The weather was mild and cloudy and seventeen adults came to work in the garden. Snapshot Today, people were very busy doing a range of jobs, including sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings, trench composting, removing old plants and, of course, watering and weeding. Harvest Our harvest was pretty leafy: warrigal greens, sweet potato leaves, sorrel, chickory, purslane, sage, oregano, a few beans and chillies. Leafy harvest Sowing and planting We sowed broccoli ‘Green Magic’, garlic ‘Italian Pink’, turnips ‘Japanese Tokyo Market’, climbing peas ‘Snow Pea’, radish ‘Cherry Belle’ and carrots ‘Bab ..read more

On 19th March, it was a fine morning with sixteen adults and four children coming to the garden. We welcomed Judith back to the garden after her convalescence. The following Sunday, 26th March, was also fine and twenty adults along with two children came to the garden. We wished Helen well in her recovery too. Snapshot There wasn’t much rain leading up to 19th March, so watering was a priority. There had been some rain just before 26th March and this created good conditions for sowing more seeds for our cooler weather plants. There’s always weeding and tidying up to do in these still warm tim ..read more

It was a cloudy morning, which kept the temperature at a pleasant level, and 17 adults and one child came to work in the garden. Snapshot The new sowings from last week were watered, other beds had cow manure and chook pellets dug in and some of the last summer plants (i.e. all the tomatoes) were removed. Harvest We harvested the last of the tomatoes (mostly green), sunflower shoots (which are edible), purslane, snake beans and warrigal greens (see photo).  Harvest Sowing and planting Cos lettuce (a variety which is a bit more tolerant of warmer weather), coriander, dill and perpetual si ..read more

Unfortunately, Helen was badly bitten by a dog last week and had to spend a couple of days in hospital following the operation. We wish her a speedy recovery. Twenty-two members and three children came on Sunday. We picked more snake beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, Thai and sweet basil, sorrel, parsley, French tarragon, purslane, Warrigal greens, okra, eggplant, rocket, land cress, chillies, some bok choy and green onions. We sowed parsley and cosmos in the ends of beds. We also sowed radish ‘Cherry Belle’, beetroot ‘Early Wonder’ and ‘Detroit’, carrots ‘Baby Amsterdam’, perpetual spinach, coriand ..read more

It was a fine and busy day on Sunday with 27 members and 3 children. We harvested more red and green snake beans, Thai and sweet basil, sorrel, okra, purslane, cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, rocket, rhubarb, green chillies, green onions, warrigal greens, mint, garlic chives, curry leaves and shiso. The spaghetti squash was removed and baby ones harvested. We dug in the green manure crop of buckwheat and fertilised beds with cow and chook poo and potash where there was a deficiency detected in last year’s broccoli crop. We sowed our first seeds of the season – silverbeet cultivars ‘Fordhook Gia ..read more

On 12th February, we had a sunny and warm morning and 21 adults took advantage of it to work in the garden. The following week, 19th February, was cloudy. Twenty-two adults and one child came to the garden and worked. All but weather at both ends of the spectrum is great for gardening!  Since the start of this year, we’ve been lucky enough to gain some new members. While we’ve welcomed them at our gardening meetings, they haven’t (unfortunately!) been mentioned in our weekly updates. To do a bit of catch-up, we’d like to welcome Kathryn, Ana, Li and her children, Kathy, Djamileh (who has ..read more

We had a sunny morning for our garden session with twenty-two adults and two children coming to enjoy some time working in the garden. We welcomed Kathy as a new member. Snapshot This week, we again continued removing ageing warm season plants. The soil was very dry after some warm days and plants badly needed some watering. Harvest Our tomato plants, which are mostly cherry tomato varieties, are still producing fruit – and some pests are still finding some of them! We also harvested some spaghetti squash, beans (French beans and snake beans), cucumbers, Warrigal greens, sorrel and quite a fe ..read more

The morning was very humid, began cloudy and became very warm. Twenty-six adults and one child came out to work in the garden. Snapshot Today, we continued removing our ageing warm season plants. Lots of the sunflowers had blown over and were removed too. We are working towards our autumn planting. Harvest Our harvest included some of our several varieties of tomato – with and without caterpillar and fruit fly damage! We also harvested some beans, basil, land cress, Warrigal greens, sorrel, cucumbers, galangal, chickory, Vietnamese mint and sunflowers. Some of our harvest is in the photo below ..read more

On 15th January, it was a sunny and warm morning in the garden with 25 adults and five children spending time working with the plants. The following Sunday, 22nd January, was showery but 17 adults optimistically came to the garden. The showers persisted and not much gardening was done in the end! Snapshot On both days, plants that were past their prime or heavily attacked by pests or disease were removed. Sunflowers that overshadowed other plants and deprived them of light were also removed. Some sunflowers provided nice flower heads for a vase arrangement. Harvest As in recent weeks, we harve ..read more

A fine morning brought out twenty-one adults and two children to work in the garden. It was great to see familiar faces again and to have a big group coming together once more now that lots of people are back from their recent festivities! Snapshot Some recent rain meant the soil in the garden beds wasn’t bone dry, so heavy watering wasn’t needed. Some plants that had come to the end of their prime were removed and garden beds were generally tidied up. Harvest As we have of late, we harvested some beans and green leaves (tatsoi, Cos lettuce, sorrel, mizuna, purslane, basil and some other herbs ..read more