🌿 Food Garden Group newsletter - August 2024 🌿
We like to grow what we eat
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In this first newsletter of the 2024-2025 Food Garden Group season: plans for this season, an espalier workshop, food garden visits in the north and the south, Curly Leaf, what's new on our blogs, what to do in your food garden in August, and more!
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| early pea flowers enjoying the sun |
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It's the start of the FGG's 2024-2025 season!
After what I would describe as a good winter with enough frost, enough rain, and a bit of sun here and there - all pointing towards good food garden conditions this summer - it is time to get serious about Food Garden Group activities for the 24-25 season!
In the South we will start the season with an espalier workshop by FGG member and fruit tree expert Steven F. who has many varieties of espaliered fruit trees in his garden. Then in September food garden visits will begin!
This season, for the first time, food garden visits will be held in both the North and the South of the state! Denby lives at Kings Meadows and is keen to start Northern food garden visits in the same way as southern visits are held. A big thank you to Denby! With the help of a few wonderful helpers I will once again offer food garden visits in the South.
Welcome to all those who joined our group's Food Gardeners Tasmania Facebook page since our last newsletter at the end of last season! I hope that this newsletter will make it clear that the FGG is a lot more than just a Facebook page.
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Espalier is the name given to the method of growing fruit trees in a space-saving manner along a trellis or a fence. Different types of fruit trees require different approaches.
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| a Horizontal-T (top) and Fan espalier - thank you Mandy! |
On Saturday 17 August from 10am to around 12:30am Steven F. will explain espalier techniques and take people around his garden at Clarendon Vale to show how things are done for a wide variety of fruit trees.
The workshop is aimed at those with little or no espalier-experience who are keen to familiarise themselves with basic techniques, so they can plan their own espaliers. The workshop covers:
- Explanation of espalier techniques such as horizontal-T and Fan espalier
- Construction of various espalier trellises and fences.
- Planting a fruit tree, pruning and tying onto a wire.
- Different techniques for keeping branches where you want them.
- Pruning techniques for future shaping of espaliers.
As this is not a food garden visit, there will just be a short tea-break mid morning. There won't be a produce table.
Please note: this workshop will be held on a Saturday, not a Sunday!
Please RSVP to foodgardengroup@gmail.com if you would like to attend. When you RSVP please clearly state who you are RSVPing for and provide names, so we can have a name sticker for every participant. Once your RSVP is accepted you will receive the full info of this workshop, including where it will be held, and how to get there.
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If you live in the North of the state .....
You may have come across this newsletter because it was mentioned on our Facebook page. You may not have subscribed to it because food garden visits were always held in the South.
That is now changing. Northern coordinator Denby will aim to offer a food garden visit in the Northern region every month, starting in September.
To make sure that we don't have too many people turning up for food garden visits, we will ask people to RSVP.
If you subscribe to this FGG Newsletter, you will receive it in your email every month the moment it comes out. Your RSVP will have a good chance to arrive in Denby's email box before the visit is fully subscribed.
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What happens at FGG food garden visits?
Our visits are about seeing food gardens and meeting other food gardeners. Everyone arrives at around the start time. If you have any surplus food-plant seedlings, seeds or produce, please bring them. It all goes on the produce table, where people give and take without money changing hands.
After seeing the garden and lots of spontaneous discussion we share morning tea. Many people choose to bring something for morning tea, but this is completely optional.
You may go home with new food-plants, ideas for your garden, and produce. It’s all about sharing, learning from each other, and community.
Every time there is a food garden visit one of us writes a blog post about it on our group's FGG Extra blog. FGG Extra holds all past newsletters, great recipes that people contributed, and more. You can find the FGG Extra home page here.
Have a look at some of these posts if you want to find out what our food garden visits are about. In April we had a visit to Vivien and Mark's garden at Bellerive . Thank you Viv and Mark!
The month before there was a visit to a permaculture-focused food garden - Liz and Mark's garden at Snug . Thank you Liz and Mark!
Many of the food plants we have in our garden I would never have had if I hadn't brought them home from the FGG produce table.
Our FGG Extra blog contains so many yummy recipes because people wanted to know how to make what others brought for the morning tea part of these visits.
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Happy to host a visit to your food garden?
Northern coordinator Denby and Southern coordinator Max are looking for people who will be happy to host a food garden visit to their garden this season.
Here are comments by some of those who hosted a visit to their garden in the past:
- 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.
- 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.
The amount of work for hosts is very limited as we bring signs, tables, etc. and help you set up and take down afterwards. Visits, including morning teas, are always completely outside.
If you are interested in discussing the possibility of our group visiting your food garden ........
Southern food gardeners - please email Max on foodgardengroup@gmail.com .
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What's new on the Food Garden Group blog
The Food Garden Group blog is the place where you can find a lot of info about growing food. The whole blog is focused on doing this in Tasmanian conditions.
Tabs at the top of the blog make it easy to find subjects that are Introductory or cover Soil and Compost, Fruits and Berries, Vegs and Herbs, Seeds and Sowing, Pests and Infrastructure.
New on the Food Garden Group this month:
- Success with Blueberries is a brand new blog post that documents what I learnt when I decided to make a new blueberry bed that might be much more successful than our old one.
- Blog post Large Tomatoes on Show now shows all the wonderful tomato varieties that members put forward for last season's Golden Tomato Award 2024. This blog post will help people decide what varieties of large tomatoes to grow in their garden in coming seasons.
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Pruning fruit trees and berries - when and how?
It is time to prune some berry varieties, but others should be pruned later or not at all.
It is also time to prune some fruit trees, but many others are ideally pruned at other times of the year.
I find it hard to remember what to do for each type of fruit tree or berry, so a few years ago I put some concise info in a few blog posts .....
FGG blog post Pruning Berries discusses how and when to prune 13 berry varieties.
FGG blog post Quick Guide to Pruning Fruit Trees discusses how and when to prune 9 fruit tree varieties.
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Spray against Curly Leaf soon!
Make sure that you don't miss the opportunity to protect your peach, nectarines and almond trees against Curly Leaf fungal disease. You need to spray your trees after buds have formed but before they open!
Once flowers 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 Curly Leaf looks like and what to do about it look for Curly Leaf in Pest-Control Quick-Guide.
If you want to make your own Curly Leaf spray look for Bordeaux Mix or Burgundy Mix in Homemade Pest Control Sprays.
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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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