Garden Update - February
Tomato galore!!!
We were lucky to welcome Kylie Flament from the Social Enterprise Council NSW & ACT to the garden this month. It’s always such a pleasure to share the space with people who are passionate about community-led work. It also happened to be a very abundant day, with volunteers from CEC and the Recyclery heading home with generous harvests of ripe tomatoes. There are still plenty coming along, so we’re not done yet.
The heat has continued, so deep watering has been the priority. We’ve been topping up the ollas and wicking beds whenever we’re at the garden, and truly, the wicking beds have been the saving grace through these heatwaves. Our purple basil has started to flower and the bees are absolutely loving it. We’ve decided to let those ones bloom rather than pinching them off. Sometimes the pollinators win.
Our exciting corn varieties are coming through well and have impressively survived the determined efforts of our resident cockatoos. The sunchokes are thriving too and will be ready for harvest in winter. They grow as a rhizome, which makes harvest day a bit like a treasure hunt underground. We’ll keep everyone posted so those who are curious can join us to see how it’s done. Sadly, our mountain pepper berries didn’t make it through the worst of the heat, but we’ll try again in our native food area where they may be happier than in full sun. Gardening always keeps us humble.
We’ve also been busy preparing for the upcoming frog pond workshop and getting ready to raise seedlings for autumn and winter. Seed saving is well underway, especially from the prolific calendula dotted throughout the garden. There’s a beautiful mix of colours, though the pale yellow remains a firm favourite. We’ve put aside some special seeds for our friend Arian from Seed Savers, who took quite a liking to them on her last visit. Arian is hosting a seed saving workshop in March, come along if you’re keen!
Pollinators are making the most of the herbs that have gone to flower, and as we shift seasons there’s plenty of soil prep ahead to help the beds recover from the hot months. Then we’ll be ready to plant into autumn abundance.
We’re back to meeting weekly on Thursdays from 9:30–11am during school term time. We’re also interested in hosting a school holiday garden session for kids to get their hands in the soil, so please let us know if that’s something you’d like to see happen.
