Welcome to all new members!
This April 2020 Food Garden Group newsletter replaces the normal newsletter sent to members because members with gmail accounts reported problems reading it.
Please read this month's newsletter by clicking on Read more >> below.
Cheers, Max
The Food Garden Group - where from here?
The Food Garden Group is celebrating its ninth birthday this month, but because of the Coronavirus, it is now facing its biggest challenge since it started - how to continue to be a vibrant group, when social interaction, face to face sharing of ideas and information, making friends when meeting like-minded people, and visits to food gardens are no longer possible.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the days of the Food Garden Group, apart from its Facebook page, are numbered. Well, if you are keen to continue … I have decided not to give up easily.
In order to make sure that our health system can continue to cope with the number of new coronavirus cases, we need to not meet face-to-face, but that does not mean that we have to stop being a community of food gardeners! We should practise physical distancing, not social distancing!
With your involvement, we can continue to be social, learn from each other, and show more and more people how we grow food in their gardens! It is time for new ideas. We just need to be creative!
If you are happy to take part in some of the new ideas, our group will be fine!
FGG newsletters in coming months
Normally the April newsletter is the last newsletter of the season. Normally there is no need to advertise food garden visits over winter because there aren’t any. Being out in misty, rainy or frosty gardens for a food garden visit is not great. Many lucky Food Garden Group members used to go away to warmer climes over winter. What would have been unthinkable just a few months ago is now a certainty: no one will travel anywhere this winter!
This year I hope to continue these Food Garden Group newsletters over winter!
In My Garden ….
More changes …. we can’t visit each other’s gardens for at least six months I reckon, but we can still see each other’s gardens, and hear about them, if we read and respond to In My Garden blog posts.
Normally the April newsletter is the last newsletter of the season. Normally there is no need to advertise food garden visits over winter because there aren’t any. Being out in misty, rainy or frosty gardens for a food garden visit is not great. Many lucky Food Garden Group members used to go away to warmer climes over winter. What would have been unthinkable just a few months ago is now a certainty: no one will travel anywhere this winter!
This year I hope to continue these Food Garden Group newsletters over winter!
In My Garden ….
More changes …. we can’t visit each other’s gardens for at least six months I reckon, but we can still see each other’s gardens, and hear about them, if we read and respond to In My Garden blog posts.
The idea is that every month two Food Garden Group members take 10 photos in their food garden, add some text to each photo, and send it all to foodgardengroup@gmail.com. Nothing fancy, just add to each photo what you would say if someone visited your garden. Nothing else required! Pauline has agreed to put it all on the FGG Extra blog for us!
To show you what I mean I took 10 photos in my garden recently. Here is the result:
Please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com mentioning In My Garden if you would be happy to take part. You will then be contacted to discuss when you will do this.
And guess what? You don’t have to live in the South of the state to take part. We would be really interested in learning what is happening in gardens in the North and North-West!
In My Garden … in March
- Lucas and Julie show what we would have seen if the food garden visit to their garden at Kettering had not been cancelled due to Corona. Have a look here: http://fggextra.blogspot.com/2020/03/in-my-garden-lucas-and-julie-march-2020.html
- Max shows ten things that happened in his garden at Rose Bay in March: http://fggextra.blogspot.com/2020/03/in-my-garden-max-march-2020.html
Eight tips to maintain a sense of wellbeing in these difficult times
In the Tasmanian Times, issue 19 March 2020, I found a really good simple list of eight tips to maintain a sense of wellbeing in these difficult times by Jack Heath of SANE Australia, an organisation that provides mental health support. I thought it was worth repeating here (with a few bits of text added – see whether you can spot them):
- Keep a regular routine – try to get up at the same time each day and get dressed for the day, even if you aren’t going out
- Maintain some form of daily exercise. Gardening can be a very effective part of this. Maybe it is time to start that big gardening project that you put off for a long time. Start it today, stop when you are tired, and then continue tomorrow, and the days after, until finished. When all this is over, you will be able to proudly say ‘this is what I did with my coronavirus stay-at-home time!
