May 2013 Working Bee

The wonderful Autumnal weather in Sydney provided the perfect backdrop for our May working bee.  As always there was plenty to do on the individual beds, but we had some big ticket items to focus on for the entire garden.

First up was a big effort to get some more light into the space.  Our ‘herb’ bed has been suffering from lack of direct sun so the decision was made to lightly prune a couple of branches from one of the trees.  Our intrepid member Sacha did the honours and demonstrated some enviable tree-climbing skills (legacy of a misspent youth perhaps?).  All hands were on deck to trim the felled branches ready for use as seedling spikes to keep birds and cats away from the young seedlings in the garden beds.

 

 Tree trimming over, it was time to coax Sacha down from the tree and give the floor to John who presented an interesting session on how to manage new growth from a banana tree.  If you want to get fruit, it’s important to remove new saplings (called ‘pups’) as they divert the plants energy away from growing fruit.  It was quite a physical job to get those pups out!

The harvest was a little limited this time around though the North bed produced some tasty capsicums, most of which were gobbled up on the spot!

 

 

 

As always, the working bee was closed out with a wonderful spread from our generous neighbour – http://twigcafe.com.au/site/ .  If you haven’t eaten at Twig café yet then you are seriously missing out.  Yum Yum!

 

Compost donation from Sydney Cricket Ground

Sydney Cricket Ground (www.scgt.nsw.gov.au) recently donated two bags of compost to JSRCG via their environmental partner, Closed Loop Recycling. 

Closed Loop's onsite solution to food waste at the Sydney Cricket Ground reduces the volume of organic food waste by up to 90% of its original volume within 24 hours - the by-product being compost!

All food from the Azure café at the SCG as well as food waste from functions goes into the Closed Loop Organics Unit to be composted.

Many thanks to Juliana Arnaldi at Closed Loop for making this happen.

To find out more go to their website: www.closedloop.com.au

April Working Bee

Inclement rain doesn’t stop keen gardeners! Seed Queen Mel and Nicola held a very informative rosemary propagation workshop for members.

Big bed's sweet potato crop ready for harvest....

And voila, what a wonderful specimen.

Happy farmer Jon

Radishes pulled from the 'herb' bed

 And once again a big Thank you to Twig for the scrumptious morning tea.

March Working Bee

It was another soggy Saturday but we still managed to fit in a lot at the March Working Bee before the heavens opened.

After some planning and discussion led by our head gardener John…

…quite a few of the beds were razed, manured and composted.

Our president in action!

The  resultant harvest was impressive…

In preparation for the new season, planting was also in full swing.

Seeds were planted in trays….

And directly into the beds (along with many protective sticks!)…

Hugo in charge of stick planting!

If you didn’t get a chance to order seeds for your winter crops you still can – just email Melissa via the Committee 

As always the compost and worm farm needed attention…

Patrick & Ed at work on the worm farm.

The job of laying more stepping stones was ably completed by Richard and Ben…

The rain and the delicious morning tea from Twig arrived simultaneously. We were all very thankful for the shelter provided by our beautiful shed.

Thanks to everyone who braved the rain and looking forward to seeing everyone at the April working bee…hopefully in the sunshine!