Summer 2024/2025
The turnout for our Christmas party was fantastic. Members brought a plate to share and we were treated to salads of garden-grown lettuce, tomatoes, snow peas, spring onions and cucumber accompanied by bread-and-butter zucchinis, beetroot and chillies. Members also brought freshly made sausages and cured salamis to add to our bbq and our cobb oven fired pizzas. What a feast.
For our February working bee, the first of 2025 it was hot, hot, hot. The weather did not stop us being busy, busy, busy! We removed more of the nets from the orchard and collected dropped fruit, chipped some garden waste for the compost, weeded (as always), sorted out the garden shed and gave the worm farms a once over. Our seedlings again proved popular with lettuce, leeks and silver beet available free to members.
We also hosted a My Smart Garden workshop on restoring healthy soils. 50 people attended the workshop where Craig, the presenter, exploded a few myths about what makes good soil and how to nurture it. The workshop supported our efforts to use water more sustainably, with rebuilding of wicking beds, soil improvements and increasing our compost production.
We learned about soil and carbon and climate. Did you know that 25% of good soil is air? And 25% water? And I definitely need to add more humus/compost to retain the water because this low rain season has left my bed relatively dry. Look at the soil notes here.
In our morning tea break, we enjoyed the delicious coffee from the coffee van provided by the emergency recovery people – thank you.
Our boxes of seedlings to share were again available, with not one, not two but three members providing seedlings of their favourite veggies.
It’s hard to believe that in 2022 our garden was under water and now we have had two very dry years. All the weeding, rebuilding, chipping, netting and planting by members means we are looking good.
Garden building is character building
Winter 2024 May and the days are cold and wet. We have two months to go until we plan to finish our project, so it’s all hands on deck. More wicking beds to be repaired and rebuilt and only 30 cubic metres of gravel to spread.
Our walkways have become cluttered, weed infested and uneven. The gravel will, once it is settled, make the garden safer and easier to get around. And with less weeds growing around the beds, there will hopefully be fewer weeds in the beds.
The wicking beds are also getting a makeover. The mobility access bed has been repaired, relined and refilled. New scoria was added, the watering system reinstalled and the filter membrane laid, waiting for the delivery of fresh soil. Side and end boards have been replaced and about 20 corners braced on beds all around the garden. Other beds have been rebuilt – a job that will be continuous.
Blister’s, aching muscles, cold hands … but we did it! We couldn’t have done it without every member contributing their time, energy, grumbles and sense of humour. And of course, none of this would have been possible without the West Gate Neighbourhood Fund.
Autumn – where a gardener’s lot is not a lazy one……..
Autumn 2024 February, March and April were all go, go, go for MEG. Weeding and spraying -organic and non toxic of course- to prepare the walkways for the spreading of gravel was a big task but members were happy to take it on. The heavy and unexpected rain slowed us down but we kept going. We shifted our first 10 cubic metres in April. We also managed to rust proof the new storage container, rebuild and repair a few beds, and clean out the old storage area (pity about the rats!). Our work was rewarded – home made cake for morning tea (and a chat about the fruit fly survey) and later a bbq lunch.
MEG Upgrade Summer 2024
In 2023 we set ourselves the big task of revitalising the garden over the first six months of 2024. Two years of restricted access during the peak of the pandemic and the flooding of the garden in October last year left the garden a little worn out.
With a generous grant from the West Gate Neighbourhood Fund, we have been able to give the orchard a lift. In recent years members had to regularly compete with birds and other critters for apricots, plums, nectarines, peaches and apples. We were able to net most of the trees after fruit set, so that the bees were still able to do their work. We were also able to hang fruit fly traps to minimise any impact from the spread of Queensland fruit fly, without any impact on the bees.
Recognising the changes to the climate we have also installed an inground watering system for the orchard – with regulated watering to minimise waste and to keep the orchard healthy.
We also boosted our cold compost system with improved plant waste preparation and more compost bins.
And we have more planned for the next three months …….
End of year party 2020
Working Bee 5 December 2020
