FGG Newsletter October 2022

🍓  Food Garden Group newsletter - October 2022  🍓

 We like to grow what we eat 

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In this newsletter - the October food garden visit, what happened at last month's visit, the Golden Tomato Award, a tomato seed experiment for the Botanical Gardens, all about biochar, what is Sustainable Living Tasmania, rules for our Facebook page, and more.

This month's food garden visit

On Sunday 16 October at 10.30am you will be welcome in Avril and Brett's garden at Sandy Bay.

About their garden Avril wrote:

Brett and I started our front yard veggie garden over 12 years ago. Since then, there have been many changes and it has doubled in size. ‘A luxury’ some might say, others would say ‘double the work’. 

Both are true. For those of us who love outdoors, growing our own food and experimenting with different plants, different growing methods, testing flavours, and generally getting down and dirty in our cherished soil it’s a great opportunity. However, we are aware of the increased work load and related commitment. 

The opportunity to buy the adjacent property was a no-brainer. That was 5 years ago and in the ensuing time our plans for the extra land have changed many times. 

The extra land has provided some major advantages. The first of which is allowing generous spacing between the plants. The original garden was highly productive but very crowded requiring intense maintenance. Its difficult to quantitate but I feel the extra space has translated to an increased growth rate, less stress, and fewer pests and diseases. 

Secondly, we now have a variation of microclimates and soil types. Our front yard was exposed and subjected to strong winds hence the espaliered fruit trees around the boundary and Buxus hedges to protect seedlings. Either side of the house were virtual cyclonic wind tunnels. The new back yard garden is much more sheltered.

Our bee hive has been an integral part of our family for the past 7 years.  It is difficult to quantify the difference these ladies provide to the productivity of the garden, but it is substantial. And the added bonus is between 18 – 32 kg of honey per year. Their needs are minimal. We always make sure some of our crops are left in the ground to develop flower/pollen for the bees and then we collect the viable seed for next year’s crop. It might look a bit scraggly at times but in the end everyone benefits and bees know which side of their bread is honied 😂. Like all beekeepers we are happy to talk bees during the food garden visit if you are interested!

To date we are (trying to) restrict our plantings to more short-lived and transient food producers until our plans for the site are more solidified. Having said that I have noticed some longer-term trees sneaking in and I don’t have the heart to remove some older original trees!

At this stage our new garden is an experimental patch, so if you have possible ideas for layout and planting, we welcome your suggestions. Please come and browse.

Likely topics of discussion: bees, South American food plants, an apple tree mystery.

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

If you would like to come, please RSVP to foodgardengroup@gmail.com 

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If you have never been to an FGG food garden visit ....

To attend you need to RSVP because numbers are nearly always limited.
Our visits are about seeing food gardens and meeting other food gardeners.
Everyone arrives at the same time just before or at the start time.
If you have any surplus food-plant seedlings, seeds or produce, please bring them.
They all go on the Produce Table, where people give and take without any money changing hands.
After seeing the garden and lots of spontaneous discussions we share morning tea.
It would be great if you brought something for morning tea, but this too is optional.
You may go home with new food-plants and ideas for your garden and interesting produce.
It’s all about sharing, learning from each other, and community.

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Last month's food garden visit

On a lovely Sunday afternoon in September we were all very happy to visit Mount Nelson for the first food garden visit of the year. 

You can find all the details and great photos of this visit here. Thank you, Pauline, for writing this!

A big thank you to Ngaire and Larry for being the perfect hosts. They are a very effective team where Ngaire is the enthusiastic gardener and Larry comes up with engineering solutions and puts in a lot of hard graft! They showed us a great example of the enjoyment of growing your own vegetables and fruit, no matter how steep your block or how persistent the wildlife.

People contributed lots of interesting things to the produce table and the seed box, and they attracted a lot of interest, and there were many yummy things on the morning tea table. Thank you, everyone, for making this visit a real success.

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Food garden visits planned for coming months 

Sunday 13 November            Anna & Marcus's garden at Margate

Saturday 3 December            Belinda's garden at Dynnyrne

January                                    to be announced

Saturday 18 February            Frank & Laura's garden at Otago                          

Each visit will be advertised in this newsletter at the start of the month the visit is in. At that time you can RSVP for them, not before. To avoid disappointment please RSVP early in all cases.

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The 2022 Golden Tomato Award 

Unbelievable! The award has already been won. Never before in the illustrious history of this award has it been handed out this early!

Gold was won by John P of Bridport on 15 September with no less than seven ripe cherry tomatoes!

One of the reasons for having the Golden Tomato Award is to encourage people to experiment, so we find ways of having ripe tomatoes early in the season. Well, here is what John did ........

John's winning tactic was to keep going a few volunteer cherry tomato seedlings that came up around the first of March. One of those took off, had seven small tomatoes before the season finished in June, and then John carefully nurtured that plant through winter on his sheltered sunny balcony at Bridport.  He told me that his first cherry tomatoes of the season tasted great! This is an interesting strategy that I will try to imitate next season in my hothouse in my not-always-sunny suburb of Rose Bay. 

Congratulations John! 

I have only just sown my tomatoes, and I won't have any ripe ones until the end of November.  

The Silver and Bronze 2022 Tomato Awards are still to be awarded, so when your first tomato is ripe, put a photo with the ripe tomato on the plant on our Food Gardeners Tasmania Facebook page or email a photo to foodgardengroup@gmail.com .

