Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

Have a look at the map of Ground to Ground cafes

http://tiny.cc/leyyc

Ground To Ground

Map of participating cafes returning used coffee grounds to the soil.
Great for the garden!
For more information about this program visit http://groundtoground.org

Transition Towns Hobsons Bay

Are you a South Kingsville gardener or know someone who is?

Transition Hobsons Bay want to connect gardeners, and their compost bins, to local cafes, and their food scraps. A nearly unlimited resource! We’ve lined up a cafe in South Kingsville already, so now we’re looking for local gardeners to be part of an organised roster…

Email transtionhb@gmail.com for more information or pass this message on to someone you know in the area.

Werribee Park Heritage Orchard

August 20th, is our Grafting Day, so mark that in your diaries

From 10am-2pm there will be grafting displays by Richard and possibly Scott or Pete the Permie, who will be there with some of his amazing collection of rare and heritage fruits for sale.

Grafted fruit trees will also be up for sale – plums apricots, apple and maybe pears.

Address: The orchard is down by the river inside Werribee Park
320 K Road Werribee

(Melway Ref 201, D1)

Join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/wph.orchard/

For those of you who think that you only spray weeds with ‘Safe’ stuff like Round up (also sold as Zero), have a read of the article at the link below. Have a think about asking your local council about what they are spraying around playgrounds, parks and road verges in your municipality:

http://permaculture.org.au/2011/07/01/greenpeace-takes-on-monsanto-over-pesticides-arms-race/

There are concerns about spraying Glyphosate (Round up/ Zero) around childcare centres as there is evidence that there are several problems with Glyphosate and also with the surfactant (detergent) it contains to break through the leaf surface. The concerns range from death of frogs and tadpoles to birth defects.

A different problem is that many councils are “tank-mixing’: putting two or more chemicals into the one sprayer to increase efficiency. This new mix of chemicals can produce untested new chemicals.

You can ask to see the MSDS (material safety data sheet) which council workers or contractors are required to carry and provide.

Glyphosate is supposed to breakdown within 24 – 48 hours but this does not occur when it is sprayed onto hard surfaces such as concrete gutters and edging and playground equipment, as there is no biological activity to do the breaking-down.

A seminal book about pesticide use is ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson, very easy to read.

Further to the anti-lawn article which I sent in last week,

The link below gives some interesting advice for those of you that aren’t yet ready to kill the Kikuyu and plant potatoes. So, if you’re an addict to ‘Lawn & Order’, read-on for some ideas on how to have your lawn and eat it too. The article is US-based, so , some species substitution will be necessary.

It is also a good idea to buy your initial clover seed inoculated with the appropriate nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Once established, it will self-seed without need for further inoculation.

For drier lawns, lucerne would be more appropriate as it is also an N-fixer (buy inoculated) and the ‘mowings’ are great high-protein fodder for chooks & rabbits (feed fresh or dried, but don’t allow it to sit and ferment in damp piles). The roots of lucerne (which is also known as alfalfa to you sprout munchers out there) can go down 30 metres or more in some conditions. This allows the plant to become relatively drought proof as well as being an effective miner of nutrients which have become leached down into the subsoil; bringing them back to the surface in the form of fodder or compost material.

I get my inoculated seeds by mail order from Eden seeds. I have found it best to start the lucerne in small pots of unfertilised potting mix (the cheapest stuff) to ensure good root growth and bacterial development before transplanting. Lucerne also works well under many fruit trees as a living mulch if it is slashed or harvested regularly.

Lawn Edging

Consider edging you lawn with some dense prickly shrubs or small trees. -a good choice is the Prickly Wattle Acacia paradoxa which fixes nitrogen in the soil, provides a source of prickly mulch for spots where the neighbour’s cats keep visiting, and are an excellent protective nesting site for small bird such as blue wrens. The seeds are not listed anywhere as edible, but the flowers are sometimes eaten in fritters to no great acclaim. Acacia paradoxa copes well with pruning to a hedge or slashing for mulch and to encourage nitrogen release into the soil. If you want something less prickly because the kids play on the lawn and you like them to maintain the same number of holes and functioning eyeballs, there are many other suitable wattles, some of which have edible seeds. Select a variety indigenous to your site for best results.

