🌱 Food Garden Group newsletter - August 2023 🌱
We like to grow what we eat
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In this first newsletter of the 2023 - 2024 Food Garden Group season: what this season may bring, easier access to our blogs, a case of a mystery apple tree, how to get a scion off this tree, what to do in your food garden in August, and more!
What will the 2023 - 2024 season bring?
Welcome to the start of the 2023 - 2024 Food Garden Group season! What can we expect this summer?
After three seasons with far too much cool cloudy rainy weather (La Niña) most of us look forward to a nice warm sunny summer, don't we? But in these times of climate change, be careful what you wish for!
We need to hope that the current very worrying extreme summer weather in the Northern hemisphere is going to have little effect on the weather in the Southern hemisphere, but that is probably wishful thinking.
We don't want another La Niña, and we don't want an El Niño either. But be prepared, because the experts reckon we might well get a dry warm summer. What will be the best way to irrigate your garden this summer? For inspiration have a look at Improving Your Irrigation on the FGG blog.
Season 2023 - 2024 will be the Food Garden Group's thirteenth season, and if all goes according to plan, the December 2023 food garden visit will be visit number 100. I am amazed by that! No matter what the weather is going to be, that will be worth celebrating!
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Easier access to blog posts
Some new features were added to our blogs during the Food Garden Group's downtime this winter that will make finding posts on both blogs, and going back and forth between them, much easier on both computer and mobile phone.
Under the heading of our main Food Garden Group blog is now a row of grey tabs:
Click on any of these and you are taken to an index page where you see all the posts on that subject.
If, for instance, you click on the tab named Infrastructure (for want of a better word), you will see all the posts on the Food Garden Group blog that discuss adding new things of all kinds to your food garden (garden beds, irrigation, fencing, bee hives, you name it).
One of the tabs in the row of grey tabs is FGG Extra. It takes you to a page where you can choose to go to the home page of our second FGG Extra blog, or to newly created index-pages that have been filled with links to posts by FGG Extra coordinator Pauline (thank you Pauline!).
On FGG Extra you can now easily find all posts on preserving, other great recipes, food garden visits, newsletters and In My Garden. If you click on the tab named The Food Garden Group Blog you are taken to a page where you can go to its home page or its index pages (discussed above).
You can now easily go from one blog to the other and back on both computer and mobile.
On mobile phones there is now a small down-arrow in the right bottom corner of the headings on both blogs (see photo on the left below) that brings up the same items (see photo on the right below).
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First new FGG blog post of the season
When Food Garden Group member Avril asked me in August last year how her apple tree could have two types of apples without it being grafted, I did not foresee that this would lead to one of the more unusual Food Garden Group blog posts to date.
Do you like reading detective stories? Do you like eating apples? Would you like to find out more about apple varieties and growing apples? If so, you will enjoy reading The Case of the Mystery Apple Tree.
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Like to graft Avril's apple onto your apple tree?
[in case you wonder what this is about: please read the blog post mentioned above]
I asked Avril whether she would be happy to give some scions of her mystery apple variety to interested FGG members. Avril's enthusiastic answer was I would be really happy to provide scions for grafting. It would be wonderful to know the tree continues in other gardens!
I then contacted FGG member Steven F. and asked whether he would be happy to cut the scions off the tree. I added that I would make it clear that people will need to do the grafting themselves.
Steven now has in his fridge 8 scions to give away to 8 lucky FGG members.
If you think that you may be able to graft a scion onto your apple tree successfully and are interested in a scion of Avril's mystery apple branch, then please email Steven at stevenfishercfc@gmail.com. The first eight requests will be successful. He will contact those who managed to secure a scion to discuss when you can pick it up.
Thanks Steven for coordinating this!
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Thinking back to the last food garden visit of last season
The visit to Marcus and Anna's Little Farm at Margate in April was very much enjoyed by all that came. It took Anna and Marcus just three years to go from an empty paddock to a house, a dam, a studio and a very impressive market garden. A wonderful effort!
If you missed this visit or if you would like to look back to it once more: you can read all about it here.
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Food garden visits this coming season
Planning is under way for food garden visits in September, October, November and December. I hope to have the gardens and dates organised by the end of August.
There will be one food garden visit every month. It will be advertised in that month's newsletter. You will need to RSVP by email to take part. If your RSVP is successful you receive full details of the visit in a return email.
These visits are very popular because of what we all learn from each other, because they allow us to link up with other food gardeners, because of the yummy morning teas, and because of the produce, seeds and plants that are exchanged on our produce table free of charge.
If you don't want to miss out, subscribe to the FGG newsletter, so you can RSVP as soon as a visit is advertised - find out how to subscribe at the end of this newsletter.
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Happy to host a visit to your garden?
Rather than me telling you how nice it can be to host an FGG food garden visit, let's listen to some of those who hosted a visit to their garden in the past:
- Very uplifting to show your garden to people who share your passion. Gee, it was nice to get all that feedback! For those thinking about hosting, it is a great incentive to re-evaluate your garden. Go on, talk to Max about a date! - Cathy in Feb21.