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Seed Box update

Seed Box coordinator Elizabeth gave me the following list of seeds that will be available free-of-charge in the Seed Box on the produce table at the next food garden visit:

Basil/basil cinnamon Broad Beans Broccoli Brussels Sprouts Bush beans Beans - 24 year old Beans - French climbing Beans - Purple King Beans - Molly's Zebra Beans - Giant of Stuttgart Capsicum Romany, Californian  Carrot Chive/garlic chives Chilli Collard greens Corn Cucumber Eggplant

Fennel - Florence Gherkin HollyhockKale – Russian Red Lettuce Lovage Manglewurzel Okra Parsnip Peas Pumpkin – Qld Blue, Cundalls beauty Salsify Silverbeet – Giant Fordhook Spring onion Sunflower – giant Tomato - Pink Bumblebee Tomato - Camp Joy Turnip Watermelon - Baby

If you would like to contribute seeds, please just add them to the Seed Box. If you can't be at the next food garden visit, please contact Seedbox-coordinator Elizabeth and arrange to drop off or collect seeds at her place. Her email address is elizamt54@gmail.com . Thank you Elizabeth!

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The 2022 Royal Botanical Gardens tomato sale

• Is the biggest tomato seedling sale in Tasmania.
• Many varieties are not for sale anywhere else in Tasmania.
• All varieties are heirloom.
• Plants are sold one plant per pot and the quality is excellent.

This year there are around 80 varieties, about half of them never offered before .....

• varieties with intriguing names like Santorini, Ukrainian Purple, Little Red Riding Hood, Big Beryl, Dancing with Smurfs, and 42 Days.
• from countries like Australia, the USA, Russia, Italia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Great Britain, The Czech Republic, Thailand, China and Argentina.  

For a complete list of all varieties and what you can expect from each variety see here.

The sale will start on Thursday 13 October, 11am - 3pm ('prelude sale', entry fee $10), then it  will continue on Friday 14 October and Saturday 15 October 11am - 3pm (no entry fee). 

This is a Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden's fundraising event. Your purchases will help maintain these wonderful botanical gardens!

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Free tomato seedlings!

Members of the Food Garden Group who live in the greater Hobart area are invited to take part in a tomato experiment for the Royal Botanical Gardens.

For the past 25 years FGG member Roscoe Thomas has collected tomato seeds from family and friends and some very special varieties direct from Italy. He then made them available to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (RTBG).

The RTBG would now like these varieties tested to see if they are true-to-type. Their colour and taste need to be recorded and seeds need to be saved. The collected seed will then be released as seedlings at the 2023 RTBG Spring Plant Sale.

This is a call to find people interested and available to have a go at growing these special tomatoes. The tomato seedlings will be provided to you for free. There are a limited numbers of seedlings, so first in, best dressed.

These are all staking and non-cherry varieties. Many are prolific producers. No special care will be needed, except that you will be asked to plant them one metre apart. All tomatoes will be yours. Ross will ask you to return one sheet with seeds to him at the end of the season. 

Please contact Roscoe on 0409 027528 or email roscoethomas52@gmail.com if you are interested.

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Public liability insurance for FGG events

I started the Food Garden Group in 2011 under the umbrella of Sustainable Living Tasmania (SLT). From the very beginning the Food Garden Group was mentioned in the SLT's public liability policy as one of the community groups that are covered by the policy. 

Public liability insurance is not something people lose sleep over .. until an accident happens and it becomes clear that no one is insured. The SLT recently confirmed that our group continues to be mentioned in their policy and I am very grateful for that!

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What is Sustainable Living Tasmania?

The Sustainable Living Tasmania site at https://www.slt.org.au/about_us tells us .....  

Sustainable Living Tasmania (SLT) is a group of committed, passionate people. We're practical, idealistic, positive, realistic and informed. We come from all walks of life and we all have the same goal: to live in vibrant, healthy communities that are prepared for the challenges of the future.

SLT has been around for almost fifty years getting on with the job of helping people in our community live in a way that costs less, is healthier, more enjoyable and ensures future generations can enjoy a great quality of life too.

Over the past decades Sustainable Living Tasmania has undertaken many valuable activities, including:

• Running many community-based programs, including Sustainable Living Festivals.
• Supporting many environmental and social welfare groups with space to meet and hold events, promotion, financial auspicing, insurance coverage, strategic guidance, and moral support.
• Helping almost five thousand Tasmanian households on low incomes to make their homes more comfortable and reduce their energy bills through audits and upgrades.
• Giving free advice on living sustainably to countless more.
• Facilitating the installation of insulation, energy efficient appliances, and solar panel systems on many hundreds of Tasmanian homes through bulk buys and Eco Home Guide.
• Advocating for strong action on climate change and other environmental issues.

I have been an SLT member for two decades. Please join me in my support of Sustainable Living Tasmania by also becoming a member. You can do that here.

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Beneficial biochar

After writing on the Food Garden Group blog about compost in previous months I thought it was time to put the spotlight on biochar. 

I use biochar in my garden and thought that this would just be a small blog post explaining what it is, what it is for, where to get it, and how to use it. However, my research subject took me in unexpected directions, and the result is a much more comprehensive article on the subject of biochar than I expected when I started. You can read all about biochar here.

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Rules for our Food Gardeners Tasmania Facebook page

The text at the top of our Food Gardeners Tasmania Facebook page has changed, not because the rules have changed, but to make the existing rules clearer. The text is now:

Rules for this page:

Please only add posts about food gardening. Posts on ornamental plants will be removed. Posts that publicise a food-garden-related product, business, service, or event are welcome, but repeated advertising or publicity of an event or product is not. A post may be removed if it does not comply, or if there is a complaint.

All this is just to keep the members of our Facebook page happy!

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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

For a list of food garden activities recommended for every month of the year see Food Garden Calendar.

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Would you like to subscribe to this monthly newsletter?

That could be handy, because then you can RSVP for the next food garden visit as soon as the newsletter is out. If you subscribe, you will automatically receive an email with a link to the new newsletter when one comes out. To subscribe, go here and follow the prompts.

May your crops thrive,

Max Bee