Vegetable Growers & Community Gardeners

Over the past 12 months a group of local vegetable growers have regularly gathered to discuss how, in the short term, to best to support the community in growing food in their own backyard and in the long term pursue a community garden project on public land.
 
Monthly meetings continue to be held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at Progress Hall from 7pm. The next meeting is Wednesday 14th December.
 
A proposal to convert the front yard of Progress Hall into a demonstration vegetable garden will be discussed and interest gathered to determine if it is a viable project. 
 
Also for your diaries, if you’re interested in having a Community Garden in the area, there will be a social picnic held on Saturday 18th February 2012, 4pm - 7pm at the Pony Club
 
For further information on or to RSVP for these events, please contact Michelle on 0402924819 or email bellbirdfe@gmail.com

In the vegie patch

Spring is here and the time has come to get out your tools and get busy planting out your vegie garden. During August hopefully you dug your plot over and gave it a good does of lime, compost and manure. You would have removed all the weeds and it would be brimming with life just beneath the surface awaiting the summer crop.

Salad vegies are probably the first that spring to mind and a variety of small sowings would be suitable now. It’s better to sow a little at a time every few weeks to give a continuous and varied supply throughout the season, especially if you’re only feeding a few.

Plants to grow include: cabbage, capsicum, silverbeet, lettuce, spring onion, tomato.
Seeds to sow include: beetroot, carrot, cucumber, marrow, parsnip, pea, radish, sweetcorn, zucchini and pumpkin.

A few tips:

• Cabbage: Sprinkle the outer leaves with Derris Dust to scare off white butterfly-one dusting usually does the trick.
• Sweetcorn: Plant 2-3 rows or in a group as it is wind pollinated. Pick when the tassle is brown.
• Carrot: Don’t manure prior to sowing as it causes deformed root growth.
• Pumpkin: When the flowers are formed pinch off the leading shoots to promote clumping growth.
• Cucumber: Sow amongst the Sweetcorn. They will use the spent corn stalks as a climbing frame.

Community Garden Goss

Since the workshop in August there has been activity in various areas.

The Community Gardening crew meet regularly on the 2nd Wednesday  of the month All are welcome. The group will discuss how to go about getting a great crop in your own backyard and progress gathering interest in a community garden.

LMCC has a Community Garden Policy. It is well worth reading as it clearly describes the process that has to be undertaken for planning a community garden, approvals etc:

Some great community gardening websites:

http://communitygarden.org.au/

http://www.northeystreetcityfarm.org.au/

http://www.thesharehood.org/community-gardening

http://sydneycityfarm.org/

http://www.sgaonline.org.au/?p=1263

Do you want a Community Garden at Carey Bay?

This year the VegeTTable group formed with two main aims

1. To support and encourage locals to grow vegetables in their backyard.
2. To determine if there was community support for a Community Garden on the site of the Carey Bay Pony Club.

A community garden is a public space where people gather and work cooperatively to produce fresh food. There are different styles of gardens ranging from communal to individual plots and everything in between.

As the density of housing and food prices increases, having somewhere to grow vegetables and share knowledge may be a good community project.

We'll be collecting comments and interest during the rest of the year so post a comment on the blog, email cppa.communitygarden@gmail.com, put your name on the register of interest at the Hall or phone Geoff Woods on 4959 3470.

VegeTTable club- by Jean Austen

As a member of the VegeTTable group supporting growing your own backyard vegetables I was fortunate enough to have Geoff Woods, our teacher and advisor, visit me and my garden to see where the best possible place was to start my project.

We learned in our lectures that vegetables need approximately seven hours of sunshine daily to grow successfully and some of soils in our area is not suitable, my challenge was trying to address these two issues. Geoff agreed that growing seedlings in two old wheelbarrows where they could get maximum sunshine should work. I have trialled this idea and am getting great results.

During Geoff’s visit I had many questions to ask and was readily given answers and advice.If you haven’t already joined I would encourage you to do so as Geoff has a wealth of knowledge which he is happy to share with members.

The next garden to be visited is at Michelle's place 62 Kilaben Rd Kilaben Bay on Saturday 9^th July 2-3pm. Most of the garden is raised beds but unfortunately the potato bed is somewhere down the hill due to the recent rain.There is plenty of parking so drive in.

Getting the Winter crop underway?

The second inspiring installment from the VegeTTable talks to get you growing.

Recap: It all starts with the soil and location location location.

