.

Hi community gardeners,

Now is time to get a compost going, and many hands make light work. Stuart and Jonah will be making compost at 12:00 this Saturday (August 1) above 137 Waterworks Rd.

If you can spare an hour and would like to join in, please bring along:

- A fork or shovel
- As much organic stuff as you can. (Grass clippings, weeds, Autumn leaves are great. No food scraps or woody stuff please.)

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Saturday 16th was bleak, showery day, but we turned out in numbers for the ‘turing the first sod’, at community garden. It’s a very sunny spot and the soil is good.

The cabbages and carrots will have a great view of the mountain.

Contact for the garden will be Trish Moran.

Thanks to all who came, especially Trish for organising the day and The Graddons whose land has been made available.

We have recently bought a Bokashi bucket for our food waste in the kitchen.

We find this a really good invention. The bokashi bucket is a clean and non-smelly way of disposing of organic waste at home. The bokashi mix actually smells quite nice, almost like sour dough bread.

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Food. What we eat and where we get it from is perhaps more important than solar power… or how you get around.

For an insight, read this story: 8 Ways to Join the Local Food Movement.

And this one too.

And this third one tells about the power of the commercial food industry.

(The food basket, pictured, was exhibited at our Harvest Fair)