FGG Newsletter October 2021

 

         🍓    Food Garden Group newsletter - October 2021    🍓    

 We like to grow what we eat 

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Welcome to the Food Garden Group's October 2021 newsletter with information about this month's food garden visit, our yearly soil collection day, COVID and our FGG events, the upcoming RTBG tomato sale, pest management in the food garden, and what you can do in your food garden in October.

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This month's food garden visit

On Sunday 17 October at 10.30am you will be welcome in Vivien and Mark's food garden at Bellerive.

About their garden Vivien and Mark wrote:

Our garden looks more like an ornamental garden than a food garden however if you look it contains plenty to eat. It is small, intensively gardened and has food and ornamentals planted together wherever possible.

Our garden is new. We started it 9 years ago on a small sloping sunny corner block close to the shore of the Derwent and exposed to the prevailing south westerlies. The garden then consisted of a lawn of couch grass/twitch, a Silver Birch tree, a lemon tree and scattered tall shrubs. Underneath the few centimetres of topsoil, we found a sticky, greasy grey clay covering dense almost impenetrable sandstone.

Nothing in the garden (or house) is as we found it except for the Myer lemon tree. We do not have any lawn now and have gradually landscaped the garden so that we now have terraced beds full of loam, much of which was made from composted lawn, clay, and vegetation from the site.

The garden is surrounded on 3 sides by roses. Dwarf apples, stone fruit, and fig trees grow with rhubarb, tall-bearded iris, lavenders, perennials, bulbs, and annuals while clematis and climbing roses grow with citrus, various berries, vegetables, and herbs. Grapevines and a bay tree grow along the fourth fence. In front of this is a new raised garden which has recently been planted with vegetables, an almond and a plum, bulbs and some small shrubs.

We want some shade and some height in the garden, so we are starting to put in small deciduous trees (Japanese maples), and we have erected a pergola on the sunniest side of the garden. On the pergola we are growing wisterias, table grapes and clematis to provide shade in summer and allow in the light and warmth of the sun in winter.

The landscaping and the garden are not complete. Last year we acquired a narrow 3 metre strip of land along our northern boundary from the carpark next door, so our small garden is now slightly bigger. We spent the lockdown of 2020 removing bitumen, erecting a fence, and making raised beds for vegetables, berries and citrus trees.  Because this part of the garden is warm and sheltered from the prevailing wind, we are experimenting with growing an avocado tree. 

Contributions for morning tea, the produce table and Seed Box will be much appreciated!

It is the preference of the host that only those who are fully vaccinated against COVID attend this food garden visit.

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

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Last month's food garden visit

How lucky we felt to live in Tasmania where there is no lockdown, when the Food Garden Group visit season for spring 2021 kicked off with a wonderful visit to Wendy's garden in Sandy Bay.

For great photos and commentary see visit to Wendy's garden.

Many thanks to Wendy for opening her lovely garden and showing us how to make a much coveted grafted avocado tree.

Also a thank you to all those who came, made this food garden visit a success, and contributed to our produce and morning tea table!

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FGG events as the COVID situation changes

From the very beginning of the Food Garden Group ten years ago I have always made it clear to hosts of food garden visits, workshops and working bees that they, as hosts, have a major say in how the event is conducted, for the simple reason that it is held in their garden or garage or house, and therefore they need to feel comfortable with what happens there.

With that in mind I had no problem with the preference of this month's host that only fully vaccinated FGG members attend.

This is not going to be the rule for every FGG event from here on because the discussion about whether or not this should become FGG policy for all events has not yet been had. 

In the Mercury of Saturday 25 September it was suggested that Tasmania might begin to re-open its borders when 90% of  Tasmanians will be fully vaccinated by early or mid-December. In an ominous warning Public Health director Dr. Veitch said 'We know that when we re-open Tasmania's borders there will be COVID cases quite quickly in the community'.

With this prediction in mind, I suggest that we continue with face-to-face events until and including the food garden visit of 4 December, but from there on temporarily suspend FGG events, so we can monitor the developing COVID situation, and not give COVID an opportunity to spread through our group's events. We will then 'reconvene' when the situation is stable and without much risk.

Of course much can change between now and mid-December, so let's wait and see. Please feel free to email me at foodgardengroup@gmail.com if you would like to share your opinion on these matters.

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Interested in great soil for your food garden?