• Vegetables grow mainly in the top 6cm of the soil, so it’s up to you as a gardener to make the best soil. Think of your vegie patch as a lawn improvement device.
• Face your garden North to North-east if possible to catch the most rays.
• Start small with a 1m square, it's big enough. Make it easy to access all around the patch.  Once you've got the hang of it expand a bit at a time.
• Tools of the trade include a spade, fork, rake and hose
• Soil preparation is important.Break up the clods, add organic matter, dynamic lifter, blood and bone, dolomite (MgCO3 )
• Mulch is magic. Cover the surface, to reduce evaporation, keep the soil cooler in summer and warmer in winter
• Compost is dug into the garden...it's international compost awareness week soon
• If you don't have enough room for a garden and want to delve into pots as the preferred growing medium styrofoam boxes are very versatile as growing pots. Ceramic/earthenware that are not glazed need to be lined with plastic because they loose water through evaporation. 

Sowing Seeds

• Read the back of the back, we live in a temperate climate and use by dates matter
• For an instant garden lettuce and spinach are great and you can pick the leaves all year round.
• Parsnip seeds only last a year at the most but are quick growers

How to sow?

• Use a rake handle to make a groove, the drill.
• Water the drill and remove any lumps
• Sow the seed, the smaller the seed the shallower the drill and cover over
• Put a stick at either end to remind where you planted
• Thin out when second set of leaves emerge

What to sow in May

• Seed : broad bean, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, pea, spinach
• Seedlings: cabbage, celery, leek, onion, silver beet, spinach,turnip

The VegeTTable group will meet on the 2nd Saturday of the month 10-11am at various gardens around the community to gather ideas, advice and support. Contact Geoff for more information on 4959 3470

Handy Tip- There is a manure selling business at 110 Macquarie Rd Fassifern, about 400m past the train station turnoff. They sell chook, cow and horse manure at very reasonable rates.

VegeTTable Talks

The VegeTTable group will start regular 2nd Monday of the month meetings 7-8.30pm, at the Hall as of Monday 11th April.  The session will include,

• Q & A/trouble shooting
• a special interest subject
• a trading table to share produce
• a brag or moan session.

The other aspect to the group’s gatherings will be garden visits to showcase or support local vegetable growers.

 These will be on  the Saturday following meeting 10-11am, the first visit at 54-56 Amelia Street, two gardens to think about how they tend their crops. 

April In the Veggie patch

Jobs to do: Prepare the area to be planted by top dressing with compost and blood and bone. Dig in and rake over.

Sowing and Growing:

Seed: broad bean, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, onion, silver beet

Seedlings: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, silver beet, lettuce

If space is limited make a herb garden in a polystyrene box. Place Styrofoam chunks for drainage and shade cloth in the bottom to prevent soil escape, fill with potting mix and plant with herbs such as thyme, parsley, chives. Place box in sunny position on a verandah or patio.

VegeTTable Talks

During February Geoff Woods delivered a series of highly informative talks on how to grow vegetables in your backyard as part of the Transition Town project. What follows are the insights gained from the 1st talk.

Lesson #1 behind every good vegepatch is great soil. Around Coal Point there are two main kinds of local soils, the very unproductive ridge soils which have had their nutrients leached out over time and the much more productive gully soils which have received the sediments washed from the ridges. The waterfront soils are aquatic deposits, which aren't too bad either. If you live on the ridge an elevated garden or pots are the best options.

Lesson #2 Soil horizons-Improve the top 20. As far as vege growing goes it's the top 20cm of soil, full of organic matter, where all the action happens as most vegetables have a shallow,fibrous root system.

Lesson 3# Soil is not dirt. Dirt is dead and is the stuff of vacuum cleaners. Soil is a living system made up of organic materials such as earthworms, insects, bacteria, fungus and decomposing plant material (humus)and inorganic material such as sand,clay, pebbles, water and air.

Lesson #4 Be kind to compost worms. There is a difference between compost worms and earthworms, the former needing plant material as their food source and doomed to starvation if added to soil...sorry to all the compost worms I have freed from captivity. Earthworms eat the humus in the soil.

Lesson #5 Location, location, location. A daily dose of sunshine for 5-7hours a day, especially morning sun which warms the soil and gets the sap flowing will keep veges on the sunny-side of life. It's important to watch the shadows before deciding a location and the best aspect to aim for is North. Slope was considered something to avoid by building up the low side.

Lesson #6 Soil chemistry. The optimum pH of 7, neutral, is good for growing vegetables, knowing your soil pH will help determine what you need to add to ensure the bumper crop. The best organic complete fertiliser was deemed to be cow manure which is rich in Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, the key elements for leaf, root and flower growth. Worm castings were also given a big thumbs up.