FGG Newsletter January 2021

 🍅  Food Garden Group Newsletter January 2021 🍅

 We like to grow what we eat 

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Happy New Year everyone!  And may this be a very positive year of recovery all around the world!

It was in 2011 - 2012 that we had the last La Niña weather event. For many gardeners it is a new experience to have regular rain this summer. During the preceding El Niño years I noticed that, when there was rain, the garden immediately took off. That is because 'real rain' is so much better than irrigation! With regular rain fall this summer, many gardens now have an extra green glow, and in many gardens berries, fruit and summer vegetables are all growing and producing well!

Top day temperatures, however, are only hovering just below or just above 20 degrees, so heat-loving crops such as tomatoes, capsicums, corn and cucumbers will be later in many gardens this season. 

With almost daily forecasts of rain or showers you may think that there is no need to water your garden, but soils will still dry out if rain fall amounts to very little, especially soil in pots.  Mulch well, check regularly, and water where needed!

The first food garden visit of 2021 is to a garden that was 'a blank canvas' just two and a half years ago. It is now really productive with a wonderful collection of plants and trees. Very inspiring!

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This month's food garden visit

On Saturday 16 January you will be very welcome in Steven and Kathryn's garden at Clarendonvale.

Please note: this visit is on a Saturday, not a Sunday!

About their garden Steven wrote:

We bought our house in September 2018. There was no garden except for a line of pittosporums against the western fence.

I had to remove many cubic metres of scoria which filled a large cement edged garden bed and replace it with vegie mix from a bulk garden supply outlet. The shrubs had to be pulled out of the ground with a winch anchored to a steel post. This involved many hours of sweat and toil.

I used the scoria to act as drainage media in the bottom of three steel raised garden beds. We planted asparagus seeds of six varieties and planted some in a raised bed. Many plants were given away due to the huge numbers which germinated. 

The soil is dense black acidic clay. I made a wide fork to aerate it and put gypsum in the holes. Wooden raised beds were made and placed over the prepared soil and filled with vegie mix soil. In all we have about 120 sq.metres of veggie beds. 

Kathryn grows beetroot for pickling. Carrots to be picked as baby carrots, steam-cooked fresh each day. Lettuces of many varieties for fresh salads. Parsnips grown in early autumn to over-winter for extra flavour and sweetness. Purple carrots for baking. Potatoes of several varieties that can be bandicooted as need arises for extra freshness. Spring Onions, red onions, Egyptian walking onions, and of course garlic of several varieties. Bush beans and climbing beans as well as 20 types of tomatoes for fresh salads. Strawberries in the raised bed and in clay pipes fringing the broccoli bed.

We rotate our crops to prevent build-up of pathogens. We have espaliered 40 fruit trees on all fences, with four avocado trees in the centre of garden (Hass, Lamb Hass, Pinkerton and Bacon). 

We have all the main berry types growing on frames as well as grape vines on wires along the drive way.  

Apricot trees trained to a fan shape line the other side of driveway.

To be COVID-safe there will be two sessions, each with a maximum of 20 people:

Session 1: starting at 9.30am and finishing at 11am
Session 2: starting at 11.30am and finishing at 1pm. 

To take part please RSVP to foodgardengroup@gmail.com 

It will be easier if you do not specify which session you want to be in, but let me put you in the first or second session, depending on how many people have RSVP'd at the time. 

If you gain a spot, you will receive a confirmation-email that will say which session you are in + address details and how to get there. 

If both sessions are full you will receive an email saying that you are on the waitlist. I often am able to fit people in who initially are on the wait list.

Last month's food garden visit

On Sunday 6 December 2020 we gathered at Ailsa's garden in Mornington. We got a few brief sprinkles of rain, but the sun shone most of the time. We all had a great morning and enjoyed exploring a very productive and great looking garden. These garden visits keep surprising and delighting. For great photos and all the info go to http://fggextra.blogspot.com/2020/12/visit-mornington-ailsa-december-2020.html 

Thank you Ailsa for hosting and inspiring us to have a go, no matter how steep our block might be.

