Establishing a garden is very much a process of trial and error. The weather, seed stock, soil, pests and diseases are just a few of the factors at work. Plants that do well one season may fail the next.
The first planting in the community garden was largely an experiment to establish what would do well in the environment. Many of the plants were donated by local residents and gladly, there have been very few failures.
Herbs ready for picking now are basil, mustard greens, coriander, sage and chives. In the vegetable garden are beans, cucumbers and salad greens.
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Beans ready for picking
A final harvest of the current crops will take place in January followed by new plantings in February. Suggested crops are zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, peas, beans, beetroot, silverbeet, capsicum, broccolini, pumpkin and corn.
There will be a “Harvest Festival” BBQ in January, so watch the noticeboard for details.
New plans for the garden include:
- One bed to be dedicated to perennial herbs
- A new mound will be built to cater for larger crops
- Bays for storing compost will be built using hardwood pallets.
If you would like to join the community garden network, please come along on Wednesday between 8am-10am or contact Maria Pickles 4997 3045 or Philippa Coltart 4997 3117.
HANDY HINTS
Prevent those pesky fruit fly attacks on your tomatoes by using Golden Circle pineapple juice as a spray (note: must be Golden Circle, not any other brand). While the actual source for this can’t be located, go to www.firstrays.com/remedies.htm for information on other non-chemical based sprays. It’s worth a try as many of the Cove gardeners are having fruit fly problems with their tomato crops.
Tired of chucking out un-used ginger and lemon halves? Just freeze them. You can grate the ginger straight from the freezer and then pop it back ready for that next Asian stir fry. Lemons can be cut in half, or sliced and frozen. Limes and lime leaves can be frozen as well.
