FGG Newsletter September 2025

 

🍊  Food Garden Group newsletter - September 2025  🍊

 We like to grow what we eat 

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It's the start of spring (well, on paper) and the start of the food-garden-visit season!!! In this newsletter you will find the food garden visits planned for September and coming months, what's new on the Food Garden Group blog, what to do in your food garden this month, what FGG blog articles might be useful in September, and more.

This month's Southern food garden visit

On Sunday 14 September at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Cliff''s garden at Orielton, near Sorell.

About his garden Cliff wrote

I grew cherries organically and successfully in the Huon valley for 22 years having a niche market locally and through mainland wholesalers. We pitted and dried all our second-grade fruit: very labour intensive but I could name my price. 

Anyway, I thought about retiring; trees getting old, possums, birds, irrigation and the climate changing against us.

We sold our property and moved to flat and windy Orielton on 1.3 hectares. Spent first year renovating house, hare and dog proofing boundary fence, planting 300 native tubestock, sowing red/white clover. This property was the existing farm subdivided so had good sheds and importantly a bore pump (salt levels tolerable for most plants).

There were a few existing fruit trees that were neglected and sheep/hare damaged. Grafted unknown plums, planted 20 odd stone and pome fruits and some figs. Heavy clay, so I planted in raised boxes using cheap compost with additives. Marion berry (pre-xmas) and autumn raspberries. 

I built a 20x25m windbreak and netted cage around the orchard. This reduces the wind by at least half. I resurrected dead veg beds by building 500mm high raised boxing. Basically organic operation here. Leave grass to grow high then cut and collect for mulch. Make a lot of fermented plant 'tea' for veg and orchard. Grey house water also useful if careful.

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

Discussion topics: building a fruit tree/vegetable cage, fruit tree varieties and management

This Southern visit will be at Orielton, 10.30am on Sunday 14 September

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 28 September at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Adrienne's garden at Ravenswood.

About her garden Adrienne wrote:

I have now been in this garden for almost 2 years. It is a sloping block on rocky ground, and the previous owners did an amazing job at carving out a garden from a rocky paddock. I have transformed a predominantly succulent garden into a cottage garden.

I have cherry-picked which plants I have kept, such as the hedges, the lemon tree and the herbs. The existing strawberry patch and the rhubarb have been kept and divided to fill other spots in the garden. I have extended the garden beds to utilise the space much better and have interspersed food producing plants throughout the rest of the garden. My vegetable garden is planned on a six-crop rotation system although there is some overflow into the rest of the garden as some crops take a lot more space than others, hence you may find zucchinis growing amongst the roses or tomatoes through the penstemons. I have extended the vegetable garden with some new beds.

In terms of fruit production, I have planted 15 different types of fruit trees. I also have various berry crops. While the strawberries, blackcurrants and raspberries have been quite successful, the red currents have struggled and the gooseberries are on notice to produce or be replaced. I would welcome any advice on the berries from the members as my investigations on how old plants need to be before their first prune has resulted in confusion rather than clarification.

My main garden as it is fully fenced so pademelons and wallabies don't affect it. My main pest is birds which is both a problem and a blessing. They are very good at keeping the problem insects at bay but equally good at scratching out emerging seedlings. In summer my garden is a sea of bird netting but I enjoy the birds so much so that I have a lot of bird themed garden art.

There are some problem areas in the garden which I'm working on and some areas I haven't decided what to do with as well as space is earmarked for new beds which will take some time to establish. I'm happy to discuss approaches to these with the members so I can plan and achieve a complete garden.

My garden is not a finished product. It’s very much a work in progress but I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

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

This Northern visit will be at Ravenswood on Sunday 28 September 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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Food garden visits planned for coming months

South - Sunday 12 October: Aimee & Greg's garden at Sandford
South - Saturday 15 November: Chris's garden at Old Beach

South - Sunday 7 December: Jan's garden at Dynnyrne

North - Sunday 19 October: George & Kathleen's garden at South Launceston

North - Sunday 9 November: Wolfram's garden at Hadspen

North - Sunday 7 December: Harry's garden at Bridgenorth

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

Why we need organic fertilisers - Why are manure, compost and worm castings not enough to keep your organic food garden healthy and productive over the years? What else do you need and what is the best way to add that to your food garden? The answers can be found here.

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At this time of year you may want to know .........

• 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? Food Garden Group blog post Sow these seeds or throw them out? may help you make up your mind.

• Why can it be better to sow in pots or punnets inside, next to sunny window, or in a hothouse?  Blog post Sowing in Pots and Punnets looks at this and how it is best done.

• Are their vegetables that very much prefer to be sown directly in the food garden, rather than in punnets? FGG blog post Sowing in Your Garden looks at the advantages of sowing directly in your food garden and how it is done.

• How to avoid having to thin seedlings because too many came up. FGG blog post Make Your Own Seed Tapes shows you how.

• Which variety of seed-potato is the best if there are so many varieties to choose from in nurseries and hardware stores?  FGG blog post A Guide to Potato Varieties will help you choose the varieties you like best.

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Food garden activities suggested for September

• Mulch after good rains so moisture is retained when temperatures go up
• Cut up and dig in green manures you sowed in autumn

Vegetables

• Sow in pots loose-leaf lettuce, brassicas, leek, parsley, spring onions, salad onions, celery, Chinese cabbage, Asian greens
• Sow in pots inside tomato, capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin, corn, celery
• Sow in your garden spinach, chard and silverbeet, broadbeans, peas, spinach, chard, silverbeet and radish
• Sow in your garden from mid-September carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede, beetroot
• Plant loose-leaf lettuce, iceberg-type lettuce, chard, spinach, silver beet, celery, parsley, potatoes, yacons and ocas, leeks and onions (after adding some lime to the soil), brassicas (provide protection against caterpillars), asparagus crowns (after adding compost to the soil)
• Control slugs and snails, especially around peas
• Minimise caterpillar damage to brassicas by manual removal, netting or spraying
• Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximise 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)

• Apply whip and tongue grafts to apple, pear and cherry trees
• Prune or tip-prune fig trees in the early part of the month just before they break dormancy (*)
• Plant a new citrus tree. Now is the best time.
• Stop having chooks around your fruit trees once the trees are out of dormancy
• Feed citrus trees a good dose of nitrogen-rich fertilisers (*)
• Feed each citrus tree a full watering can with a tbsp of Epsom Salts + a tbsp of iron chelate (*)
• Put in place protection measures against codling moth for apple, pear and quince trees
• Get rid of pear and cherry slug by covering pear and cherry leaves with ash or lime
• Add sulphate of potash to the soil under peach and nectarine trees (*)
• Foliar feed all fruit trees with fish fertiliser and/or seaweed extract
• Prune citrus trees if they need pruning

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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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/

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The Food Garden Group is affiliated with Sustainable Living Tasmania