Written by The Gympie Permaculture Group had their regular gathering at the Art Gallery – held on the first Monday of each month. The committee met before this and the following was discussed:
Offgrid Expo at Goomeri on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of September. We’ll need volunteers – 4 people for 4 hour shifts. If you’d like to volunteer some time, please contact me using the Contact Us form on the menu tab.
Upcoming Farm/Garden walks: Zela Bissett on the 13th August and Lucy House on the 16th September.
Website and Email List – the current email that Wendy looks after, will be migrated to the website and will be managed slightly differently. A regular email newsletter will go out with updates on web activity and any notices that people want sent out. If you have a notice to send, please use the Contact Us form to let us know the details and it will be sent with the next newsletter or if urgent, a special email can be sent out.
Christmas Party date claimer – 3rd December. Narayana offered her place at Pie Creek as a venue.
A smaller group than normal gathered for the round table meeting, and it started with a guest speaker. Zela Bissett was a founding member of the group many years ago. Her story is an interesting one and her passion for growing food, fibre and useful things, was clear to see. A few comments she made – an important thing to remember is that in the years setting up, you may try 100 plants, but only 20 of them will grow well. You need to grow plants that want to grow and that will survive with a little neglect, and most importantly, you need to like eating them! Grow practical crops and save seeds.
Rhonda and Eyre continue to battle blady grass. It has some uses, it’s a good mulch, but is very hard to get rid of. A suggestion from the floor – using urea – as blady grass doesn’t like excess nitrogen. Renee suggested adding humic acid to the urea to work as a protective element. Eyre uses a broad fork, which he ordered online from Tasmania. It came without a handle and after trying wooden handles, which weren’t strong enough, he welded some pipe on. To get the mulch easier, Eyre mows to the centre and it makes a thick row to make it easier to pick it up.
Wendy has badly behaving ducks, that are trying to destroy her vegetable patch. The obvious solution to this problem was offered.
James and Leanne are really enjoying growing food, and discovering that lettuce grows so much better when the weather is cooler. (Authors note: And yet, we still try to grow it all year long and then complain about it bolting!!!)
George is after suggestions for methods to rotate chickens. Some suggestions: chicken tractors; Linda Woodrow’s chicken dome (The Permaculture Home Garden, by Linda Woodrow) and plastic chicken fencing found at this link: Chicken Fencing | Poultry Netting for Chickens | Omlet (Authors note: my daughter in law has this plastic netting and it works really well)
Naomi has mould on her cucumber plants and found the following milk spray very useful: 1 litre skim milk, 1 litre wate and 1 tablespoon bi-carb soda.
Jo from Belladoo Free Range Farm will have Apple cider vinegar for sale soon – this is a good general tonic to add to livestock water. She’s also having good success with moringa propagation – soak the seeds overnight before planting.
Melinda is having wildlife issues in the veg garden. The dry weather may be the cause. She also suggested growing black radish (Spanish radish) as it is a useful medicinal plant for making a cough syrup: scoop out the middle and fill with honey. Let it sit for a bit and then drink it. You can also grate it and ferment it like sauerkraut and it’s good to clear airways.
Regula wanted to let everyone know about a pizza oven workshop at the Community Gardens coming up on the 19th August. Pizza oven workshop – Saturday 19 August – Gympie Community Garden
Have you got a garden question or some information to share? How about posting something in one of our forums? The forums are designed to start a conversation within the group. Also have a look at the events page for any upcoming events. The files section often has garden information from Ann Gibson, and is well worth reading.
