🍇 Food Garden Group newsletter - April 2025 🍇
We like to grow what we eat
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In this last newsletter of our 2024-2025 food garden season - what to do in your food garden in April, this month's Northern and Southern food garden visits, last month's visits in words and pictures, buying a fruit tree, growing garlic and more.
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This month's Southern food garden visit
On Sunday 13 April at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Maria and Michel's garden at Ferntree.
About their garden Maria and Michel wrote
We moved to Fern Tree in 1999 and were especially attracted to the beautiful garden and the north facing aspect including the view of Kunyani. It had some lovely native plants which we continue to expand and maintain. The garden sits at 400 meters of elevation, so it includes a lot of alpine plants as well. The native mountain pepper self seed in the garden and you will see that there are numerous ones spread around the garden. This year we have had a bountiful harvest of peppers.
When we first arrived there was a small vegie garden without any fencing. The previous owners had a dog which seemed to keep the possums at bay. There were no wallabies at that time.
With time we expanded the garden together. Michel had one side to himself, and I had the other side. This works well as we have different gardening methods and we complement each other with our different styles of gardening. We have built up the quality of soil with time as well, which allows us to grow a variety of vegetables. We have a little hot house which gives us a bountiful amount of tomatoes, basil and cucumbers.
Unfortunately, as it is April, you may not see as many fruits from the garden. This summer we had a bumper year with our potatoes, salad, carrots (ongoing) and berries. The berry house is protected from birds and possums. We grow redcurrants, raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries and black currant.
Our biggest challenge in the garden is the wildlife. Around the perimeter of the vegie garden we have an electrified fence, to keep the possums out. Halfway around the garden we have it fully fenced to keep the wallabies out. Around 15 years ago we did not have a wallaby problem, but they gradually moved in, causing havoc in most of the garden. Even the native plants were not spared. The other challenge in our garden is the alpine type weather we get and snowfall.
We usually have chooks in the chook shed, but we are presently having a break, as they tend to attract rats. We have a duck who keeps the slugs and snails at bay.
Contributions for morning tea and the produce table will be much appreciated!
Discussion topics: growing food at higher altitudes, growing pepper berries
This Southern visit will be at Ferntree, 10.30am on Sunday 13 April.
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 13 April at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Nicki's garden at Ravenswood.
About her garden Nicki wrote:
By the time I welcome the Food Garden Group to my garden it will only have been in place for 7 months, so, very much a juvenile garden!!
I have always dreamed of having a wildly productive food garden and can thank my mum for my interest in gardening, having fond memories of learning all about the soil, and growth cycles, although I have had to re learn many things because what grows in the tropics doesn’t always survive down here in Tasmania!
After many, many years of dreaming I was able to purchase this property in September 2024 and moved in the weekend of a horrendous storm. Overnight the trellis on which a jasmine grew was completely ripped out of the ground. I have 2 blackcurrant bushes where the trellis left holes…silver linings after all.
To my family’s relief I was finally able to plant the two peach trees that I had dragged from rental property to rental property and quickly added a few more fruit trees to fill in the “orchard”. Two old apple trees were the only established fruit trees on the property, I had no idea what variety but I think they are Gala apples now that I have seen and tasted the fruit which I am delighted with, although they were infested with coddling moth so I have removed most of the infested fruit this year while I trial few different methods to reduce the codling moth numbers over the coming years.
Like many areas of Launceston, the ground is heavy clay, quite shallow, along with a multitude of rocks. My neighbour pointed out the area was originally a rock quarry. In my haste to have something of my own to eat I have started with raised beds, all are filled with layers of cardboard, sheep manure, straw, composted chicken/cow manures and Glebe Gold. Being a virgin garden I have not had the time to build my own compost but after 6-12 months the straw and manures will have composted down and I will be able to fill my permanent beds with this moving forward.
My focus is primarily on permaculture principles, to grow what I love to eat, which is vegetables of all descriptions, I am so thankful to have this patch to nurture and experiment in.
I guess that would be my message to anyone who wonders “what should I grow/ how do I grow it”…. just pop a plant or seed in, experiment, see what happens, there are never failures in gardens, just experiments. Hopefully good ones!
I have always dreamed of having a wildly productive food garden and can thank my mum for my interest in gardening, having fond memories of learning all about the soil, and growth cycles, although I have had to re learn many things because what grows in the tropics doesn’t always survive down here in Tasmania!
After many, many years of dreaming I was able to purchase this property in September 2024 and moved in the weekend of a horrendous storm. Overnight the trellis on which a jasmine grew was completely ripped out of the ground. I have 2 blackcurrant bushes where the trellis left holes…silver linings after all.
To my family’s relief I was finally able to plant the two peach trees that I had dragged from rental property to rental property and quickly added a few more fruit trees to fill in the “orchard”. Two old apple trees were the only established fruit trees on the property, I had no idea what variety but I think they are Gala apples now that I have seen and tasted the fruit which I am delighted with, although they were infested with coddling moth so I have removed most of the infested fruit this year while I trial few different methods to reduce the codling moth numbers over the coming years.
