🍓 Food Garden Group newsletter - November 2024 🍓
We like to grow what we eat
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In this newsletter - What to do in your food garden in November, this month's Northern and Southern November food garden visits, last month's visits in words and pictures, visits planned for coming months, a new tomato virus, mulching, what's new on the Food Garden Group blog, and more.
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This month's Southern food garden visit
On Sunday 17 November at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Karen and Dan's garden at Blackmans Bay.
About their garden Karen wrote:
Nestled on just over an acre at the top of a hill near Peter Murrell Reserve, our home garden has been a labour of love since we bought the property in 2015. The garden sits on sandy soil, which has required significant effort to improve. What started with a few fruit trees and a large apple tree and it is now a productive and thriving space, thanks to nearly ten years of work.
I am a busy mum of three boys. I work and run my own business, so time in the garden can be hard to come by. My husband Dan helps by pitching in with tasks like weeding. The garden is designed to minimise maintenance, with woodchip paths and a comprehensive watering system. We’ve built six main veggie beds, currently growing tomatoes, peas, and various salad greens. Along the perimeter, a long bed holds blueberries, strawberries, and a few vine berries, including blackberry, loganberry, and boysenberry.
Our 15 fruit trees include citrus, apples, and stone fruits, with many espaliered to save space. I’ve also begun experimenting with kiwi fruit and avocados, though it’s a challenge on this windy block. To help, we’ve installed a shade cloth fence on one side. Under the espaliered trees, I’ve started a small food forest, planting herbs and insect-attracting flowers, which help reduce weeds and support pollinators.
The lower part of our property is a remnant native bush, with many types of native orchids. The gardens around the house are mostly ornamental. Wildlife management is an ongoing effort. We’ve installed rabbit-proof fencing around the perimeter to keep out rabbits and wallabies, and we have a friendly ring-tail possum who mostly leaves the garden alone. In the future, we hope to enclose the entire garden area to protect the fruit from birds.
I am a busy mum of three boys. I work and run my own business, so time in the garden can be hard to come by. My husband Dan helps by pitching in with tasks like weeding. The garden is designed to minimise maintenance, with woodchip paths and a comprehensive watering system. We’ve built six main veggie beds, currently growing tomatoes, peas, and various salad greens. Along the perimeter, a long bed holds blueberries, strawberries, and a few vine berries, including blackberry, loganberry, and boysenberry.
Our 15 fruit trees include citrus, apples, and stone fruits, with many espaliered to save space. I’ve also begun experimenting with kiwi fruit and avocados, though it’s a challenge on this windy block. To help, we’ve installed a shade cloth fence on one side. Under the espaliered trees, I’ve started a small food forest, planting herbs and insect-attracting flowers, which help reduce weeds and support pollinators.
The lower part of our property is a remnant native bush, with many types of native orchids. The gardens around the house are mostly ornamental. Wildlife management is an ongoing effort. We’ve installed rabbit-proof fencing around the perimeter to keep out rabbits and wallabies, and we have a friendly ring-tail possum who mostly leaves the garden alone. In the future, we hope to enclose the entire garden area to protect the fruit from birds.
Contributions for morning tea and the produce table will be much appreciated!
This Southern visit will be at Blackmans Bay, 10.30am on Sunday 17 November
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 17 November at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Steve and Araina's garden at Punchbowl.
About their garden Steve and Araina wrote:
We moved here 4 years ago, the place had been savagely hacked at in an attempt to neaten it up for sale. There was thick cardboard and woodchips on all the garden beds with random trees and retaining walls in odd places. Most of the yard was grass though with concrete pathways.
Year 1, we just wanted a veggie bed so I cleared a few trees to open up a space, added compost and grew food. The back corner was a dump all spot which remained ugly for a while. I attempted to prune the fruit trees back to health and generally just watched the seasons to see where the best potential would be.
Year 2, I pulled more trees out and built a bigger garden bed. After the second summer though I removed the sick fruit trees from the front, moved a feijoa to the front yard. Then Araina wanted to start growing flowers to make bouquets, so I ripped up all the concrete pathways, dug a drain along the entire back of the house and built the 3 beds directly out of the kitchen window. This year we also built the chook shed and our first 4 chooks arrived!
Year 3, the grass in the backyard went next, more flower beds. Then the chook shed expanded. Then I got sick of the oddly angled retaining wall made of granite and removed this to start from scratch. This summer was a bit of a mess with half finished projects. By the end though I had built a retaining wall, extended the size of the garden beds, added two mounded hugelkultur beds, flattened the corner dump pile, planted it with fruit trees, planted the front with new fruit trees and got more chooks!
Year 4, ever expanding, squeezing more in, planting trees to hide the neighbours and just refining our food crops. We have had a baby this year though so anything we grow is a big win! Half our yard is veggies, half dahlia tubers with a lot of random bits all over. It's pretty agricultural but it's very productive and we love it!
Contributions for morning tea and the produce table will be much appreciated!
This Northern visit will be at Punchbowl on Sunday 17 November 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 in words and pictures
North - On a glorious warm spring day, a short drive to the north of Launceston found us in a large 4 acre garden at Hillwood overlooking the Tamar River. Beyond the extensive ornamental beds we discovered a large area of productive food garden. For pictures and text about this visit go here.
