🍋 Food Garden Group newsletter - September 2026 🍋
We like to grow what we eat
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It's the start of Spring and the start of the Food Garden Group's garden-visit season! In this newsletter - Visits planned for 2026-2027, details of the September visit, what to do in your food garden in September, what FGG blog articles might be useful this month, and more. You will find it all below.
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This season's Food Garden Group team ......
Food garden visit planning and coordination: Dirk and Pauline, Max and Gaye
Food garden visit write-ups: Mandy, Laura, Ngaire, Pauline, Max
FGG blogs and newsletters: Max
Seed box coordination: Frank
Food Gardeners Tasmania Facebook page: Max, Laura
Overall coordination: Max
A big thank you to these people for contributing to the FGG in the 2026-2027 season!
Over the winter break the FGG's Northern group joined the Launceston Horticultural Society. Many thanks to Denby for setting up this group and coordinating it. We wish her and her group the very best this coming season!
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Food garden visits planned for this season
Per today the following food garden visits have been confirmed for the 2026-2027 season:
Sunday 20 September 2026: Ngaire and Larry's garden at Mount Nelson
Sunday 18 October 2026: Bruce and Karen's garden at Oyster Cove
Sunday 22 November 2026: Karen's garden at New Town
Sunday 13 December 2026: Arnold's garden at Granton
Sunday 17 January 2027: Debbie and Rick's garden at Austins Ferry
Sunday 14 February 2027: Springhaven garden at Lindisfarne
Sunday 13 or 21 March 2027: Shelley and Cam's garden at Bellerive
April 2027: Yet to be finalised
A big thank you to these people for being happy to host an FGG visit!
Please be aware: dates and gardens could change as the season progresses! 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. 🍋
This month's Southern food garden visit
On Sunday 20 September at 10.30am you will be very welcome in Ngaire and Larry's food garden at Mount Nelson.
About their garden Ngaire and Larry wrote
We moved to our property on ‘the bends’ of Mount Nelson in 2016. The block is just over 900 square metres of typically challenging Mount Nelson terrain – steep and rocky, with heavy clay soil. Although we are around 160 metres above sea level, our position on the sheltered side of the mountain, relatively close to the water, means we rarely get frosts. Rainfall is also lower than the Hobart average.
For the past couple of years, our focus has been on major infrastructure projects, including replacing the deck, adding paving and installing new fencing. Now that those jobs are largely behind us, we’re turning our attention back to the garden and, in particular, some much-needed planting.
Our biggest challenge is wildlife. We have a significant pest population, including a large (beloved) mob of pademelons and wallabies, along with (less-beloved) possums and cockatoos. About two years ago, we fenced off a large section of the yard containing most of our raised beds and fruit trees. This has reduced, but unfortunately not eliminated, the incursions. This year, the cockatoos made a particular mess of the apricot and plum trees, despite bird netting, while possums continue to make regular raids on the brassicas. The battle continues!
We also have a small greenhouse, which we mainly use for raising seedlings and growing a few early tomatoes and cucumbers. We’ve experimented with eggplants and capsicums in the past, but both attracted large numbers of spider mites and whitefly, so we’ve given up on them for now. The greenhouse gets full sun and can easily exceed 35°C on sunny days, even when the outside temperature is quite cool. Shade cloth over the roof has helped keep temperatures down without compromising ventilation.
Outside the fenced garden is a fully enclosed 5 x 6 metre polypipe cage. Originally used for our main vegetable beds, the now-fenced front yard provides better sun and shelter, so most of our vegetables have moved there. We’re transforming the cage into a berry enclosure instead. This winter we transplanted six blueberry bushes and are keeping our fingers crossed that they settle in well. We’re also trialling a dwarf peach, strawberries and raspberries, along with an assortment of bramble berries sourced from fellow Food Garden Group members.
There’s plenty still to do, but after a few years focused on infrastructure, we’re looking forward to be getting back to the growing.
For the past couple of years, our focus has been on major infrastructure projects, including replacing the deck, adding paving and installing new fencing. Now that those jobs are largely behind us, we’re turning our attention back to the garden and, in particular, some much-needed planting.
Our biggest challenge is wildlife. We have a significant pest population, including a large (beloved) mob of pademelons and wallabies, along with (less-beloved) possums and cockatoos. About two years ago, we fenced off a large section of the yard containing most of our raised beds and fruit trees. This has reduced, but unfortunately not eliminated, the incursions. This year, the cockatoos made a particular mess of the apricot and plum trees, despite bird netting, while possums continue to make regular raids on the brassicas. The battle continues!
We also have a small greenhouse, which we mainly use for raising seedlings and growing a few early tomatoes and cucumbers. We’ve experimented with eggplants and capsicums in the past, but both attracted large numbers of spider mites and whitefly, so we’ve given up on them for now. The greenhouse gets full sun and can easily exceed 35°C on sunny days, even when the outside temperature is quite cool. Shade cloth over the roof has helped keep temperatures down without compromising ventilation.
Outside the fenced garden is a fully enclosed 5 x 6 metre polypipe cage. Originally used for our main vegetable beds, the now-fenced front yard provides better sun and shelter, so most of our vegetables have moved there. We’re transforming the cage into a berry enclosure instead. This winter we transplanted six blueberry bushes and are keeping our fingers crossed that they settle in well. We’re also trialling a dwarf peach, strawberries and raspberries, along with an assortment of bramble berries sourced from fellow Food Garden Group members.
