October 2023 Garden Roundup

After such a dry winter, with the tanks at the Community Garden running out of water, the weather was still making it possible to enjoy a lovely Spring, today  like yesterday, it is pouring rain, and looks like it will be raining most of the week. The Community Garden of course are very pleased as all their tanks and containers would be full by now.  The 2nd. 10,000 litre load of water to be delivered at $250 mark was cancelled, a great relief on John's part as the first one only lasted a month. 

 

The council though ,finally installed the water connection, last Friday, so that the Garden can now have a water main and several taps around the acre to water from, once the plumber is hired. John once more has been elected President and Treasurer at last months AGM 5th year in a row. I was hoping he would  not take it on, and be home more, but as usual he is out nearly every day, reminds me of the old days when he was teaching full time. I am definitely missing the company of Einstein and Cricket these days.

I planted two Hollyhocks from my best friends seeds in Melbourne and both have put on quite a show, the flowers are just starting to drop off now, but have been very impressive. Certainly I will save these seeds. This plant is on the boundary line for all to see.

 I braved today's rain to take some pictures of the garden now. Quite a few plants are ready to pull out, the Pink Lady sweetpeas are gone, and the broccoli, celery, coriander, some alysum, and snapdragons are also ready for the compost bin.

The area I see from the verandah.

 The recent plantings are some lettuce and some french beans. I am usually the only one eating from the garden now, John likes his frozen microwave meals he can eat in front of the computer. Consequently there is usually way too much for me so I have had to freeze some.

Mizuna going to seed and a struggling Kale under the cover, White Cabbage Moth have been a problem. The lettuce is loving this rain though.

Yet another lot of french beans the 3rd try this time in a different bed.

I did plant some more beans yesterday,  the 3rd lot of seedlings, as to date they have been eaten by slugs or pulled out by birds, or so far this morning they are still intact, as I did change garden beds this time.

This end is cucumber, carrots Parsley and Basil

Two Zucchinni ,wild tomatoes and  beetroot in the middle of this bed.

The Blueberry and Rhubarb buried by Coriander and Paper Daisies plus Alyssum.

 One thing that has been amazing is the cherry tomatoes. I have picked so many and thrown out lots as I just can't keep up. I have also sent them to the Community Gardens where they sell well. Seedlings of course have been through out the garden like weeds.

Yellow Cherry

Yellow Cherry Toms are my favorite and this hangs on both sides of the fence, and more rhubarb in this bed. They grew wild but handy to have the fence to throw the long stems over.

Red cherries again both sides and overtaking a passionfruit underneath.

I moved a plant stand to the front of the verandah as it gets the morning sun and now some of  the rain and mist. It is a great spot for my cuttings and seedling trays.

Finally some nature pictures

Where I park my car this bush is on the dividing line so watch this lorikeet eating the flowers, from the car.

A baby water dragon finding its way to the verandah.

 And Finally, 

Kookaburra just resting on the fence for ages.

 

 Till Next Time.

Spring has arrived

Another month has gone and I think time is speeding up too fast. I have been busy in the garden of course, and it is looking lovely at the moment, I have managed to do some weeding and mulching. The flowers are all out, vegetables growing and well Spring is definitely here.

Side garden

Current Lettuce/Parsley, Celery bed I pick daily for lunch.

Sweet peas have been producing so much that I have been sending them to the Community garden in bunches of 20 and they have all been selling. This weekend is a big Plant Sale they hold twice a year and have sent in 6 bunches this time plus 2 of Rhubarb, 2 lots of single Kale, 4 x 6 Cherry Tomato punnets, and 4 of single Basil. Happy to say they all sold yesterday, so picked another couple of bunches of one sweet peas and they other yellow coreopsis for today.

Change of colour for sweet peas

An interesting effect has happened to 3 branches of sweet peas that now have a mottled pattern, so I have tied a ribbon to the branches so that when the seeds are formed I can grow that colour. 

I picked up a couple of plants from Bunnings this week and yet to plant them. They will go down the back. John has finished the beds and are full of good soil mixture. 

Liked the brightness of these daisies and carnations remind me of my wedding bouquet.

Kalanchoe lots of new varieties I hadn't seen when I was there last week. 

The Community garden has also finally transferred the container from our son's house and is now waiting for a crane to lift it into its proper space. This will be part office and part storage. 

A roof will be joining that tanks and the container, which allows for a seat area between the tanks. 

Tank got this far

Arial view of where it will go.

There has been quite a few new members this year, and all seem to want a garden bed to hire so John has been building  beds in a new area for this. There has been a lot of public events, and this has come to the notice of everyone. The garden is always looking neat and tidy and a credit to the workers there. 

 On the other hand we are waiting for a landscape gardener to come, he is so busy we had to make a booking, to give us a quote for the artificial grass out back plus maybe the gazebo roof, and pool renovation, fingers crossed for that. John has more or less finished.

There is now three smaller beds at sitting height filled with cow manure/mushroom compost., currently covered to keep the bush turkeys from scraping it all up. A couple piles of dirt have been left in case it is used for the base. Whether the paving will go I am not sure yet.

I will probably plant bush beans and maybe a cucumber vine and brightly coloured flowers so I can see easily from the verandah. There are still 3 long flower pots behind the RHS middle bed. The Pottery flower pots I will arrange somewhere together I think, and  also paint the fence again, most likely the grey. Maybe also a couple of hanging baskets off them as well. 