Anyway, enough from me: Read the article.

http://www.ecologicalgardening.net/2010/12/polyculture-lawn-primer.html

Scott

Saturday June 11 9am – 12
Cost :$25 or $20 for Permaculture Melbourne members or concession card holders. BYO lunch.
Venue: Ballarat East (to be advised after registration)
Ian and Pat have built a simple aquaponics system using mostly salvaged and recycled materials. Rainbow trout live in a sunken 1000 litre tank; water from the tank is cycled up to four bathtubs full of ‘B’ grade blue metal into which vegetables are planted. After 15 minutes pumping up, the pump goes off and the water trickles back into the tank, aerating the water and keeping the fish happy. The system was built from scratch by Ian so this workshop will include his design tips as well as practical observations of how the system is working. We’ll discuss the general principles of setting up aquaponics systems, then
build a simple system on the day!
One of our members who wants a system will buy the pump and other articles, so we all get to actually put a system together. If you like learning by doing – this workshop is for you!

Everyone attending the workshop will be in the running for a door prize “Easy Aquaponics – Back Yard Fish and Food” donated by the Good Earth Book Club (the folks who bring you Earth Garden magazine) We will also have copies of the book for sale on the day for $20. The workshop will include print-outs of some useful articles. For address and any questions, please call Ian or Pat on 5333 2073. For bookings, email bpgworkshops@gmail.com to obtain a registration form

Beginners Guide to Chickens – Free Event

A ‘My Smart Garden Workshop’

Date: Friday 6th May 10am-12pm

Address: Farnham Street Neighbourhood Learning Centre
28 Farnham St, Flemington
RSVP Ph: 9376 9088 to register (FREE)

Also in the Farnham Street centre is MINTI Transition Towns who are holding a Fashion Makeover on the 2nd May at 7pm

Appreciation Day

The Friends of Lower Kororoit Creek [FOLKC] are having an Appreciation Day at the creek on the 1st May 2011. We will be planting some 1500 plants along the creek south of the Barnes Road Bridge, Barnes Road, Altona North, Melway Ref: 54 J4. This will be the first planting in this area.

Please see the below attachment for further information.

RSVP via this link.

http://www.folkc.com.au/ntd-2011/ntd_email.html

FOLKC have been lobbying for a shared trail along the creek to connect Altona with the Federation Trail and beyond, this is currently the missing link. By going along, we will further support FOLKC with the efforts to re vegetate this area so that once the trail is completed, cyclists will have a great asset to enjoy on our rides. You will also be able to see what has been achieved over the past few years when looking north of the Barnes Road Bridge, now a forest of native trees and shrubs.

FREE workshop tomorrow on Effective Composting and Wormfarming at the Seabrook Community Centre?

Workshop details are:-

Effective Composting and Wormfarming

Location: Seabrook Community Centre
15 Truganina Ave Seabrook (Mel Ref 208, B4)
Date: Tues 12th April
Time: 1-3pm
RSVP: 9395-3010

Children are welcome

Working Bee #2 – Muck-up Day!

At Werribee Park we are lucky to have access to large ‘deposits’ of manure, courtesy of the many horses that visit the equestrian centre.

To prepare the ground for new trees that are in the nursery beds waiting to be planted out this winter, we would like to spread some of this fine fertiliser over the next few weeks.

Can you help muck in for our muck-raking? It will be down at the Orchard on:

Date: Saturday, April 9, 1-4pm.
Location: The orchard is part of Werribee Mansion Werribee Park, K Road, Werribee, 5-10 minutes walk from the carpark.
Map: http://www.werribeeparkheritageorchard.org.au/orchard/maps.html
BYO gloves and water bottle.