- Seriously limit your media consumption of coronavirus related news items. Limit it to a few trusted sources such as https://www.health.gov.au and https://www.abc.net.au/news/story-streams/coronavirus/
- Read that book or blog you have been thinking about reading. I know a few good blogs – http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com and http://fggextra.blogspot.com
- Video, call, email or text those you care about
- Look out for those you know who are likely to be doing it tougher than you – your connecting with them in times like this will be doubly appreciated.
- Practise gratitude – appreciate how lucky we are not to be living in a country with a third-rate health care system. Appreciate the many selfless health care workers who, just like the firies a few weeks ago, are putting their lives on the line.
- Feel free to reach out for support through https://www.sane.org/services/help-centre
Please read this if you don’t like social media
We are all being strongly encouraged to stay home during this Coronavirus crisis.
It means for you, as it does for me, that all those social outings we used to have, are no longer happening.
But we should all be looking after, not only our physical health, but also our mental health!
I know that some of you have strong objections to online social media, the rudeness, the consumerism, the manipulation, and so on, and so on, and I understand where you are coming from. However, our group’s Facebook page, with some 725 members, is such a wonderful mix of experienced and inexperienced people interested in growing food, that it would, in my opinion, be a mistake to dismiss that in this social isolation period.
Without exception people on the page are very friendly and respectful, and if ever anyone would not be, there are two under-cover security guards, who will not hesitate to take action ( 🥶 ) !
In order to join the page you need to have a personal Facebook page. If you don’t have one yet, first please open one. You can choose to give Facebook only very minimal personal info. If your name is Josephine Smith, you can call yourself Jo Gardener, and no one will know your real name.
It is not hard to set up, but please contact foodgardengroup@gmail.com if you need help.
To join the Food Gardeners Tasmania page:
- Log into your personal Facebook page.
- Type 'Food Gardeners Tasmania' at the top of the screen in the big white search area and click on the magnifying glass icon
- This will take you to our Facebook page, but you can't see its content because you are not yet a member.
- Under the banner-photo, is a 'Join Group' button. Click on that.
- Facebook will ask you where you live, what your email address is, and what your real name is (some people’s Facebook name is not their real name). You provided this info when you became a member of our group, but Facebook does not know that, so please provide them again.
- Membership requests are checked regularly by Food Garden Group member Laura Rittenhouse, and if you answered all the questions and live in Tasmania, she will approve your membership request.
- Once approved, you will see on your Facebook home page Food Gardeners Tasmania under Shortcuts in the left-hand column or under Groups via the Menu icon on your mobile.
- When you click on that Shortcut, you will see all the entries on the Food Gardeners Tasmania page, and can begin to respond via Write a comment, or add your own post via Write something.
Online morning teas!
What you can do in your food garden in April
For a whole-year calendar see http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/food-garden-calander.html
Soil needs more than great compost!
You may be adding greens, browns and manure to your compost, and the resulting compost may look great, yet your vegetables may not be going as well as you would like them to. What could be missing?
The following blog posts may tell you how you can improve things:
Changes on the Food Garden Group blog:
Fruit – Citrus in Tasmania: two sections were added to the blog post on Citrus - a section on grapefruit, followed by A mystery solved – see the end of https://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2020/02/fruit-citrus-in-tasmania.html
New on the FGG Extra blog:
Crab Apple Jelly with Red Currants – see http://fggextra.blogspot.com/2020/03/recipe-crab-apple-jelly-with-red.html
Seeds online!
It’s getting a bit late in the season, but if you would like to buy seeds without leaving your home, the following online shops will provide a great range:
The Food Garden Group is a member-organisation of Sustainable Living Tasmania.
For more information about the Food Garden Group visit http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au
Please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com if you no longer wish to receive this newsletter
I reckon that, once we all have been effectively-socially-isolated for weeks and weeks, we may be very happy to meet each other online for a morning tea and chat about food gardens. This idea could work something like this:
- In a newsletter I say that the next online-morning tea will take place at 10.30 on a particular Sunday.
