FGG Newsletter April 2021

 🍅      Food Garden Group newsletter - April 2021              🍅  

 We like to grow what we eat 

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In this newsletter .... info about the April food garden visit and a grafting workshop, what new posts there are on the Food Garden Group blogs, what seeds are now available in Seed Box, what you could do in your food garden this month, plus other food gardening news.

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This month's food garden visit

On Sunday 18 April at 10.30am you will be welcome in Kate's food garden at Cygnet. 

If you would like to come pease RSVP to foodgardengroup@gmail.com mentioning food garden visit.

About her garden Kate wrote:

I came from Adelaide to live at this property in Cygnet in early 2010, choosing it simply because of the feel of the garden, before I had even seen the house. With its varied areas, windy paths, flowing creek and good-sized pond, it felt so much more diverse than a regular acre of garden. 

For 8 years, while I worked, I simply maintained the front and turned the back into my food garden. The only edible things when I arrived were 3 fruit trees. Since retiring, I have devoted 2 years to steering the front more into my style, filling in the sparse shrubbery with flowers, fruit and character, revamping the overgrown pond and enlarging the food gardens. This sounds grander than it is and I still have a long way to go! In 2020 the wallabies moved in, requiring some redesigning and extra fencing. Previously I had only been visited by families of bandicoots, native hens, little birds and the odd quoll.

I pick food from my garden every single day but do not think this is a pristine, tidy garden! My idea of food gardening is not neat rows of vegetables, but rather a little more of a food forest, with plants at every stage of growth mingled together. Growing food and saving seeds are my passion and, as such, I call the seeds my second crop. You will see many tall, finished plants, sometimes unrecognisable, tied to stakes to allow their seeds to complete development. In the soil close by will be some seedlings just emerging, probably self sown. I am addicted to eating leaves and grow more varieties of edible leaves than anything else. 

I have recently helped start the Cygnet Seed Library, so we can share seeds with the wider community. I also run a Crop Swap group. You can find both of these on Facebook.

 

Last year I did some house renovations which required the demolition of my cute, old greenhouse and a bit of garden. I do not have a greenhouse at the moment but I hope to get that sorted later this year. 

 

My chooks live a happy life scratching amongst some old fruit trees. I bought 20 wire fencing panels from someone at Old Beach and they now form the perimeter of the chook yard. Because they are tall and strong, they make excellent support for peas and beans as well as some espaliered fruit trees.

I look forward to welcoming you to my garden! 

Contributions for morning tea, the produce table and Seed Box will be very welcome.

Please RSVP to foodgardengroup@gmail.com mentioning food garden visit if you would like to come.

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Seed Box Update

The following seeds will be available in the Seed Box at the next food garden visit:

 

Broad Beans Broccoli – sprouting Brussels Sprouts Bush beans (green) Calendula Capsicum – 2 varieties Carrot – 2 varieties Chive Collard greens Coriander Kale Lettuce

Lovage Marigold - orange Mustard Parsnip Pumpkin – 3 varieties Radish Silverbeet Spinach – perpetual Spring onion Sunflower Swiss chard/silver beet Watermelon

 

Please take from this box on the produce table whatever seeds you can use in your garden. 

If you would like to contribute seeds, please just add them to the Seed Box at that point in time.

If you won't be at the next food garden visit, please contact Seedbox-coordinator Elizabeth via elizamt54@gmail.com and arrange to drop off or collect seeds at her place.

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Last month's food garden visit

In March we were welcomed into a beautiful, yet challenging garden in Mt Nelson. Fiona, with some help from husband Craig, has managed to battle the environment and all the hurdles it presented to create a very productive food garden in a lovely bush setting. You can find the blog post documenting this visit here.

Many thanks to Fiona and Craig for opening their garden to us. Everyone had a great time!

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The FGG is now ten!

Early in 2021 I had this idea that it would be nice to meet other local food gardeners, see their gardens, and share knowledge and produce. To invite people to form a group I placed an ad in the paper (that's what you did then) and phoned into the Saturday morning gardening talkback show on ABC radio. The host of the show wanted to know whether this group would be about competing with other gardeners to see who would produce the biggest pumpkin and so on. My answer was 'No, this is about sharing what we know and helping and encouraging other food gardeners'. Six people turned up for that first tentative meeting. The rest is history!

🎊  This month the Food Garden Group is 10 years old   🎉

Now, in April 2021, the FGG has 1240 signed-up members, 1040 of which are also a member of our Facebook page. There are currently 260 blog posts on two Food Garden Group blogs. There have been 85 visits to local food gardens and 20 workshops and events. 

I didn't expect any of this to happen when I called that first meeting, and I am still regularly amazed by what the Food Garden Group now is.

Thank you everyone who is a member of our group! Without you this would not have been possible! Thank you, all the hosts of food garden visits! Thank you to all those who contributed to gardening info on our blogs, in particular Max K, who contributed to many blog posts on fruit trees. Thank you to all those who were happy to share their knowledge and experience in all the workshops we have had. Thank you to all those who come to our food garden visits and make them such a success!  Many new friendships have been formed over the years.  The FGG has become a real community!

Also a very big thank you to my partner Gaye, to Laura, to Pauline and Elizabeth for being valuable members of the FGG team!

Are you ready for the second decade of the Food Garden Group? I am!