I am looking for ten people who are happy to work together as a team, and make light work of removing a lot of good quality composted chicken-manure soil from Ross and Elizabeth’s chook pen in Lindisfarne. We will shovel it all into bags and take it to the front of the property, where it will then be loaded into our cars.

Last time we did this, we had a well-deserved break after a half hour of steady work, and then did another half hour of work. We collected an amazing 133 bags, so we all took home a nice amount of free good quality garden soil! People have commented that they were surprised about the quality of the soil.  I have added it to our garden on several occasions now, and our veggies love it!

Join us on Sunday 10 October at 10.30am.  I am looking for ten people who are fit enough to slowly work for about an hour in total within a team. Past teams (this will be the third year we do this) all worked within their capabilities, and together achieved very satisfying results.

To take part please RSVP to foodgardengroup@gmail.com , mentioning soil collection. 

You will then receive address details + details of what to bring.

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Pest management in the food garden

There is a lot of info about managing food garden pests on the Food Garden Group blog, but I admit that at the moment it is not always easy to find.

In coming months I hope to improve this with a blog post called Pest Management Control Centre that refers people to available info on (ideally) a wide range of food garden pests.

There is a never ending list of things that attack produce in our gardens, and this blog post will therefore be a never-ending work-in-progress, but that is fine.

Here is a list of pests that are currently discussed on the Food Garden Group blog:

Aphids, Brown Rot, Caterpillars,

Cherry Slug, Codling Moth, Curly Leaf, Gummosis, Mildew,

Nematodes, Pear Slug, Rust, Sawfly, Scale, Shot Hole,

Slugs and Snails, Whitefly

Click on their name and you will be taken to an FGG blog post that discusses the pest.

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Botanical Gardens tomato sale

Every year the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (RTBG) have a tomato sale in October that could well be the best sale of tomato seedlings in the country! This sale stands out from other tomato seedling sales because .....

• Mature seedlings are sold one plant per pot and their quality is excellent
• There will be over a hundred varieties for sale originating from all over the world
• Many varieties will not be for sale in any regular nursery or hardware store
• All varieties are heirloom, which means that, if you harvest seeds from them, you will be able to grow the same tomatoes next season from your own seed.

This year's Botanical Gardens tomato sale will start on Thursday 14 October, 11am - 6pm (entry fee $10), then  continue on Friday 15 October and Saturday 16 October 11am-3pm (no entry fee). 

Please allow for queues and social distancing!

This is the Botanical Garden's major fundraising event.  Your purchases will help maintain these wonderful gardens!

This year I joined the team of enthusiastic volunteers that under RTBG Nursery Horticulturist Margot White is working towards the big sale. I observed, took photos, asked questions, and took part in the huge effort. I hope to give you an inside story on the RTBG tomato sale on the Food Garden Group blog soon.

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Bee 🐝 Update

Because of the uncertainty about FGG events planned for early next year (see above) the Introduction to Bee Keeping workshop has been moved from 23 January to 28 November.

Those who already expressed an interest in this workshop will be put on the RSVP list for this session and receive further info via email when the time comes.

There will be more info about the Introduction to Bee Keeping workshop in the November newsletter. People will then have another opportunity to RSVP.

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Upcoming FGG events

Subject to there being no community transmission of COVID in Southern Tasmania the following FGG events are scheduled for the remainder of 2021:

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.

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Things you can do in your food garden in October

• Mulch after good rains so soil moisture is retained

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 pots inside tomato, capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, corn and celery

• Sow in your garden beans (later this month if milder weather arrives and soils warm up),  broadbeans, peas, spinach, chard, silverbeet, radish, carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede, beetroot

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

• Do not yet plant outside tomatoes and capsicums, unless the weather is consistently warmer

• Protect outside tomatoes and capsicums against cold snaps with sleeves.
• Minimise caterpillar damage to brassicas by manual removal, netting or spraying
• Control slugs and snails especially around peas and 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)

• Apply whip and tongue grafts to apple, pear and cherry trees early this month
• Apply top-work grafts to apple, pear, cherry and apricot trees
• Plant a new citrus tree. Now is the best time.
• Protect apple, pear and quince trees against codling moth
• Get rid of pear and cherry slug by covering pear and cherry leaves with ash or lime
• Check peach and nectarine trees for leaf-curl and remove and destroy affected leaves
• Add sulphate of potash to the soil under peach and nectarine trees (*)
• Foliar feed all fruit trees with fish fertiliser and/or seaweed extract

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Happy food gardening!

Max Bee