 

 One last look at the front garden.

 

New roses I have picked for this week.

 

Till Next Time .

The Community Garden Update June 2023

 The Garden is looking lovely at the moment, and there have been quite a  few new members joining as well.

The installation of the Container has still not happened yet but the council has approved everything for it to do so. It is sitting at our sons' house just waiting. The other two that were put in originally didn't need any of this fuss that the council now needs. They were ordered and delivered no problem. All is ready and waiting for this one though. The beds run north to south.

These tanks are part of the pavilion.

The main happening is the Syntropic Gardens that have been put in at the back right hand side. This was an initiative of the Council and 3 full workshop  days have been spent on it. A coordinator was paid who has his own Syntropic farm not far away from Coffs Harbour. Basically it is a form of permaculture but keeping every tree low between 3 - 5 metres, and fruit and veg planted between, with loads of mulch. They have all been planted out, mangos, pinapples, bananas, strawberries, garlic, jabotica, is what I remember but lots of different things there. Most winter vegetables as well,  so now a wait and see what happens.

Soil was flattened around first, a very wet area though.

3 beds have been made so far and a forth when the hoops come out from the fruit trees which have died.

These next photos were taken at the end of May, but it had been raining.

Entrance from Pavilion

Walking past pavilion on left toward bush house.

From Pavilion Area Community Beds on right members on left.

Part of the Community Area

Most of the food in the Community Area is sold on the Market Stall.

Members area 20 beds in all.

Members Area looking towards original Container Sheds, and worm farms on right.

Licorice painted succulent stands.

Looking towards the back  LHS with Hanging Gardens.

White Poinsettia

 

  A few seats are starting to be put around as well. Yellow chrysanthemums that must be close to coming out now.

Towards the Pavilion from other side.

There are two thriving worm farms made from baths and a large compost and soil delivery area

Worm farm and Compost area.

 

 I hope you enjoyed the progress of this garden, it is now 5 years old. Still open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sunday Mornings.  Morning Tea at 10am. Visitors Welcome.

Till Next Time

Community Garden Inaugural Spring Plant Sale.

 This weekend has been on our calendar for 6 months now, as the first of a major plant sale to be held twice a year. One member has been doing her utmost to collect many cuttings, from the garden and members, and potting them all up. The succulents which are always popular have multiplied automatically, and I personally went and took cuttings of geraniums, plus added different plants of mine, and finally now was our big weekend.

Friday night it started to rain and didn't stop till last night. We haven't seen much rain for the past 3 months, so we were a bit disappointed it had to be THIS weekend.

Some of the plants I sent in

Nevertheless two hourly rosters were made up last week, and a call for slices to be sent in, something I thought would sell, as people walked into the garden. I made three, Lemon cake slice, Apricot Jam slice and little loaves of Banana Bread.

Surprisingly people did come and visit despite all the rain. Initially the plants were all going to be placed out the front of the garden near the entrance, in the end they decided to set it up around the archway half way down the block. This meant everyone had to walk past the pavilion and gardens to see them. This also meant that they could set it all up on Thursday and hoped no-one would trash it overnight. 

Plants were spread out either side and down to the Bush House

 

Bush House will be open for customers to pick succulents.

Just to give you an idea of the rain yesterday this is a view of the water out the front of the garden. Luckily with all the new paths, it was wet but walkable. The back half has been a problem all along and much drainage and soil build up is needed.

Area between the front fence and community hall, where initially the sale was to be.

Rain on the new garden pathway.

Water in front of the Bush House

The food with some lemons and 4 large bunches of  Sweet peas I also sent in, were set up in the Pavilion. Very cold day so the "staff" were freezing in the cold wind. 

I was pleased to see other ladies sent in slices and cake.

Today some books were bought out to replace the sold stuff.

What was left of the goods for sale, so a fair bit was sold in this department, and I noticed one bunch left in the sweet peas.

I know Saturday, they sold $200 worth and today so far $70, so I would say it is a success for the very first one, and can only improve.

 Two new families want to join and another signed up yesterday. We are finding a theme of " if I join and help do I get vegetables?" is a question most asked. It seems some want to earn their so called hourly work, paid in vegetables. 

Times are obviously hard but also I think the expectation of a community garden is lost to a few. Members do get excess vegetables if they don't sell, but then the members want soil  and mulch, fertilizers etc so the money has to come from somewhere. Hiring your own bed is the only guaranteed way of obtaining fresh veges. The organization of the Community garden part though is a bit haphazard. I am thinking also of "who" actually gets the excess vegetables, and the committee may have to put in some system for that as well, so that those who come in on Tuesday only, get a chance at Sunday's left overs from the Market stall which might have  had a large pick of snow peas/cabbage/carrots, for instance.

New beds will be built, with  more money needed for wood, and of course the hay bale garden is still to happen, which was to help a Soup Kitchen type charity, but John may have to re think that idea, to allow more food to be shared. First up is getting it going, as all the bales are there, and it  being successful. My one bed  tested here, I have picked beans, coriander and a cucumber is just about ready.

Nearly time to pull it all out. The weather is getting hotter and the glasshouse very hot.

I was surprised today that after stripping the sweet peas Friday, that it is still loaded today. Time to pick more for me.

Till Next Time.