Food garden visits in coming months

Subject to there being no COVID-19 community transmission in Southern Tasmania:

Please note: the gardens visited in March and April visits have changed. The date of the March visit is now a Saturday instead of a Sunday.

For info about each visit see the newsletter at the start of the month the visit is in. 

At that time you can RSVP to take part in the visit.

Please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com if you would be happy to host a visit to your garden.

Morning tea during our food garden visits 

At the time of writing this the festive season is still well under way.  During January it will become clear whether Tasmania's relaxed attitudes towards COVID-19 during the Christmas and New Year period resulted in renewed community transmission.  

If we are still without community transmission by the start of February I propose that from February onwards we go back to having morning teas like we used to have them before COVID arrived. Yes, I mean urn + cups provided by Gaye and me, and coffee, tea, sugar, spoons and milk provided by the host. And if people bring something to share for morning tea, then all will be back to how it once was. Taking part in these morning teas will of course be completely optional.

Please let me know via foodgardengroup@gmail.com or in person during the January food garden visit what you think of this, and whether you would take part.

But first we need to find out whether the festive season is going to bring COVID back to Tasmania: coffee and tea arrangement for the January visit will continue to be what they have been throughout this period: bring your own thermos + cup + morning tea. Sorry, no sharing of food and drinks. The host will not provide coffee, tea or food.

New on the Food Garden Group blog ...

The December to January part of the food garden season is a busy time in the food garden. Vegie Patch Basics - 6 covers this period and aims to help you make your food garden even more productive and successful.

What you can do in your food garden in January .....

• Water regularly to make sure your soils don’t dry out
• Make sure your food garden is well mulched to conserve water
• Keep weeds at bay and don't allow them to go to seed

Vegetables

• Sow in pots iceberg-type lettuce, loose-leaf lettuce, brassicas, leek, parsley, spring onions, salad onions, celery, Chinese cabbage and Asian greens

• Sow in your garden beans, spinach, chard, silverbeet, radish, carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede, beetroot

• Plant loose-leaf and iceberg-type lettuce, chard, spinach, silver beet, celery, parsley, late potatoes, ocas, leeks and onions (after adding some lime to the soil), brassicas (provide protection against caterpillars), tomatoes, capsicums, Brussels sprouts

• Minimise caterpillar damage to brassicas by manual removal, netting or spraying
• Put shade cloth over newly-planted seedlings to protect them from hot sun
• Put something under pumpkins that rest on the ground so they don’t rot
• Dig up potatoes and hill the ones that you are leaving for later
• Dig up all remaining garlic, allow to dry and store in cool, well ventilated spot
• Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximise their health and growth
• Hand pollinate pumpkins, cucumbers and other cucurbits early in the morning
• Cut off tips of cucurbit vines that have two fruits so the fruits become larger
• Tie up or provide support for climbing crops such as beans and tomatoes
• Remove laterals on tomatoes and limit plants to 3 or 4 branches
• Remove flower-heads on rhubarb, so plants focus on forming leaves
• Sprinkle sulphate of potash once a month around vegetables that form fruits
• Control slugs and snails especially around beans
• Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximise their health and growth

Fruit trees and berries                    (* = don't repeat if already done recently)

• Remove runners on strawberries if you think you won't need young plants next season
• Thin fruit on all fruit trees, so fruits become larger and branches don't break (*)
• Cover fruit trees with netting to avoid fruit-damage by birds
• Remove and destroy coddling moth infested fruit on apple, pear and quince trees
• Trap and kill coddling moths on apple, pear and quince trees
• Check existing coddling moth traps and replace and refresh where needed
• Apply bud grafts to all types of fruit trees in the second half of this month

Have a great time in the garden,

Max