FGG Newsletter October 2024

        🫛 Food Garden Group newsletter - October 2024  🫛

 We like to grow what we eat 

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In this newsletter - the Northern and Southern October food garden visits, the September visits in words and pictures, visits planned for coming months, what's new on the Food Garden Group blog, the Botanical Gardens tomato sale, and more.

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This month's Southern food garden visit

On Sunday 20 October at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Gemma and Geoff's garden at Otago.

About their garden Gemma and Geoff wrote

We moved to our property in Otago in November 2016. At that time the property had a vacant sloping main paddock to the South, a court yard flower garden facing East and a lawn barbeque area to the North. Due to the pre-existing layout we have three vegetable garden areas on the block which together are more than sufficient for our needs.

Since arriving here we have developed the vacant paddock by planting a number of fruit trees including apples, cherries, nectarines, apricots, greengage plum, mulberry, avocado, orange and a few olive trees. We have also built a chook yard and a roost house, raised garden beds for raspberries and a vegetable patch in this area.

The old barbeque area is our main vegetable garden. We’ve also built a nine metre long raised bed on the West side of the house which is ideal for rotating crops.

 

All of these areas are watered via an underground irrigation system which is operated from two central control units. These irrigations systems maximise the use of water ensuring plants receive sufficient amounts without unnecessary wastage.

 

We’ve also built a three-bed hot composting area which produces all of our compost needs and we have a worm farm. Our garden is pretty much entirely organic, apart from some copper sulphate, and slug and snail bait!

We look forward to showing you around and catching up for a chat and a cuppa. Please wear your gardening shoes as our chooks usually free range and we have river ducks and native hens.

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

This Southern visit will be at Otago, 10.30am on Sunday 20 October

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

When you RSVP please clearly state who you are RSVPing for and provide names if you want to bring others, so we can have a name sticker ready for every person.

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This month's Northern food garden visit

On Sunday 20 October at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Charles and Irene's garden at Hillwood.

About their garden Irene wrote:

We have been here 5 years in October 2024. Our property consists of nearly 4 acres. When we first came here there were already a lot of established plants but we noticed that the soil was not very good. There were no earthworms and it was quite powdery and dry with not much humus. We set about soil improvement adding truckloads of mulch, lucerne, pea straw, cow and horse manure, dynamic lifter and sugar cane mulch in the vegetable garden. We also added compost, seaweed and mushroom compost.

During the last 5 years we have removed some weaker plants and have planted about 20 espalier fruit trees and many ornamentals. We inherited an established orchard with peach, nashi pears, nectarine, plums (Japanese and European), greengage tree, lemon trees, bay trees, various apple trees and a quince tree. We also have black, white and red currants, blueberries, blackberries, mulberries and various other berries. I bottle, freeze and make preserves with the produce and give away any surplus.

Calendula, English lavender and an array of herbs are grown and used in the kitchen as well as in balms and soaps. Herbs including camomile, lemon verbena and mint are used in teas.

Our biggest challenge has always been the weeds. I used to use chemicals but recently I have learned to live with them and sometimes even embrace them as I found out they can be useful. Chickweed and dandelions are also in soups and salads and stinging nettles are used in teas. Balms are made from chickweed, yarrow and comfrey. I have been crowding out the weeds with dwarf comfrey which I also use as a liquid feed or mulch around fruit trees.

We have 6 chickens at the moment that live in the orchard. In summer we have Harlequin bugs which I pick off by hand to keep numbers down. My vegetable garden is organic, and I grow plants around it that good bugs like, such as tansy and yarrow.

My partner Charles has built a green house and a potting shed, and I love to potter around and plant new seeds in the potting shed.

I use coir and biochar in the garden. We have a large water tank (rain water) that services the house, and a smaller rain water tank for my vegetable garden. The rest of the garden is on mains water. In summer it can be challenging with watering as there is no reticulation.

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

This Northern visit will be at Hillwood on Sunday 20 October at 10.30am

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

When you RSVP please clearly state who you are RSVPing for and provide names if you want to bring others, so we can have a name sticker ready for every person.

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Last month's food garden visits

The first ever Northern Food Garden Group visit was a major success with 30 enthusiastic people turning up with great contributions to the produce and morning tea tables. After sharing many food growing experiences, good chats, and a great morning tea, everyone left with a smile on their face and produce, seeds or plants in their hands. This was a brilliant start to what promises to become a vibrant Northern group. Read all about this visit and the garden we visited here.

Despite weeks of stormy weather, Max and Gaye waved their magic weather wand, and we relished the first Southern food garden visit of the season under clear skies and sunshine at Conningham. And what a delight to join nonagenarian Loes, in her lovely north-facing garden – flowers, fruit trees, native plants, a veggie patch and chook run combining with a beautiful view out over North West Bay. Read all about it here.

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Food garden visits planned for coming months

South - Sunday 17 November: Karen and Dan's garden at Blackmans Bay
South - Sunday 1 December: Jennie and Russell's garden at Sandfly

South - Sunday 19 January: Maria and Michel's garden at Ferntree

North - Sunday 17 November: Steve and Araina's garden at Punchbowl

North - Sunday 8 December: Gareth and Tanya's garden at Kings Meadows

A big thank you to these FGG members for being happy to host a visit!

Please be aware: dates and gardens may change! Each visit will be advertised in this newsletter at the start of the month the visit is in. At that time you can RSVP, not before. 

There is a maximum number of people that can attend each visit. To avoid disappointment please RSVP early in all cases.

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New on the Food Garden Group blog

Food Gardens and Wildlife

On the Food Garden Group blog was a blog post written in 2013 about wildlife and food gardens. I took that post and completely rewrote it, adding info that our food gardeners shared over the last 11 years in regard to managing the challenges of living with wildlife. There is something here for everyone. Have a look at Food Gardens and Wildlife here.

Garden by Michael, Robyn, Tracey & Linda - photo by Laura

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This year's Royal Botanical Gardens tomato sale

On the Royal Botanical Gardens Facebook site it was recently announced that the RTBG annual Tomato Plant Sale is back and better than ever! Here’s what’s in store: over 80 heirloom tomato varieties, a selection of fresh herbs: basil, chives, parsley, a range of cooler climate chillies, juicy lemons, native plants.

The sale is from Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 October from 11am to 3pm.

Thursday Presale: Get early access with a $10 donation!

Don’t forget to bring your own carry bags and boxes to take your new plants home safely.

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Tis the season for sowing

All you need to know about sowing in pots and punnets: see here.

All you need to know about sowing directly in your garden: see here.

You can make your own seed tapes: find out how here.

When, how and where to sow potatoes: see here.

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Food garden activities suggested for 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

• If you plant tomatoes outside, protect them and capsicums  with sleeves against cold snaps      
• 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

Many of the topics mentioned above are discussed in posts on the Food Garden Group blog.

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

FGG coordinator

 

 

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For past food garden visits, recipes and past newsletters see https://fggextra.blogspot.com/

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The Food Garden Group is affiliated with Sustainable Living Tasmania