Like many areas of Launceston, the ground is heavy clay, quite shallow, along with a multitude of rocks. My neighbour pointed out the area was originally a rock quarry. In my haste to have something of my own to eat I have started with raised beds, all are filled with layers of cardboard, sheep manure, straw, composted chicken/cow manures and Glebe Gold. Being a virgin garden I have not had the time to build my own compost but after 6-12 months the straw and manures will have composted down and I will be able to fill my permanent beds with this moving forward.
My focus is primarily on permaculture principles, to grow what I love to eat, which is vegetables of all descriptions, I am so thankful to have this patch to nurture and experiment in.
I guess that would be my message to anyone who wonders “what should I grow/ how do I grow it”…. just pop a plant or seed in, experiment, see what happens, there are never failures in gardens, just experiments. Hopefully good ones!
Contributions for morning tea and the produce table will be much appreciated!
This Northern visit will be at Ravenswood on Sunday 13 April 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
On Sunday 16 March the Northern Food Garden Group visited David and Deb's garden at Youngtown:
After some very welcome early morning rain, David and Deb's garden in Youngtown provided a lovely setting for our March northern garden visit. An attractive ornamental garden led us to a productive food garden including numerous fruit trees, raised vegetable beds, a potting shed and a glasshouse providing lots to explore.
On Sunday 23 March the Southern Food Garden Group visited Ailsa's garden at Mornington:
On a cool autumn morning, we gathered at Ailsa’s impressive property in Mornington to see how, in the past 10 years, she’s overcome some significant issues with her plot to create an incredibly productive garden. Keep reading to see why most of us who attended went home a little inspired and a lot jealous at what we saw.
You can read the complete article here.
Many thanks to Denby and Kate (North) and Laura (South) for writing up these food garden visits.
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A big 'thank you' to all FGG volunteers
This is the last newsletter of this 2024-2025 FGG season - time to thank the people that helped make this season a success:- Denby started the Northern FGG group in September, and, with some initial help by me, coordinated the whole process from finding hosts to RSVPs and writing about the visits afterwards. She made the first season of the Northern group a real success. On behalf of everyone - many thanks for being a great regional coordinator!
- My partner Gaye for being really wonderful in looking after Southern food garden visits on the days of the visits. She also proof-reads everything I write and that is really helpful - Gaye, I could not do it without you!
- A big 'thank you' to Laura for coordinating our Facebook page with me and approving (and occasionally not-approving) new Facebook members on a daily basis throughout the year. A second pair of coordinator-eyes on that page, and on those who occasionally go against its rules, is very useful! Much appreciated!
- Pauline manages our FGG Extra web site. It contains a lot more than newsletters and visit write-ups. Pauline, we very much appreciate your work editing and adding content to the FGG Extra page!
- Our visit-writers - Nicki and Kate in the North and Mandy, Pauline, Laura and Ngaire in the South. Your blog posts about each visit were much appreciated, and you are great writers and photographers!
- Last, but not least, a big 'thank you' to the 16 food garden hosts who welcomed us to their gardens this 24-25 season. Without you we would have missed out on our favourite food-garden-community events. We are very grateful for your generosity in sharing your time and garden with us.
It's hard to believe, but this month's visits are the end of the 14th season of the Food Garden Group. Someone once commented that surely, the group must now virtually run itself. I wish, but, no, it doesn't. Keeping the tyres of the FGG-vehicle pumped up and its motor ticking along nicely, is a fair amount of work, but it's not a problem, with volunteers like the ones mentioned above, and others in the group who provide support in a variety of ways!
There will be no FGG newsletter in May, June and July. For those who want to find out what happened at our April food garden visits: you will find the write-ups at the top of the FGG Extra blog here. The first FGG newsletter of the 2025-2026 season will be out on 1 August.
- Denby started the Northern FGG group in September, and, with some initial help by me, coordinated the whole process from finding hosts to RSVPs and writing about the visits afterwards. She made the first season of the Northern group a real success. On behalf of everyone - many thanks for being a great regional coordinator!
- My partner Gaye for being really wonderful in looking after Southern food garden visits on the days of the visits. She also proof-reads everything I write and that is really helpful - Gaye, I could not do it without you!
- A big 'thank you' to Laura for coordinating our Facebook page with me and approving (and occasionally not-approving) new Facebook members on a daily basis throughout the year. A second pair of coordinator-eyes on that page, and on those who occasionally go against its rules, is very useful! Much appreciated!
- Pauline manages our FGG Extra web site. It contains a lot more than newsletters and visit write-ups. Pauline, we very much appreciate your work editing and adding content to the FGG Extra page!
- Our visit-writers - Nicki and Kate in the North and Mandy, Pauline, Laura and Ngaire in the South. Your blog posts about each visit were much appreciated, and you are great writers and photographers!
- Last, but not least, a big 'thank you' to the 16 food garden hosts who welcomed us to their gardens this 24-25 season. Without you we would have missed out on our favourite food-garden-community events. We are very grateful for your generosity in sharing your time and garden with us.