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Food Garden visits in coming months

The Food Garden Group's tenth season will end this month with a visit to Kate's garden at Cygnet. There will be no food garden visits over the May - August period because it is going to be too cold for outdoor group events. Food garden visits will resume in September. 

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Interested in a fruit tree grafting workshop?

There will be one activity during the FGG winter break: a fruit tree grafting workshop on Saturday 17 July. This will not be a mid-winter food garden visit!  Here is the plan:

Introduction to grafting for total beginners

You will be shown by FGG members Steven and Alistair how to do various types of grafts, and be given the opportunity to try them yourself during the workshop. Alistair and Steven have extensive grafting experience and will share their knowledge and experience with you. 

When: Saturday 17 July, Steven’s shed at Clarendon Vale 10am – 12noon. There may be a second workshop a fortnight later if many people are interested

Costs: there will be no costs if you already have a grafting knife. You will learn to use the grafting knife that you bring. If you haven't got one, you will be asked to buy one before attending the workshop. We will provide suggestions re what might be a suitable knife and where to buy it. A new grafting knife will cost you around $40-$50.

If you would like to take part please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com mentioning grafting workshop.  In your email please mention whether you have a grafting knife and clearly state who you are RSVPing for. If your RSVP is successful, you will receive full details later this month.

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Thinking of buying a new fruit tree this winter?

In August nurseries will receive a fresh lot of fruit trees ready for planting. You could choose your next fruit tree by visiting nurseries at that time, but you will find that most customers pre-order their tree(s), and you may only be able to get one of the left-overs.

Why not do a bit of home-work now, determine what fruit tree you want, and what variety, and then order the tree when orders open? Most nurseries begin to take orders for fruit trees in May. 

Here are some of the Food Garden Group blog posts that will help you choose what you want: Apples and Pears , Apricots , Avocados , Citrus fruits ,  Loquats , Peaches and Nectarines

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New on the Food Garden Group blog

New blog post Quick Guide to Pruning Fruit Trees contains short to-the-point tips for pruning of Apple and Pear, Apricot, Citrus, Fig, Loquat, Peach and Nectarine, and Plum trees. Very handy, because the best time to prune most fruit trees is now!

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Happy to host a food garden visit next season?

Following the visit to her garden in February Cathy wrote on our Facebook page ...

I really enjoyed the visit to our garden and feel a bit bereft now everyone has gone! For those thinking about hosting, it is a great incentive to re-evaluate the garden and tinker with the areas you may have neglected or want to rejuvenate. Max gives you a good long lead-in time, so you can quietly prepare over several months and then relax on the day. It is very uplifting to show your garden to people who share your passion. When I think about it, I don’t get much feedback, which shouldn’t matter because we garden for ourselves, but gee it was nice! Go on, talk to Max about a date!

During the winter break I will be putting together a list of visits for the 2021 - 2022 season.  If you would like to explore with me the possibility of a visit to your food garden, now is a great time to email me at foodgardengroup@gmail.com.

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Why are all food garden visits in the South?

Someone asked this question recently on our Facebook page. It is a good question. There are enough members in both the North and North-West to have food garden visits in both regions.  What is needed is one local person in each region who is keen to organise them!

I live in Hobart, and apart from the fact that I would not have the time to organise food garden visits in three regions, it could not be done from the South, because it requires getting to know local food gardeners, a bit of networking, visiting potential hosts and being present at every visit. It needs a local enthusiastic person with time available. It is a lot of fun ... for the right kind of person.

A few years ago I contacted all Northern and North-Western members to see whether I could find such a person.  No one put their hand up at that time.  If you are an FGG member in the North or North-West and feel like having a go at being your region's food garden visit organiser, then please contact me via foodgardengroup@gmail.com, and then we might try to get the ball rolling for your region next season.

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Recommended things to do in your food garden in April

• Water regularly to make sure your soils don’t dry out
• Make sure beds are well mulched to conserve water
• Keep weeds at bay and don't allow them to go to seed
• Sow green manures where your soil needs to become more open and friable

Vegetables

• Sow in pots spring and salad onions
• Sow in your garden winter varieties of spinach (try sowing one row every fortnight), broad beans and peas (from late April if you don’t get heavy frosts in winter), 
• Sow in your hothouse herbs like coriander and dill for use this winter and spring
• Plant leek, garlic, spring onions and salad onions (after adding some lime to the soil), Chinese cabbage, Asian greens
• Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximise growth before it slows down
• Collect seeds from heirloom varieties of crops that you would like to grow again next season
• Put something under pumpkins that rest on the ground so that they don’t rot
• Take pumpkins inside when the weather turns cold and damp
• Bring all unripe tomatoes inside for further ripening if the weather turns cold
• Remove flower-heads on rhubarb so plants focus on forming leaves
• Remove beans and other summer crops when the weather turns cold
• Take beds to their next stage in your crop rotation plan
• Control slugs and snails after rain if the weather is still warm
• Dig up potatoes and hill the ones that you are leaving for later
• Sow green manures where your soil needs to become more open and friable

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

• Plant new blueberry bushes
• Feed all blueberry bushes a generous amount of blood & bone and mulch them
• Prune apple, pear, quince, cherry and stone fruit trees once their foliage stops growing
• 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
• After harvest feed peach and nectarine trees blood & bone or mature poultry manure (*)
• Consider adding new fruit trees and berries to your garden and order them from nurseries

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Why May your food gardening be happy and productive,

Max Bee