There’s plenty still to do, but after a few years focused on infrastructure, we’re looking forward to be getting back to the growing.
Contributions for morning tea and the produce table will be much appreciated!
Topics on the agenda for this visit: infrastructure, wildlife and food gardens, hot houses
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.
Please be aware that you may have to walk a short distance along a steep road from your car to Ngaire and Larry’s property and that their driveway is also steep. Please email Max at foodgardengroup@gmail.com if you need assistance.
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Proposed Food Safety Regulations Withdrawn!
In the August FGG newsletter you were invited to make a submission to Biosecurity Tasmania in response to their draft Primary Produce Safety Regulations. Tasmanians responded in their thousands and their response was overwhelmingly critical of the proposed regulations.
This lead to the Premier Mr. Rockliff announcing even before the deadline for submissions had closed that "any final regulations must protect community food growing, food relief activities, local markets and small-scale producers from unnecessary fees, excessive paperwork and disproportionate requirements."
The proposed regulations have been withdrawn. What a wonderful example of people-power at work 👍👍👏👏👏
BioSecurity Tasmania will publish a revised proposal in the not too distant future. It remains to be seen whether they have truly heard the message.
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Public Liability Insurance
At times this winter it seemed as if the bureaucrats were keen to make life really hard.
For many years the Food Garden Group has been affiliated with an organisation called Sustainable Living Tasmania (SLT). SLT is a great organisation that is worth supporting - see the information at the very end of this newsletter.
For many years the Food Garden Group was specifically mentioned in SLT's public liability insurance policy and covered by their policy without any costs to the Food Garden Group!
Late last year SLT was informed by their insurance company that they were no longer prepared to cover affiliated groups in a new SLT public liability insurance.
Many informal groups around Australia that don't charge a membership fee operate without any public liability insurance. The FGG team decided that not having a public liability insurance was not in the best interest of food garden visit hosts, FGG members, and FGG organisers, so we looked into finding a solution that would ensure that the FGG could continue to operate in the same way it does now, but with effective public liability cover.
From the start of this food garden visit season the FGG will be covered for public liability via an organisation called Garden Clubs of Australia, but of course this will come at a cost.
In the 2019-2020 season there was a gold-coin donation box at every FGG visit to raise money for the purchase of an urn - that urn is now present at every food garden visit. We can be confident that this system will also work to cover our group's insurance costs.
From now on there will be a donation box at every food garden visit, and we hope that you will be happy to contribute a gold coin per person every time you attend an FGG visit.
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The Golden Tomato Award returns!
From 2016 to 2020 the FGG held a yearly contest for members of the group to produce the first ripe tomato of the season. The winner received the 'Golden Tomato Award' - a prize in name only (but prestigious nonetheless), because we don't have an actual trophy.
It was amazing how early in the season some people were able to produce their first ripe tomato, leaving most of us far behind. People were happy to share the tricks they had used and we all learnt a lot. If you would like to know who the winners were, what tomato varieties they used, and what was learnt, read Food Garden Group blog post Early Tomatoes!
Then we had a break for a few years. The Golden Tomato Award contest returned in the 2023-2024 season in a different form. The new challenge was to produce the heaviest tomato of the season. That lead to truly amazing contributions. The heaviest tomato presented was 1205 grams! The contest helped me put together Food Garden Group blog post Large Tomatoes on Show!, which is still a handy blog post to identify and describe large tomato varieties that do well in Tasmania.
This season there will be TWO ( 😜😛 ) Golden Tomato Awards up for grabs:
- Golden Tomato Award no.1 for the earliest tomato - it will go to the first person who posts on our Facebook page a photo of their first ripe home-grown tomato of the season. It must come from a plant that was bought or sown this season!
- Golden Tomato Award no.2 for the heaviest tomato - it will go to the person who posts on our Facebook page a photo of their heavy tomato on scales, with its weight on the scales clearly visible, and at the end of the season it turns out that it was the heaviest of them all!
If you aren't on FaceBook, but would like to enter, email your photo to Max at foodgardengroup@gmail.com, and he will post the photo on our Facebook page for you.
For a good start to a productive tomato season read Try These Tomato Tricks on the Food Garden Group blog.
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The long-range weather forecast
The long-range forecast for September to November for Australia and Tasmania shows:
- Rainfall is likely to be below average across parts of the south and east and above average across much of the western half of Australia.
- Daytime temperatures are likely to be above average south of the tropics.
- Overnight temperatures are likely to be above average for most of Australia.
For the full story see https://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/overview/video
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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.
- Where can I buy locally grown vegetable seeds of varieties that have proven to be well-suited to Tasmania's climate? Check out Food Garden Group blog post Tasmanian Veggie Seed Suppliers.
- 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 there 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
- Equinoctial winds in Spring can be very damaging to young plants and trees. Consider erecting temporary wind barriers of cloth or sacking material to protect them.
- Watch out for late spring frosts. Cover small precious plants if frost is predicted.
- 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
- Spray late flowering peach and nectarine trees with curly leaf fungicide before buds burst
- 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
Handy Links
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 FaceBook for Food Gardeners Tasmania and apply for membership
The Food Garden Group is affiliated with Sustainable Living Tasmania
Max Bee
FGG coordinator
Handy Links
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 FaceBook for Food Gardeners Tasmania and apply for membership
The Food Garden Group is affiliated with Sustainable Living Tasmania
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