Written by There’s a great vibe at the Community Gardens. Lunch was fantastic – there’s some good cooks amongst us. It may get warm over the summer, but Sunday was lovely sitting in the shade of the Mulberry Tree.
We did our usual round table (round lawn) discussion, and most people have been busy with their spring planting and harvesting – mulberries and jaboticaba have been prolific for some. Jaboticaba is good for cordial and can be made into wine. You can get up to 3 harvests in a year, so a great tree to include in your orchard. Mulberries too will crop more than once. The trick is to ensure you prune the trees, preferably at the beginning of a new moon for quick re-growth. Someone mentioned defoliating the tree by plucking off the leaves – this tricks the tree into thinking it’s going dormant and it regrows more fruit.
Lissa is still having troubles with her wildlife, especially the scrub turkey – any suggestions to keep him/her away?
Phil has bought a sugar cane juicer and is growing sugar cane. He sells this along with salad greens and other veg through a CSA – contact him if you want to know more (comment here and I’ll put you in touch with him). He has also recently painted his house roof with a reflective paint. Amazing how much cooler the house is. You can get Thermoshield paint from Caboolture. Another permie trick he’s doing is bringing cool air from under the house into the house via a hole in the floor. David Holmgren uses this concept with his cool cupboard in his book “Retrosuburbia”. Read more: RetroSuburbia: the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future (Online Version)
George will be harvesting his Russian Garlic soon and will then have it available for sale in a few more weeks after that. He’s selling elderberry trees and will have seeds available for rocket, chicory and other greens. Chicory can be bitter and so one suggestion is to do the following about a week before you want to harvest it – Pull up the outside leaves and tie them up around the top to shade the inside leaves. This is called blanching. When you pick it, throw away the outside leaves and eat the inside – no bitterness after this treatment.
Renee was extolling the virtues of nettle seed. Keep the seeds and put into smoothies or other cooking. High in vitamins and minerals, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant, as well as being good for high blood pressure. Salad Mallow seed pods are also tasty to eat green in salads or pickles. Plantain seeds are like psyllium husks and can be used the same way.
Serge has something eating his carrots (roots) and peas (pods). Rabbit, bandicoot or what???
Eyre’s problems are with hares ringbarking his fruit trees so he’s been putting tree guards around them. Someone suggested just using old tyres as the hares don’t go over them to get to the tree. Sounds a bit too easy a fix to me, but it would be good if it was that simple, so worth trying perhaps!
Chris too is having trouble with wildlife – rabbits and rats are bad out her way. The council has a virus that they can give to people to use to control the rabbits. The virus is put on grain and then that is left for the rabbits to eat. If you want to know more, contact the council
Dan gave us a quick summary of varroa mite and hive beetle and the risk to bee hives in the area. Varroa mite is not too far away and will most likely end up here in the future. Roxie has a mystery plant. She had the seeds labelled as capsicum, but it’s not that, so any ideas? Please comment below if you can help.
Discussion was held on holding a grafting workshop. This needs to be done early spring, so we will re-visit the idea next year and get something going then.
Events upcoming:
Lucy will host a cob oven building workshop/activity on the 10th November. More information here: Cob Oven Workshop/Activity – Gympie Permaculture
We will have the Permaculture Group Christmas Party on the 1st December. More information here: Permaculturehttps://gympiepermaculture.com.au/events/gympie-permaculture-group-christmas-party/
We get a few newcomers each meeting, so if you’re sitting on the fence trying to decide whether to come or not, come along and see for youself how it is. We’ll have one more gathering at the Community Gardens in November and then the Christmas Party will be at The Old Schoolhouse in Pie Creek.
Hi Lucy, what is a CSA? In relation to Phil selling stuff?
Community supported agriculture (csa) is where people commit to buy produce in a weekly or monthly basis. It’s usually based on what the producer packs in a box rather than the customer choosing what they want. Kind of.