Permaculture Out West

Here’s the upcoming February and March workshops presented by the My Smart Garden program; a joint initiative between the Hobsons Bay and Moonee Valley City Councils

Design your edible oasis

Saturday 11 February, 10am – 12pm
Seabrook Community Centre
15 Truganina Ave, Seabrook

Using the principles of permaculture, we’ll show you how to design a food garden to give it the best chance of thriving to become an abundant oasis. In this workshop you’ll get a bit of hands-on practice to help you consider sun, shade, water, microclimates and more when planning your garden.

Keep your cool with trees and vines

Tuesday 21 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm
Cooper Street Community Centre
Cnr Cooper and Spencer Sts, Essendon (next to Buckley Park)

The right trees in the right places can make such a difference to the comfort and beauty of your home. And it’s a long term investment so you want to get it right! We’ll help you design your garden to protect your home from winds and summer heat and to make the most of winter sun. We’ll discuss integrating trees with vegie growing, suitable trees and tree care.

Seed saving

Sunday 4 March, 11am – 1pm
Wingate Avenue Community Centre
13A Wingate Ave, Ascot Vale

Come learn how to select and harvest seeds from your vegie garden then how to clean and store the seeds for next season. Feel free to bring along seeds for swapping too.

Winter vegie gardening

Saturday 31 March, 10am – 12 noon
Spotswood Primary School
600 Melbourne Rd (cnr Reed St), Spotswood

Rather than abandoning the garden after your summer vegie harvest, it’s now time to thinking about all the wonderful winter crops you could enjoy. This workshop will guide you through preparing vegie beds, green manure crops and choosing the right crops for the cooler time of year.

All workshops are FREE, register by emailing contactus@mysmartgarden.org.au

Want more free events, gardening advice, prizes and discounts from local nurseries? Join the My Smart Garden program at www.mysmartgarden.org.au

Anyone up for bottling / preserving the summer harvest workshop?

Time, date and address to be arranged.

Register your interest email annstevens@optusnet.com.au

POW is also on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/232421223455251/

View or listen at your leisure

Costa’s Garden Odyssey http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/costa

ABC gardening videos online http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/video/

Also radio online http://www.abc.net.au/radio/listenlive.htm

Add your favorites in the comments section below

It is the time of year to preserve the produce.

Now that I’ve a stockpot with no holes in the bottom I’ll be making Blackberry Jelly.
My favourite books are an ancient book using imperial measurments ‘Preserves and Pickles’ by Alison Burt (which I assume is out of print) as well as ‘A year in a bottle’ by Sally Wise.

Australian preserving forum link http://www.home-cheesemaking.com.au/

Stockists

Fowlers Valola (website pending)
(03) 9329 7799
23-25 Racecourse Rd North Melbourne

Source of Bottles and Lids – Plasdene – get together with a friend as it’s a min $100 purchase

This shop has a mind boggling range in such a space, I got my jam funnel here http://www.costanteimports.com.au/

1. Feel free to add your stockists in the comments section
2. If you have a receipe for zucchini I’d be grateful

It’s the new year and all the neighborhood houses and community centres have released their calender of events.

Including such gems as

Jams and preserves at Kensington

- http://kensingtonneighbourhoodhouse.com/component/docman/cat_view/50-publications?orderby=dmdate_published

Kensington is part of the city of Moonee Valley here are the other centres http://www.mvcc.vic.gov.au/experience-moonee-valley/community-centres-and-halls/neighbourhood-houses.aspx

City of Maribyrnong Centres are here

http://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/page/page.asp?page_id=533 Check out the yoga and community cooking at Maidstone

Safe Food Handling

at Sussex Street only $30- for volunteers http://www.sussexnh.org.au/

Find a neighborhood house near you

http://www.anhlc.asn.au/find/networkwest

Maribyrnong City Council has committed funding to expand the Braybrook Community Garden. The garden will be a safe and inclusive place to grow fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers, learn new skills and meet people. The garden will be designed and built over the next six months. You are invited to attend community meetings to discuss how the garden should be designed and developed.

