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Food Garden Group Newsletter December 2021 We like to grow what we eat |  |
Max and Gaye wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy 2022!
Never a dull moment is a good way to describe 2021. We saw the highest spring rain fall since 1975 and the coldest November mornings since 1953. World leaders talked about taking firm action on climate change, and then firmly decided to do very little. In a few weeks time our borders will open, and Tasmania's COVID-free life will become a thing of the past.
In 2022 we will need to hold on to our hats, stay calm, and hope that our local communities will continue to be strong and resilient. We will need to support one another where we can!
In this newsletter you will find info about the Food Garden Group visit for December, the Golden Tomato Award 2021, last month's food garden visit, what is new on the Food Garden Group blog, new ways for the FGG in 2022, and what you can do in your food garden in December.
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This month's food garden visit
On Saturday 4 December at 10.30am you will be welcome in Rosalie and Grant's garden at South Hobart.
About their garden Rosalie wrote:
The goal of this property was to ultimately live as sustainably as possible, food, energy, water etc., while being an intricate part of the community. We are probably two thirds along that path. The block is 650 sq metres with a small 3-bedroom house on it. We have lived here just over 2 years.
The garden is divided into 5 sections, four are near completion, the fifth is yet to be started.
Part 1 & 2 are the major food gardens, one at the top end of the block and 2 at the side of the house. The top area is fully netted and fenced with commercial netting, enabling bees etc. to get in but keeping out possums, wallabies etc. This area contains a decent size glasshouse with 7 raised garden beds plus pots and food grows here all year round.
The rest of the garden has approximately 9 raised beds with other growing space, plus arches for growing vertically. Many varieties of berries and espalier fruit trees. Seasonal vegetables are continually grown. The goal is to have fresh fruit and vegetables of some variety all year round. Grant & I both eat a predominately plant-based diet, so this is important to us. We have 2 chickens in this enclosure to assist with compost, manure and we do eat the eggs.
The second food garden is down the side of the house, which presently has garlic and potatoes growing but will eventually be another fully netted garden containing blueberry plants, Passionfruit vines and a medium sized vegetable garden.
There is a Native garden at the back of the house, (Australian and Tasmanian), which has a large deck, which we built for entertaining and outdoor cooking. This garden also has many native food plants. This area is made private from the road by a purpose-built fence. The second native garden is on one side and front of the house with a front deck to the house which is much more a part of the neighbourhood, and when out there we often stop and chat with those walking up or down the street.
The fifth section of the garden will be a neighbourhood herb garden, where anyone will be welcome to help themselves, along with surplus from the food garden. The nature strip is planned to be another native garden with a seat in it, where those walking up the street, can stop for a rest (Hillborough is a very steep road).
During the visit we will also discuss worm farms and Steven F. is going to demonstrate a new grafting tool that he purchased.
Please note this food garden visit is on a Saturday, not a Sunday!
If you would like to come please RSVP to foodgardengroup@gmail.com
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Last month's food garden visit
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Go Mandy!
Well over a year ago I reported that some members of our group had been approached to do an item on Gardening Australia with Tino Carnevale.
Food Garden Group member Mandy R. told me that the footage that was recorded of her showing Tino around her great garden at Snug (the one in her well-designed wildlife-proof cage) will be on Gardening Australia on Friday 10 December! This will be a year after it was recorded. Apparently footage is often shown a year after it was recorded to get the season right for the viewers.
Mandy doesn't want anyone to watch this because she fears that it will be too embarrassing, but of course it won't be. It will be great viewing! Go Mandy!
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Bee 🐝 Update
At the time of this newsletter the Intro to Beekeeping workshop is yet to take place on Sunday 28 November. The session is fully booked with a wait list.
I promised Frank and Laura that I would give them a sunny day with above 20-degree temperatures. I will have to focus hard to make that happen.
This Intro to Beekeeping could be the start of a beekeeping sub-group where FGG members interested in/involved in keeping bees on their property share knowledge and experiences, but it will be for those who come to the session to determine whether this is will be an obvious next step or not.
Those on the waitlist will be contacted if it is decided that this group will meet again.
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The FGG and COVID in 2022
- COVID will enter Tasmania soon after opening on 15 December and spread widely.
- Over the first 200 days after opening up to 69000 Tasmanians (one in every nine Tasmanians) may get COVID.
- Over that period around 150 Tasmanians may die of COVID.
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The FGG and its newsletters in 2022
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The 2021 Golden Tomato Award was won by ...
No-one yet, of course, because this is simply not tomato weather!
Various competitors have kept me in the loop of their Golden Tomato Award aspirations. One FGG member, who wants to remain anonymous for now, has been whispering in my ear that she has one bush with one tomato that is now beginning to go red. Does anyone believe this? I don't! So, member x, call me or email me when that tomato is ripe and before you pick it, and I will come over personally (dressed in rain coat, hat, scarf and mittens) to take a photo of the plant.
And then we need to have a no-nonsense conversation about how the heck you did this when we had snow down to 600 metres just a few days ago.
Someone else might of course grab the Gold before member x does.
The race is on until the trophy is won!🍒
Someone else might of course grab the Gold before member x does.
The race is on until the trophy is won!
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New on the Food Garden Group blog
- In new blog post Backyard Biochar Dirk S. explains how he makes biochar himself, simply, and at no cost.
- Not new, but improved, is blog post The Importance of Rotating Crops thanks to the comments by new member and observant reader Susan R. who spotted a contradiction and contacted me for clarification. I invited her to continue reading the blog and find more inconsistencies!
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Things you can do in your food garden in December .....
- Make sure your food garden is well mulched to conserve water
- Monitor soil-moisture levels and water if needed
- 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, tomato, capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, corn, celery, Chinese cabbage and Asian greens, Brussels sprouts (for harvest this coming winter)
- Sow in your garden beans, spinach, chard, silverbeet, radish, carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede, beetroot
- Plant loose-leaf lettuce, 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
- Remove sleeves from outside tomatoes when the weather warms up
- Put shade cloth over newly-planted seedlings to protect them from hot sun
- Hill potatoes with soil, mulch, compost to protect growing tubers from light
- Minimise damage to brassicas by caterpillars by removing them, netting or sprays
- Hand-pollinate cucurbits early in the morning
- Dig up garlic and allow it to dry before storing it in a cool well ventilated spot
- Remove flower-heads on rhubarb, so plants focus on forming leaves
- 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)
- Net all your berry bushes well before the birds begin to eat your berries
- Net your stone fruit trees
- Thin fruits on all fruit trees, so fruits become larger and branches don’t break
- Remove excess foliage on fig trees
- Remove and destroy coddling moth infested fruit on apple, pear and quince trees
- Protect apple, pear and quince trees against codling moth
- Add sulphate of potash to the soil under peach and nectarine trees (*)
- 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
- Foliar feed fruit trees with fish fertiliser and/or seaweed extract
- Feed each citrus tree a full watering can with a tbsp of Epsom Salts + a tbsp of iron chelate (*)
- Add sulphate of potash to the soil under peach and nectarine trees (*)
Thank you Max.
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