Written by It looked like it was going to rain on Sunday, and it did until we got to the Community Gardens and then it obligingly stopped! Quite a few braved the weather and came for the shared lunch. This is always a great way to start our gatherings. The Committee met beforehand. We are moving forward with the plan to have two gatherings per month. We will continue the 3rd Sunday and will meet at the Community Gardens, or we’ll have a farm/garden walk – those details are yet to be finalised. We are going to be going back to the Art Gallery on the first Monday evening of the month – to start in March. The format for the evening gathering will be different. We will have harvest swap and then start the meeting with a Guest Speaker. Question and answer session will follow and of course finishing with supper.
Maria Page started our group discussion with a show and tell. She has been planting carrots in egg cartons. This makes it easier to water to keep them moist until the seeds sprout. Then when they get up a bit, the entire egg carton is planted. She has had great success using this method.
General discussion followed on other ways to plant carrots:
- You can actually buy tape with carrot seeds on it which you “plant” and they are perfectly spaced
- You can make your own tape using toilet paper or paper towel – make a flour and water paste to glue the seeds on.
- Scatter the seeds and then cover with a thin layer of soil and thin out as needed.
The best variety for this area is All Seasons, and if you use this variety, you can grow them all year round. Nantes is also a good one.
Neil suggested using Morpheus when building garden beds. This is a compost made by Red Soil Organics and he has seen it mixed in with mulch and made amazing soil for garden beds. Other people also endorsed the Red Soil Organic products.
Most wood chip will make good garden soil if allowed to break down for a year. Narayana has had success with eucalyptus and camphor laurel mulch that has broken down.
Tony mentioned some friends that had grown ginger – planted fava beans and then rotary hoed them in and planted the ginger on top of the ground. Then layered that with sawdust. Ginger is often grown in sawdust. Makes it easy to harvest and clean too.
Renee commented on the amount of rain they’ve had (alot). She likes to focus on growing soil. If you grow good soil, plants will do well. She mentioned that she likes to eat the salad mallow seed pods when they are green. Salad Mallow should be popping up in your garden now – if you’ve had it growing before that is. It grows fast and goes to seed quickly. So if it does that, cut it off about 20 cm from the ground and it will re-shoot.
Serge has had an interesting chook breeding year, with more roosters than hens. He likes to feed his chickens a mix of greens, including comfrey. He chops it all up to feed to them.
Tony had lost a few trees due to being too wet. Wet feet can be a challenge, and Rachel is having this problem too. Suggestions were to build beds up higher so that they can drain better. Use plenty of wood chip.
Rachel is new to the area and was asking about growing garlic. The time to plant garlic is in March to April – no later.
Lissa bought some IBC’s that have been cut in half in preparation to make wicking beds. They’ve even got pipe covering the cut edge. They were $65 each from Brisbane. Contact her if you want to know more. She’s also had amazing success with zucchini’s by growing them in raised garden beds.
Lucy (me) asked if anyone had rhubarb growing as she would like to get some divisions. The consensus of the group was that you have to plant them each year as they die off in summer. I had a plant for two years but it never reproduced and then it eventually died. It would be great to give it a go again, so if anyone has any, please comment and let me know. Apparently, artichokes only grow for a year and then die. There are artichoke seeds in the seed boxes that the group sells.
Wendy has strawberry runners – if anyone wants any, please contact her.
Regula wants to grow salsify – another one that’s hard to grow in our region apparently – if you’ve grown it successfully, she would love to hear from you!
Robin suggested that if people eat pineapples, then they may like to make tepache with the skins. Permaculture principle 6 – Produce no waste. Read about it and how to make it here: https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/homemade-pineapple-brew/
Narayana built a pond and has been amazed at how quickly everything became established. She planted alot of plants around it to help prevent toads getting into it and then bought some guppies to put in it. They are still alive and seem to be keeping the pond clean and she now has frog tadpoles in it! A small success to share: she had a dead circle on lawn – sprayed it with neem oil and it’s improved. Neem oil is anti-fungal, deters insects, aphids and lawn grubs and it is also a nutrient for the plant. Narayana has banana pups – sugar and lady fingers, and loofas. Contact her if you want any of these.
Some good discussions on all these topics, and too much to get it all, so why not come along to our next gathering to learn and share.