There are three dates, and all will be held at Braybrook Community Centre.

Place:
Braybrook Community Centre
107-139 Churchill Ave, Braybrook

Meeting times:
Tuesday 24 January, 2-4pm
Thursday 2 February, 6-8pm
Saturday 11 February, 10.30am-12.30pm

Contact:
Jennifer Witheridge
Growing Food Growing Maribyrnong Coordinator
03 9688 0169
jennifer.witheridge@maribyrnong.vic.gov.au

RSVP:
Tuesday 24 January, 12noon

Although the meetings are open to all, it would be great if people interested professionally could come to the session on Tuesday 24.

Wonderful, responsible tenant wanted for house in Maidstone/West Footscray.

Includes:

• 3 bedroom (or 2 plus study). Californian Bungalow style house. Eat in kitchen. Separate lounge. Sunroom + rear verandah.
• Gas heater and gas hot water.
• 2 A/C-heater units in two bedrooms.
• Tasmanian oak floorboards throughout.
• North facing.
• Vibrant native garden out front. Recently landscaped and planted native garden at back.
• Would prefer a person who is into gardens and plants. Some seasonal garden maintenance will be arranged.
• Near all amenities.

Price on inquiry ($350 p/w range)

Contact 0418 227 963

AVAILABLE MID JANUARY 2012 (earlier negotiable).

The Ethical Consumer Group is currently working on a new project called Local Harvest. It’s a new national initiative aiming to help people find local sources of food and grow their own.

A word from Nick Ray from the Ethical Consumer Group:

“It’s a one-stop -stop website resource for finding ‘good’ food close to you. It will make it easier to find great alternatives outside the supermarket that support growers and encourage more connection with the systems behind our food. I’m passionate about this project because so much of our food is controlled by a small number of large multinational companies, and it doesn’t have to be that way. We’ve set up a page about the project at www.localharvest.org.au.

We’re trying to raise awareness about the project and also raise some funds using the Pozible crowd-sourcing initiative. It means that lots of people contribute a little to projects they believe in and together there’s enough to get them rolling. We’ve just 25 days left to reach our goal of $8,500, and have 12% so far.”

Check out the Local Harvest website for more details. To donate to the project, click here.

Hello peri-urban farming friends!

Supercharge your diaries for a special event at 40k farm! We’re overdue to rock the front paddock with summer vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, herbs and beans.
And we’re very lucky to have special guest Kirsten Larsen to report back after her extensive visitation of CSA‘s in North America recently. A great opportunity to learn more about Community Supported Agriculture, and the various models employed overseas. Naturally we’ll be discussing how that applies to both you, and us.

We’re also toasting summer rains, our wonderful supporters (you), the ever amazing basalt plains, and our two new moo cows, Bobby and Stella!

40k Farm Planting and Christmas Party
Sunday December 18
10.30am – 4pm
178 Highett Road, Melton
Ph 9746 7031

So whether you’re up for some relaxing farm time, learning more about CSA’s, or putting some veggies in the ground, we do hope you’ll come along; there’ll be plenty happening on the day. BYO hat/gumboots as suiting weather on the day. A small contribution to a shared lunch also most welcome, but not obligatory.

But don’t fret if you can’t make it – we’re now opening the farm every Sunday, and inviting our members to come any (or every!) Sunday that suits them. Open to prospective members too. We’ll try and keep the website updated so you can see what’s on, week by week.
This way, something will always be happening, that will happen faster with your help. And if you ever feel like a trip to the farm, now you can, without waiting for open days, exclusive visits from The Queen, and the like.

For directions to the farm check out MeltonCSA (its true, the site hasn’t been updated lately..!)

Hope to see you there!

Carey, Nick, Ellen and Dan.