- Those who would like to take part RSVP, like people do now for a food garden visit.
- Half an hour before the meeting I send an email to those whose RSVP is successful. The email contains a link. When pressed it connects the Skype app on your computer with the Skype app on my computer.
- When everyone is present, we say hello to everyone, start our morning tea, and talk about our gardens, show others plants or leaves or crops or whatever, while sipping our favourite cup of tea or coffee. The session might last 45 minutes.
To take part, you would need Skype installed on your computer. I am thinking ‘Skype’ because I think a lot of people might have Skype, not other apps like Facetime or Zoom, but I am open to persuasion if it is clear that another app would be better for multi-chat and vision.
Please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com, mentioning online morning tea, if you would be interested in a first experimental session. That may be a session with a small number of people, perhaps six.
Members in the North and North-West of the state will be very welcome to join!
What you can do in your food garden in April
- Sow broad beans and peas if you don't get frost in your garden
- Sow English spinach, silverbeet, winter lettuce, coriander and Asian greens
- Sow green manures where your soil needs to become more open and friable
- For this winter - sow in your hothouse herbs such as coriander and dill
- Sow winter varieties of spinach directly in your garden (try crops a fortnight apart)
- Plant leek and garlic after applying some lime or dolomite
- Wait with planting onion until after winter solstice to avoid going to seed early
- Make sure ripening pumpkins are off the ground so they do not rot when it rains
- Take pumpkins inside when the weather turns cold and damp
- Plant blueberry bushes and give them a thick layer of pine needle mulch
- Dig up potatoes and hill ones you are going to leave for later
- Water regularly until good rains make this unnecessary
- Prune fruit trees once the foliage at the end of branches has stopped growing
- Bring all unripe tomatoes inside for further ripening if the weather turns cold
- Remove beans and other summer crops when the weather goes cold
- Take beds to their next stage in a crop rotation plan
- Keep slugs and snails under control (they will multiply after rain and while it remains warm)
- Foliar-feed crops to maximize growth before colder conditions slow down growth
- Remove coddling moth bands from apple, pear and quince trees and destroy them
- Spread mature chicken manure or blood and bone under peach and nectarine trees
For a whole-year calendar see http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/food-garden-calander.html
Soil needs more than great compost!
You may be adding greens, browns and manure to your compost, and the resulting compost may look great, yet your vegetables may not be going as well as you would like them to. What could be missing?
The following blog posts may tell you how you can improve things:
- Soils ain’t soils - http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2012/12/soils-aint-soils.html
- And now improve your soil biology - http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2013/09/and-now-improve-your-soil-biology.html
- Acid or alkaline? - https://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2018/10/acid-or-alkaline.html
- 12 simple food-gardening practices - http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2014/09/twelve-simple-food-gardening-practices.html
Changes on the Food Garden Group blog:
Fruit – Citrus in Tasmania: two sections were added to the blog post on Citrus - a section on grapefruit, followed by A mystery solved – see the end of https://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2020/02/fruit-citrus-in-tasmania.html
New on the FGG Extra blog:
Crab Apple Jelly with Red Currants – see http://fggextra.blogspot.com/2020/03/recipe-crab-apple-jelly-with-red.html
Seeds online!
It’s getting a bit late in the season, but if you would like to buy seeds without leaving your home, the following online shops will provide a great range:
- Southern Harvest – an excellent selection of seeds that will go well in Tasmanian soils and conditions – see https://www.southernharvest.com.au
- Inspirations Vegetable Seeds – a business in the Tamar Valley that specialises in seeds for cool parts of Australia – see https://vegetableseeds.net.au/shop/
- The Diggers Club – situated in Victoria, offers a great selection of seeds for every Australian climate, with many heirloom varieties in the mix – see https://www.diggers.com.au/seeds/
The Food Garden Group is a member-organisation of Sustainable Living Tasmania.
For more information about the Food Garden Group visit http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au
Please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com if you no longer wish to receive this newsletter
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