South - Max unerringly picked brilliant spring weather for the Food Garden Group visit to Gemma and Geoff's garden in Otago. And what a garden it is! There was so much to see and discuss. For pictures and text about this visit go here.
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Food garden visits planned for coming months
North - Sunday 8 December: Gareth and Tanya's garden at Kings MeadowsNorth - Sunday 19 January: Michael and Suzanne's garden at PunchbowlSouth - Sunday 1 December: Jennie and Russell's garden at Sandfly
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.
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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The December FGG newsletter will be out early
FGG newsletters normally come out on the first of the month. Next month's newsletter will come out earlier because the Southern food garden visit for December will be on Sunday 1 December. If all goes to plan the December FGG newsletter will be out early on Saturday 23 November.
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Looking for more hosts
The best laid plans can come unstuck. Planned food garden visits don't always go ahead as people's circumstances change and hosts have to say 'sorry, but no longer available'.
I have some prospective hosts on my list for Southern visits in January and February, and will contact them soon, but am always on the lookout for more people with a food garden who are happy to host a food garden visit.
Our FGG visits are very relaxed affairs. One of the most common comments by hosts after a visit of our group is 'Gosh, so many nice comments! It makes you see your garden in a whole new light'.
Would you be happy to discuss a possible visit to your food garden? First step is for Denby (North) or Max and Gaye (South) to visit you and explore the possibility.
If you live in the South please contact Max at foodgardengroup@gmail.com
If you live in the North please contact Denby at fggnorthtas@gmail.com
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New on the Food Garden Group blog
I completely rewrote a 2016 blog post on this subject, adding what I learnt in the last eight years, what others in our group shared on this subject, and new advances in technology.
Tired of watering your garden by hand? Want to keep your food garden well-watered while you are away? After decades of this time-consuming gardening activity, I decided to automate the task, and found that with today's technology it is totally achievable and affordable for home gardeners. You will find this blog post here.
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If you are new to food gardening (or new to Tasmania)
Vegie Patch Basics is a year-round Food Garden Group series of blog posts for those who are new to food gardening or want to refresh their knowledge. It discusses how to set up a vegie patch from scratch and suggests what you can do each month. The series also introduces composting, irrigation, soil improvement and controlling pests. You can find the first chapter of Veggie Patch Basics here.
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Tis the season to get mulching
Mulching is discussed on the Food Garden Group blog here:
- Mulching - Why and How - discusses four approaches to mulching, how to mulch, how not to mulch, mulch as a soil improver, ten types of mulch and their pros and cons.
- What is Deep-Hay-Mulching? - discusses the benefits, where to buy hay, shares the experiences of three gardeners who began to use the technique, including their opinions after deep-hay-mulching for a number of years.
X-Hemp is Tasmania's only hemp fibre processing facility. X-Hemp currently has hemp garden mulch available for sale through their retail store (open Tues-Thurs 8.30am-3pm). They are located at Green Rises Road, Cressy. Hemp mulch is available in 5kg and 50kg bags. More information on their website www.xhemp.au or call them on 1300 943 677.
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Food garden activities suggested for December
- 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
- Sow in pots iceberg-type lettuce, loose-leaf lettuce, brassicas, leek, parsley, spring onions, salad onions, tomato, capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, corn, celery, Chinese cabbage and Asian greens, Brussels sprouts (for harvest this coming winter)
- Sow in your garden beans, spinach, chard, silverbeet, radish, 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), tomatoes, capsicums
- Remove sleeves from outside tomatoes when the weather warms up
- Put shade cloth over newly-planted seedlings to protect them from hot sun
- Hill potatoes with soil, mulch, compost to protect growing tubers from light
- Minimise damage to brassicas by caterpillars by removing them, netting or sprays
- Hand-pollinate cucurbits early in the morning
- Dig up garlic and allow it to dry before storing it in a cool well ventilated spot
- Remove flower-heads on rhubarb, so plants focus on forming leaves
- Control slugs and snails especially around beans
- Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximise their health and growth
- Net all your berry bushes well before the birds begin to eat your berries
- Net your stone fruit trees
- Thin fruits on all fruit trees, so fruits become larger and branches don’t break
- Remove excess foliage on fig trees
- Remove and destroy coddling moth infested fruit on apple, pear and quince trees
- Protect apple, pear and quince trees against codling moth
- Add sulphate of potash to the soil under peach and nectarine 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
- Foliar feed fruit trees with fish fertiliser and/or seaweed extract
- Feed each citrus tree a full watering can with a tbsp of Epsom Salts + a tbsp of iron chelate (*)
- Add sulphate of potash to the soil under peach and nectarine trees (*)
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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Tis the season to get growing
On the Food Garden Group blog there is lots of stuff about growing stuff ....- Growing pumpkins at Small but Tasty Pumpkin Trial
- How to grow leek at Easy Leek
- How to grow oca (New Zealand Yam) at All about Oca
- All about growing peas in Easy Peasy?
- Everything you need to know about growing potatoes is in All About Spuds
On the Food Garden Group blog there is lots of stuff about growing stuff ....
- Growing pumpkins at Small but Tasty Pumpkin Trial
- How to grow leek at Easy Leek
- How to grow oca (New Zealand Yam) at All about Oca
- All about growing peas in Easy Peasy?
- Everything you need to know about growing potatoes is in All About Spuds
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Happy food gardening,
Max Bee
FGG coordinator
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
Max Bee
FGG coordinator
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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