Tropical Camden

Camden gone tropical

This update contains:

• Heat waves and floods                
• Goings on in the garden
• Past and upcoming events
• Veggies to plant now

Heatwaves and flooding rain

Little Sandy underwater again.

Only a week ago we were staring down the barrel of drought, feed cut on the town farm and baled months ago was now in high demand and the lagoon which looks a bit like a dinosaur or a Sea World sea lion was receeding rapidly. The lagoon is now full, the feral goats are munching on the new lucerne sprigs down buy the river, Zucchinis are growing before our eyes and the front lawn of the community garden could be almost baled as well. If you want to see the crazy weather figures including 125mm of rain in one hit and 46.4 degrees C click on the following link. www.bom.gov.au

Goings on

New garden beds.

We can't say it wasn't a relief to see some rain, watering constantly and wisely had been quite tough in the community gardens in the oppressive heat, so some deep soaking rain was very welcome, this came luckily only a week after the working bee which in turn was a couple of days after the 46.4 temp reached in camden, so we escaped both extremes, the gardening bee had a good turnout with approx 15 folk attending on the day, it turned into soemthing of a construction day with several new garden beds being built from the sleepers delivered in the days prior, these beds are now starting to fill the head of the platypus out, a tool shed (currently held at the council depot) will mahe up the other eye of the platypus once a base goes down, (over the next 2 weeks), also on the day some curved beds were finished off, as well as native seedlings potted up, some vacant beds also were cleared ready for the new folk and the lawns mowed. Potatoes are still being harvested and another delivery will go to Narellan Congregational Community Service next week with i dare say some squash or zucchinis. A big thankyou to all in attendance as well as the guys that turned up to volunteer at our stall at the produce markets, the funds raised went back into the Community Gardens and fed the troops at the working bee.

Violent Veg

New Years Update.

In this catch up:

• Violent Veg
• Narellan Congregational Community Services
• Heat Wave 
• Worms
• Great Links 
• Check out previous post re courses

 

Check the AGM date on the home page, this is for financial members, so ensure fees have been paid.

Lets start the year with a bit of a laugh, check the follwing link for some great Vegetable related humour, Violent Veg.

Mary and Heather digging up Christmas Lunch

As mentioned earlier, the Community Gardeners as well as Narellan Congregational Community Services planted some potatoes late last year, these being for the benefit of those involved, the potatoes will be subsequently harvested at the regular working bees. 3 varieties were planted. Norland Reds, Spunta and Pink Fir Apple.

Alot of Norland Reds have already been pulled from the site, these were great roasting spuds and perfect for Christmas, we are now moving into the other 2 varieties, importantly when digging up the potatoes, dont freak out when you see the Pink Fir Apple spuds, they havent got some mystery disease, that is how they look, the Pink Fir Apples are a great salad potato, just wash, cook them whole and then slice them up to create your favourite potato salad recipe, dont peel them.

Scarecrows, Tomatoes, Potatoes and more

Scarecrow Workshop

Any one heading past Camden Community Garden over coming weeks may wonder whats happening with the large crowd of people in the garden.

Stop and take a closer look and you may notice little movement among the masses, unlike "Taste" held last weekend in glorious sunshine when masses of visitors flocked through the gardens and onto the Town Farm site for a culinary and auditory experience this time the visitors come in the form of Scarecrows.

The Scarecrows are being built as part of a workshop put on by the Community Gardens with the support of Camden Council and with the aid of Community Builders funding. The workshop is fully subscribed with more than 60 people attending over the 2 days. There are sure to be some great works come out of this, and they will be displayed at Narellan Rhythms Festival on 20th October before taking up residence back in the gardens.

Rise of the Scarecrows

With over 40 under 12s booked in for this years Scarecrow building workshop things were shaping up to be busy, day 1, (today saw 15 under 12s attend). Freya Jobbins, local artist was great, having being involved with the Scarecrows and Sculptures Workshop last year it was a pleasure to have Freyas involvement again this year, having a bit of an islands theme this year there were certainly some bright productions on day 1.

Day 2 on friday sees approximately 25 registered, with the current weather it is sure to be a great day for all, thanks to Camden Council, Community Builders, Freya Jobbins and all concerned. The Scarecrows will all be on display at Narellan Rhythms Festival on 20th October on Elyard St, Narellan, where amongst other things gardeners will be able to collect some free herb seedlings from the Community Garden stand.