🫛 Food Garden Group newsletter - August 2025 🫛
We like to grow what we eat
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Welcome to the 2025-2026 Food Garden Group season!
Winter is a busy period for many food gardeners because they use the dormancy period of fruit trees, berries and perennial food plants like asparagus to prune, fertilise and move plants, making changes for the season ahead.
For those who have had a well-deserved rest from food gardening, this August newsletter is a wake-up call - Spring is not far off. It is time to remove all the pesky weeds that are slowly taking over your food garden and get pruning, fertilising, sowing and planting! But no need to panic! Enjoy your time in the garden.
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| flowering broad beans |
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Introducing this season's FGG team!
Quite a few people will contribute to the Food Garden Group activities this season! The aim will be to offer a food garden visit in both the North and South of the state every month from September to April and inspire and help you make your food garden season a success.
In the North - visits to food gardens are currently being planned by Denby. During the season Nicki and Denby will once again write about every visit on our FGG Extra blog.
In the South- Dirk & Pauline joined Max & Gaye and together they will be planning and coordinating this season's southern food garden visits. Visits will be written up by Mandy, Laura, Ngaire, Pauline and Max.
Max will continue his role as overall FGG coordinator. He will write newsletters and write Food Garden Group blog posts.
Laura and Max will once again look after new Facebook members and make sure that our Facebook page remains clean and relevant.
Onwards and upwards!
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About the food garden visits we had in April .....
On Sunday 17 April the Southern Food Garden Group visited Maria and Michel's garden at Ferntree. You can read all about this great visit here.
Also on Sunday 17 April the Northern Food Garden Group visited Nicki's garden at Ravenswood. For great photos and texts about this visit go here.
Many thanks to Denby (North) and Ngaire (South) for writing up these food garden visits.
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New 🎈 on the Food Garden Group blog
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Use them or lose them!
This expression very much applies when it comes to Tasmania's local plant nurseries and seed merchants.
A few weeks ago I turned into the parking area next to Howrah Nursery and couldn't believe my eyes. The large fenced area where the nursery always was .... was completely empty! Howrah Nursery has stopped operating and is selling off its remaining stock at discounted rates elsewhere. Google Howrah Nursery for more details.
In other news: Nik Magnus of Woodbridge Fruit Trees announced a month or so ago:
Woodbridge Fruit Trees will close in September 2025 at the end of this year’s bare rooted season. I want to thank you all for your business and support to make this venture such a success, helping my Dad (Bob Magnus) and I spread our love of interesting and heritage plants across Australia for people to grow in their orchards and back yards.
Nik explains the reasons for the decision here. Worth reading!
Tasmanian garden nurseries and seed merchant with their local knowledge and varieties specifically developed or stocked for Tasmanian conditions need our support. If we don't buy their products, one day we will only be able to buy plants and seeds developed for mainland conditions from nationwide warehouses.
There is also some good news: The Lost Seed used to be a Tasmanian seed merchant. Then they moved to Queensland. Now, some years later, they are back in North-West Tasmania! With their dedication to quality they have gone back to growing and providing seeds and plants for Tasmanian conditions. At present, seeds, live plants, fruit-tree scions and fertilisers are sold via their web site here, but there is talk about opening a shop on their property. A recent newsletter mentioned that they now sell over 520 varieties of apple scions + 40 varieties of root stock.
Buy local! Buy Tasmanian!
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At this time of year you may want to know .........
- Where to buy vegetable seeds: FGG blog post Tasmanian Veggie Seed Suppliers provides information about the nine Tasmanian seed merchants that specialise in selling seeds for Tasmania's climate.
- How to spray against Curly Leaf for peach, almond and nectarine trees: I was surprised when in 2024 in our garden the first buds began to open on 11 August. The problem is that, if you spray after 'bud-burst' (the moment flowers begin to open), you are too late for the whole season. Find out about Curly Leaf and what to spray in the Curly Leaf section of Pest-Control Quick-Guide on the Food Garden Group blog.
- How to set up or redesign a food garden: In 2019 our group visited a property where at that point there was no food garden at all, and we brainstormed where and how a good food garden could be set up. Food Garden Group blog post Starting a New Food Garden was put together after that visit and might help and inspire you!
- How to prune berries: now is the time to prune berry bushes. But how would you know what to do with the wide variety of berries that we have in Tasmania? Food Garden Group blog post Pruning Berries shows that pruning is not hard and then it discusses pruning-tips for the 13 most common Tasmanian berry varieties.
- How to prune fruit trees: Food Garden Group blog post Quick Guide to Pruning Fruit Trees provides general pruning tips and then covers more specific suggestions for pruning Apple and Pear, Apricot, Citrus, Fig, Loquat, Peach and Nectarine, and Plum trees. As you will see in this blog post, not all of these fruit trees should be pruned right now. Give pruning fruit trees a go! Most fruit trees a very forgiving. Pruning not-perfectly is much better than not pruning at all!
More articles on a myriad of Tasmanian food-garden subjects can be found through the grey index tabs at the top of The Food Garden Group Blog home page.
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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 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
- 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 (*)
Many of the topics mentioned above are discussed in posts on the Food Garden Group blog.
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It's not a bad idea to subscribe to this newsletter!
Go to https://fggtas.wordpress.com/, click on To Subscribe click HERE, and follow the prompts.
Once a month you will receive an email with a link to this newsletter as soon as it comes out. You won't receive any additional advertising or rubbish, just a link to this newsletter!
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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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