Happenings in the gardens

Another great weekend for the gardens.

A big thankyou to the gardeners for mowing lawns and edges, thanks to the folk that tidied up the memorial garden as well.

Association members we are rapidly approaching the onset of the first frosts and as such may lose some herbs overnight, so please pick as your leasure.

We should have a key/guide to the herbs up over the coming weeks, we currently have the following growing.

Foreground - Rocket surrounding the sage.

• Basil, Normal and Thai, (frost may kill both)
• Coriander,
• Sage,
• Chervil,
• Dill - not quite ready to pick,
• Italian Parsley - as above,
• Oregano,
• Thyme,
• Marjoram,
• Tarragon.
• Rocket, this has seeded badly and will be cut back.
• Nettles, these have been planted out in their own bed, worth reading up on for their various qualities.
• Vietnamese Mint (you would have to search for this as its not in the herb garden yet, i have 1 plant in, and i am hoping to protect it from the frosts).

Another Working Bee down and the latest.

Thanks to those that attended the latest working bee on the 18th of June, please put the 16th of July in your diaries as the date for the next one. They say many hands make light work and this time we even had lots of little hands with some of our younger gardeners digging in, thanks to Gabrielle, Tash, Jai and Tali for helping out. Thanks to Jeff the president of the gardens for organising lunch.

On the garden front some of the more overgrown beds were worked over giving their new owners a reprieve in the setting up process, and as such we would like to welcome Sylvanvale Foundation to the gardens who will be taking up one bed and now join the team from Wesley Disability Services on site.

After the GE Money visit the herb garden was given something of a makeover and has since been planted out with some new plants, presently we still have the following growing and cropping :

• Sage
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Dill
• Marjoram
• Chervil
• Lemon Balm
• Coriander
• Nettles
• Tarragon (russian)
• Vietnamese Mint

The recently planted herbs are:

• Italian Parsley - now picking
• Curly Parsley
• Celeriac
• Chives
• Rosemary - in a couple of borders only so far
• Mint
• Bay Leaves
• Oregano - Variegated

If you are wondering what people are growing and picking in the garden the list below should give you an inkling as to the productivity of the gardens at present, and going through our first winter.

• Leeks
• Spring Onions
• Beetroot - Purple/Orange
• Parsnips
• Bok Choy
• Chinese Cabbage
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Cabbage - red - savoy
• Daikon Radish
• Fennell
• Lettuce
• Kailan
• Sprouting Broccoli
• Rhubarb
• Broad Beans
• Spinach/Silverbeet
• Russian Kale

Other happenings:

A big thankyou goes out to the folk at Carrington Centennial Care for the welcome they extended to myself this week when i spoke at their residents meeting with regards to visiting and sharing the gardens.

Happy Gardening

Steve

Flavours of the South

Looking for something to do over the long weekend and dont particularly want to spent your day parked on the M5 or F3, why not kick of the weekend at Camden Produce markets today (check out our links page for more) and then make you way to the Southern Highlands.

Image thanks to Li-Sun Exotic Mushrooms



Numerous venues and tours are on across the region till monday, check out Highlands Foodie Group for some great information, among the tours are tours of Li-sun Exotic Mushrooms in the old rail tunnels, these dont come up every day and are sure to fill up if they haven't already. you can contact them on 0248712524.

GE Money Visit

On the 7th of June Camden Town Farm Community Gardens  had the pleasure of welcoming over 20 GE Money employees from across the region to the gardens as part of their "Branch Community Day"

"Every year, for one day, GE branches across Australia and New Zealand shut shop so that their employees can take part in a range of volunteering projects to support their local communities."

More info on this great intiative can be found here

For the Community Gardens this initiative was welcomed with open arms, the enthusiam shown by all the employees was incredible and enabled some major maintanence/cleanup work to be achieved. Gardens President Jeff Ferrif was also in attendance and even demonstrated his taste for nettles during the lunchtime welcome.

After a light afternoon tea the troops got stuck back into work with a timely arrival of mulch thanks to CPE Tree Services  arriving just before tools down. To the GE staffs credit numerous barrow loads where then spread across the rejuvenated community herb garden.
We would like to thank GE Money for their generous support on this day.

Thankyou and Happy Gardening