- Such a lovely morning, thanks so much for organising these get togethers, so nice hanging out with other gardeners and share our gardens – Belinda in Dec22.
- Very helpful demo and explanation of measuring pH during the visit to our garden - Aimee & BJ in Nov21.
- It is so nice to have people visit our garden who can appreciate what we are trying to do, and to see it through fresh eyes ourselves. Plus, it was very good motivation to get some lingering jobs crossed off our list! – Ngaire in Sep22.
The amount of work for hosts is very limited as my partner Gaye and I bring signs, tables, urn etc. and help you set up before the start and take down afterwards.
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High time to do something about Curly Leaf!
I reckon it is going to be an early spring this season, so make sure that you don't miss the opportunity to protect your peach and nectarine trees. You need to spray your trees before buds open! Once they are open, you are too late and there is little you can do to prevent or overcome Curly Leaf for the whole season!
For info on what to do see the Curly Leaf section of Pest-Control Quick-Guide.
If you want to make your own Curly Leaf spray look at the Bordeaux Mix or Burgundy Mix sections of Homemade Pest Control Sprays.
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Lots of info on fruits and berries!
Fruits and berries are well represented on the Food Garden Group blog. The Fruits & Berries tab at the top of the blog points the way to info on …Apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, berries - pruning, citrus, figs, fruit trees – grafting, fruit trees – pruning, loquats, nectarines, passion fruit, peaches, pears, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes.
You will find info on soil preparation, planting, pruning, grafting, pest control and harvesting. Please explore!
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Wow, supermarkets now sell 'tearless onions' !
At twice the price of normal onions the major supermarkets now advertise new improved onions over which you won't shed a tear. But we food gardeners have had the option to grow tearless onions for a very long time. Try variety Domenica Sweet (seed for sale, for instance, via Southern Harvest here ). Not only will you get a very nice sweet tasting onion, but it also won't leave you in tears.
This is just one small example why it is great to grow your own!
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Food garden activities suggested for August
- Remove weeds now before they begin to grow and become a problem in spring
- Make big changes to your food garden’s bed, paths or irrigation at this quiet time
- Cut up and work in green manures you sowed in autumn
- Repair, sharpen, or replace tools before things get busy again
- Sow in pots loose-leaf lettuce, brassicas, leek, parsley, spring onions and salad onions
- Sow tomatoes in pots inside from late August in a sunny spot or heated propagation tray
- Sow in your garden broadbeans and peas (if you don’t get heavy frosts), spinach, chard and silverbeet
- Plant leek and onion (after applying some lime or dolomite), potatoes, yacons and ocas (once the chance of frost has passed), brassica, celery, parsley, loose-leaf lettuce, globe artichoke roots (in a sunny well-draining position)
- Cut off old asparagus stalks, add compost and add new asparagus crowns
- Lift leeks, carrots and parsnips before they go to seed, and go woody
- Control slugs and snails if the weather warms up, especially around peas
- Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximize their health and growth
- Plan roughly what you want to grow this coming season and purchase seeds
Fruit trees and berries (* = don't repeat if already done recently)
- Tidy up strawberry beds, replace 3-year old plants and feed each plant
- Remove all fruit tree litter and loose bark and discard this
- Remove all weeds under and around fruit trees
- Remove old unproductive passionfruit vines
- Tidy up and prune berry bushes
- Prune apple and pear trees if this was not done in autumn
- Prune grape vines back hard while they are still dormant
- Prune citrus trees, if they need it, when there is no longer any chance of frost
- Prune or tip-prune fig trees in late August just before they break dormancy
- Spray peach and nectarine trees and ground under them with curly leaf fungicide a second time
- Plant new blueberries and give them blood and bone and pine needle mulch
- Plant new (bare-rooted) fruit trees, berry canes and grapes
- Move a fruit tree, if it needs to be moved, if the tree is still dormant
- Apply dolomite or lime to peach, nectarine, apple and pear trees if pH is below 6.5 (*)
- Apply potash to apple and pear trees - they will love you for doing so (*)
- Give all fruit trees a generous amount of woody mulch
- Spread compost, old manure, complete organic fertiliser around fruit trees and berries
- Put chooks around your fruit trees while they are dormant to get rid of pests
- Protect fruit tree trunks and roots if your chooks are damaging them
- Feed citrus trees a good dose of nitrogen-rich fertilisers from late August (*)
- Feed blueberry bushes a generous amount of blood & bone and mulch them
- Apply whip and tongue grafts to apricot and late plum varieties until mid-August
- Collect scions of dormant fruit trees and store in fridge for grafting later in the season (*)
For a complete list of suggested food garden activities for every month of the year see Food Garden Calendar on the Food Garden Group blog.
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Happy food gardening,
Max Bee
To subscribe to this newsletter go to https://fggtas.wordpress.com and follow the prompts
Lots of food gardening info can be found at https://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/
For past food garden visits, recipes and past newsletters see https://fggextra.blogspot.com/
To join our Facebook page search for Food Gardeners Tasmania and apply for membership
The Food Garden Group is affiliated with Sustainable Living Tasmania
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