FGG Newsletter November 2022

           🌳 Food Garden Group newsletter - November 2022 🌳

 We like to grow what we eat 

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In this newsletter - info about the next FGG food garden visit, last month's visit in words and pictures, how to make the best of your food garden in wet conditions, free-of-charge seeds in our Seed Box, and more.

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This month's food garden visit

Most Tasmanians now clearly believe that Covid is a thing of the past. Well, here is a reality check! A few days before this newsletter was due the hosts of our November food garden visit informed me that they both had Covid, were recovering slowly, and felt very fatigued. We agreed that the visit to their garden be postponed to when they feel fully recovered.

Luckily FGG members Laura and Frank were happy to take their place. Without them there might not have been a food garden visit this month at such short notice, so a big thank you, Frank and Laura!

On Sunday 13 November at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Laura and Frank's garden at Otago Bay.

About their garden Laura and Frank wrote:

We moved onto this 2 ½ acre property almost 6 years ago. It’s sheltered from much of the bad weather, nearly frost-free, north facing and on town water which gives us a helping hand where the garden is concerned. It was virtually a blank slate teeming with potential when we moved in. 

From day 1, we had heaps of ideas for what we wanted to plant and grow with our main focus being to create a productive food garden. Some of the detailed plans may have changed, and many are yet to be implemented, but our basic concept of a productive garden is now a reality.

Near the house are some garden beds and fruit trees producing in varying degrees of success, but the main food garden activity takes place in the sun-drenched paddock where we’ve planted 40ish fruit trees interspersed with berries. At the back of the orchard are several large veggie beds and a mini-vineyard. 

Our apiary with several bee hives and our chook run with 5 hens and a rooster finish off the productive part of our property. Besides our working garden areas, we leave large patches of wild grasses, weeds, fallen logs and twigs as refuges and feeding areas for insects, lizards, butterflies, birds and even rabbits and possums. There’s enough space and food for all of us.

We are learning as we go what works and what doesn’t and what we can manage. Irrigation, weather, soil health, wildlife, weeds and time keep us making continual adjustments. But every year we produce more than we can eat and are becoming good at preserving with freezing, bottling, pickling, and fermenting; from jams to wine to olives, we have got it on the go. 

Our thinking is that if we overplant and accept that the local fauna live here too (and are lovely neighbours), we’ll harvest enough to keep our kitchen well-stocked, our pantry full and everyone happy.

Come along on the day, prepared for a relaxed morning. If you can, bring a plate to share, your mug for a cuppa and any garden surplus you’re happy to give away. Please be careful on our long drive – there are a LOT of wild ducks around and ducklings keep appearing out of nowhere. 

Likely topics of discussion: fruit trees, grapes, berries, bees, chooks.

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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Last month's food garden visit

It was great to visit Avril and Brett's garden at Sandy Bay on 16 October because they so convincingly show how a garden can be both ornamental and productive, and how with creativity and planning every available space can be used.

You can find all the details of this visit in words and pictures here.

Thank you very much, Avril and Brett, for hosting this visit! You inspired us to think outside the square and create gardens that look great and that are full of productive plants.

Avril commented how nice it is to show your garden to people who are genuinely interested, and how nice it was to receive people's feedback and new ideas.  If you would be interested in showing the group your food garden, please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com, and we can work towards including your garden in our list of visits.

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Food garden visits planned for coming months 

Saturday 3 December will be the date for a visit to Belinda's garden at Dynnyrne

Dates for food garden visits in January to May will be in next month's newsletter.        

I am looking for hosts who are happy to host a visit to their food garden in the January to May period.

Here are some of the comments made by hosts in the past:

• Very helpful demo and explanation of measuring pH during the visit to our garden.(Aimee & BJ Nov 2021)

• 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! For those thinking about hosting, it is a great incentive to re-evaluate your garden. Go on, talk to Max about a date! (Cathy D Feb 2021)
• It was a great day and I am so grateful for everyone's input and assistance. Hopefully it will be an encouragement for others to offer their gardens for visits and show their successes and not so successes! (Serena K. Oct 2018)

Please contact Max at foodgardengroup@gmail.com to start the discussion.

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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 Hollyhock Kale – Russian Red Lettuce Lovage Manglewurzel Parsnip Peas Pumpkin – Qld Blue Salsify Spinach - perpetual 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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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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Glyphosate damages wild bumblebee colonies

The Science Journal recently published research that found that ability of wild bumblebees to keep their colonies at the right temperature is seriously damaged by the weedkiller glyphosate (see here). 

Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides globally, with broad usage in both home and agricultural settings. The organisms with the greatest exposure are insects. 

The new research found that whereas environmentally realistic exposure levels were not directly lethal, they did result in a decrease in the ability of colony members to maintain required hive temperatures, causing major damage indirectly. For more info see this The Guardian article here.

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Growing vegetables in a very wet Australia

With much more than usual rainfall now becoming, well, usual, the key to success in the food garden is growing plants in raised beds that contain soil that drains well. FGG blog post Adding a Raised Bed might help you improve the situation in your food garden. It discusses:

• Why raised beds
• What will be the best spot for my new raised bed
• What are good dimensions for a raised veggie-bed
• What ready-made raised beds can I buy
• What are the best materials if I build a raised bed myself
• What do I fill my new raised bed with

When there was a shortage of lettuces in shops some time ago, that problem ceased to exist six weeks later, because that is the time it takes a lettuce-grower to grow a bunch of new lettuces from seed to crop. The same can not be said for root crops like potatoes, carrots and parsnips. With many of Australia's major agricultural areas sodden with rain, and crops rotting in the ground, the availability of root crops in shops will not quickly bounce back like it did with lettuces. It may be a good idea to sow more than your usual amount of carrots, parsnips, potatoes, beets, swedes (root crops) in well-draining parts of your garden this season, because they may soon be less available for quite some time.

Many root crops can be sown at any time between September and March. Sowing one row once a fortnight, might be the ideal way to give yourself an ongoing crop of fresh home-grown root vegetables this season. Sowing directly into your garden (rather than in punnets) is not hard if you follow a few simple rules. These are discussed on the FGG blog here.

Most nurseries only sell seed potatoes in the period April to August. This may suggest that this is when you sow potatoes in Tasmania, and not at other times of the year. Last year I planted spuds in mid January, and had a good crop by the middle of May, well before the first frost arrived in our garden. Potatoes can be sown 'staggered', and over a much longer period than most nurseries want you to believe. 

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Propagating perennial food garden herbs

With plants growing fast at this time of year, now is a good time to propagate many of them. Food Garden Group blog post Propagating in the Food Garden discusses:

• what is there to propagate in the food garden
• propagating explained step by step
• why and how to propagate a tomato plant

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Things you can do in your food garden in November ....

• 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, celery, Chinese Cabbage and Asian Greens

• Sow in pots inside tomato, capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, corn and celery

• Sow in your garden beans, spinach, chard, silverbeet, 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)

• Plant outside when the weather is consistently warmer - tomatoes and capsicums 

• 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)

• Put nets over all berry bushes just before berries begin to show colour
• Thin fruits on all fruit trees soon after they form
• Protect apple, pear and quince trees against codling moth
• Remove and destroy coddling moth infested fruit on apple, pear and quince 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
• Prune peach and nectarine trees when they have woken up out of dormancy
• 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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It might be handy to subscribe to this newsletter

The FGG newsletter comes out on the first of the month (unless there is some hiccup), once a month, from August to April. Subscribing to it means 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.

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May your crops thrive,

Max Bee