Garden Update - December
Visit from our friends at ANU Kitchen Garden
A sea of red in the strawberry patch!
With the spring/summer seedlings now in the ground it’s time to reap the benefits of the warm weather and harvest from the crops that have all been thriving. Snow peas, broad beans, spring onions, strawberries and even some late blooming cauliflowers have all been taken home by our wonderful garden volunteers. We are preparing to harvest the last of our broad beans, with some left to share seeds with our community and Canberra seed savers who we will be hosting a workshop with in the new year.
We love to share recipes during our garden drop in sessions especially when our friends from ANU Kitchen Garden visit. This season has been full of broad beans for both of us so we noted a couple of favourites like broad bean falafel and smashed beans on toast with feta. Endless tomato seedlings have been planted out over the past month. We even had a bit of an impromptu seedling sale at The Recyclery Saturday bike sale - it won’t be the last, keep an eye out. Our food forest cover crop received a much needed haircut, chopped and dropped now ready for our currents and fruit trees to soak up all the sun while keeping moisture in the soil.
Cally from Canberra Permaculture Design was back this month for another wicking bed workshop. We used some alternative materials in this build to show there are many different ways to achieve this growing medium and even some more cost effective strategies. Our gardening techniques are slowly climbing the hill to The Recyclery, this wicking bed has a grape vine that we are hoping will provide some much needed shade to the recycled timber pergola.
The garden is gearing up for a summer of producing heaps of beautiful tomatoes, basil, pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchinis so it is the perfect time to join us for our Thursday morning drop in sessions! We are there from 9:30 until 11 chatting, harvesting and snacking on snow peas or strawberries while they last (our last session for the year will be Thursday 18th of December).
And it’s not too late to get a few things in the ground - if you’re looking for some handy planting and growing guides COGS have just launched 30 new and improved crop guides, authored by Ainslie Urban Farm's Fiona Buining, to help you navigate the seasons and grow a thriving food garden. Check them out here.