It's hard to believe, but this month's visits are the end of the 14th season of the Food Garden Group. Someone once commented that surely, the group must now virtually run itself. I wish, but, no, it doesn't. Keeping the tyres of the FGG-vehicle pumped up and its motor ticking along nicely, is a fair amount of work, but it's not a problem, with volunteers like the ones mentioned above, and others in the group who provide support in a variety of ways!
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Food garden visits next season
You can help make next season a success by offering to host a food garden visit! We have monthly visits from September to April in both the North and the South. We can't do it without you! If you would be happy to consider an FGG visit to your garden, we will visit you first to discuss how is might be done, parking, dates etc. On the day of the visit we bring a lot of things with us to make this an easy enjoyable event for you.
If you are happy to discuss a food garden visit to your garden next season ......
Contact Denby in the North on fggnorthtas@gmail.comContact Max in the South on foodgardengroup@gmail.com
Here are some of the comments hosts made after FGG visits to their gardens:
It was an absolute pleasure for us to host a recent garden visit by the Food Garden Group and to share our property with like-minded friends. Max and Gaye are great organisers and arranged the entire event from roadside signage to parking areas, tables, urn and mugs. If you are thinking of hosting a garden event at your place, please get in touch with Max and Gaye and lock in a date. We would be pleased to come along and share our love of gardening (Gemma & Geoff Nov24)
I really enjoyed the visit to our garden and feel a bit bereft now everyone has gone! For those thinking about hosting it is a great incentive to re-evaluate the garden and tinker with the areas you may have neglected or want to rejuvenate. Max gives you a good long lead in time so you can quietly prepare over several months and then relax on the day. It is 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! Go on, talk to Max about a date (Cathy Feb21)
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Thinking of buying a new fruit tree this winter?
In August nurseries will receive a fresh lot of fruit trees ready for planting. You could choose your next fruit tree by visiting nurseries at that time, but you will find that many customers pre-order their tree(s), and you may only be able to get one of the left-overs. A better approach might be to determine now what fruit tree you want, and what variety, and order the tree when orders open. Most nurseries begin to take orders for fruit trees in May.
Click on the links below to help you choose your fruit trees -
Apples and Pears , Apricots , Avocados , Citrus fruits , Loquats , Peaches and Nectarines🍇
Thinking of buying a new fruit tree this winter?
In August nurseries will receive a fresh lot of fruit trees ready for planting. You could choose your next fruit tree by visiting nurseries at that time, but you will find that many customers pre-order their tree(s), and you may only be able to get one of the left-overs. A better approach might be to determine now what fruit tree you want, and what variety, and order the tree when orders open. Most nurseries begin to take orders for fruit trees in May.
Click on the links below to help you choose your fruit trees -
Apples and Pears , Apricots , Avocados , Citrus fruits , Loquats , Peaches and Nectarines
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New 🎈 on the Food Garden Group blog
- In Tasmania April is the perfect time to plant garlic. New Food Garden Group blog post Garlic - Getting the basics right may help you on your way to a marvellous garlic crop in December.
- Should I sow seeds that were a left-over from last season, or is it best to discard left-overs and always use new seed? New blog post Sow these seeds or throw them out? may help you make up your mind.
Food garden activities suggested for April
- Water regularly to make sure your soils don’t dry out
- Make sure beds are well mulched to conserve water
- Keep weeds at bay and don't allow them to go to seed
- Sow green manures where your soil needs to become more open and friable
- Sow in pots spring and salad onions
- Sow in your garden winter varieties of spinach (try sowing one row every fortnight), broad beans and peas (from late April if you don’t get heavy frosts in winter),
- Sow in your hothouse herbs like coriander and dill for use this winter and spring
- Plant leek, garlic, spring onions and salad onions (after adding some lime to the soil), Chinese cabbage, Asian greens
- Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximise growth before it slows down
- Collect seeds from heirloom varieties of crops that you would like to grow again next season
- Put something under pumpkins that rest on the ground so that they don’t rot
- Take pumpkins inside when the weather turns cold and damp
- Bring all unripe tomatoes inside for further ripening if the weather turns cold
- Remove flower-heads on rhubarb so plants focus on forming leaves
- Remove beans and other summer crops when the weather turns cold
- Take beds to their next stage in your crop rotation plan
- Control slugs and snails after rain if the weather is still warm
- Dig up potatoes and hill the ones that you are leaving for later
- Sow green manures where your soil needs to become more open and friable
- Plant new blueberry bushes
- Feed all blueberry bushes a generous amount of blood & bone and mulch them
- Prune apple, pear, quince, cherry and stone fruit trees once their foliage stops growing
- Remove and destroy coddling moth infested fruit on apple, pear and quince trees
- Trap and kill coddling moths on late apple, pear and quince trees
- Check existing coddling moth traps and replace and refresh where needed
- After harvest feed peach and nectarine trees blood & bone or mature poultry manure (*)
- Consider adding new fruit trees and berries to your garden and order them from nurseries
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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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