Start thinking about Spring

August Update

• Keep Australia Beautiful NSW - Sustainable Cities Awards. 

  

• Working Bee around the corner.

• What to plant now, is it tomato and potato time yet?

  #KABNSW,  for the Twitter users out there, and #camdencommunitygarden for Instagram followers, check them out.
  
  
  Speaking of Twitter its more like sqwauking at present as the corellas flock past the office at 5.30pm for their nightly roost, i can almost set my clock by them, they are getting noticeably later as the days lengthen, spring is definitely on its way.

 

• Keep Australia Beautiful - Sustainable Cities Awards.

   

  A brilliant night was had by all, Simon Marnie and Costa Georgiadis did a stellar job as MCs for the night, as the photo shows Camden Town Farm Community Garden didn't come away empty handed, highly commended was the award, which was duly accepted by current president Steve Cooper on behalf of the Community Garden. The winners were long established Wentworthville Community Garden, congrats to all concerned and KABNSW for putting on a great night with the aid of many supporters, next years event moves to Canada Bay as a result of Canada bay taking the overall Sustainable Council. Camden's award certainly reflects the work put in by all the volunteers so it was accepted with smiles all round. Mamre Homestead and Penrith Council were great hosts and a spot which should definitely be visited. Thanks again to all concerned.

Thankyou Mayans

 

This Week

• Potatoes
• Some Christmas Recipes
• Feast or Famine
• Unusual Herbs
• Kids Gardening Workshops

Firstly can i add if you are reading this after 20.12 2012 your not dreaming, the world hasn't ended yet the Mayans may have got it wrong or been out with the dates, lets hope so anyway as there is a time differential between here and there.

On with the show anyway, and its only fitting that we start with a product the Mayans gave us (or the spanish nicked from them) 

The humble spud,

Christmas in the northerrn climes generally means turkey and all the trimmings, roast spuds etc, down under there are few extras, prawns, ham a few more salads typically, but one thing is for sure there are usually potatoes in one form or other.

If you have been watching our blog you will notice we planted some spuds a few months ago, 3 different varieties courtesy of The Big Spud at Robertson (one of our favourite local growers), now the tops have died and its is the perfect time to pull some of them up especially the Norland Reds that have matured first, having a large plot of these, we are in the perfect position to supply some great local people who do a fantastic job out in the community, namely Narellan Congregational Community Services, having planted some of these themselves it was only fair that we had the staff pull them up :) as you will see soon in a pic to be loaded, Heather and Mary donned their finest potato digging gear and pulled a few out this last week for their end of year christmas lunch, thanks ladies, this was accompanied by some zucchinis from the same plot. The gardeners have done a brilliant job of keeping water up to these in the lead up to christmas, so thanks to all concerned, especially Simon and Hazel. Looking for a recipe for roast spuds, try this one including Rosemary, perfect roast potatoes with rosemary, looking for a potato salad recipe, here you go with a whole bunch of them, potato salad recipes.

Summer on its way

Garden update.



Potatoes Mulched



In the Update this week

• Potatoes and our 26 spotted freinds are back.
• Frogs in gardens.
• Herb Garden thriving.
• Welcome new gardeners.
• Punkin Chunkin

Late spring rains have meant vegetables are leaping out of the ground, the potato crop planted by Narellan Congregational Community Services and by the garden volunteers/members at the garden have been emerging over the last few weeks, and a few drops of rain has made the world of difference, mulch has been applied to the crop to help retain the moisture in the ground and once finished a manure crop will go in to replenish the soil with nutrients taken up by the potatoes. We also must mention the return of our little freind the 26 spotted lady bug, measures will be looked into as far as his control goes, but for now if you see them just

Eastern Dwarf Green Tree Frog
(we think)

Verreaux Tree Frog

As well as our regular visitors to the garden, namely all our gardeners, a few critters have been spotted, our regular magpies turn up for working bees and when ever they see someone digging, obviously anticipating a free feed, the kookaburras havent been seen of late but tawny frogmoths have late in the afternoon.
 The surprise of the month was a green tree frog, spotted by one of our gardeners, this little visitor is a great addition to the community garden as well as a Verreaux Tree Frog, keep your eyes peeled when visiting.

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.

What your garden could be saving you today

I had a walk round my local Coles supermarket last night and here is what i found, and the savings that can be made made with your own garden not to mention the satisfaction of growing them is well worth it.

The Vegetables below we are all picking quatities of now:

Green Beans $4.98kg*
Spring Onions $1.98 bunch*
Spinach $3.48 bunch*
Beetroot $4.98 for 5 smaller than a snooker ball, (i picked 3 today almost as big as a softball)
Zucchinis $4.50kg

Fresh "8 Ball" Zucchini

Lettuce $2.48 each*
Lebanese cucumbers $5.98kg*
Herbs $2.48 bunch***
Pak Choy $1.98 for 2*
Garlic $17.98kg*
Fennel $1.28 each*
White onions $4.98kg*
Chillis $13.98kg*
Leeks *
Potatoes

*picked from my garden this week at home and Community Garden plot

Successful Working Bee and other news.

Talking amongst ourselves on friday it wasn't shaping up to be a great day for a communial working bee on saturday, but what started out a touch on the damp side didnt deter anyone, a dozen or so folk turned out and a big thankyou goes out to the committee members involved in the day, thanks to Jeff Ferrif the gardens president and his crew for putting together a BBQ lunch and thanks to Camden Council for their donations towards lunch.

The assembled troops cleaned up the herb garden, which has been a constant source of supplies for all association members, we can now distinguish chives poking through where once there were nettles, and the germinating italian parlsey has been given respite from the same beasties.

The shade trade with our seating will soon provide shade, it is now starting to sprout leaves and the almond tree had a solitary flower on it this morning.

Other plantings recently include potatoes for the Salvation Army "Brunch to Lunch" soup kitchen, these are in Bed 5, and Rocket in bed 7, Bed 4 is currently providing copious amounts of vegies for the Salvation Army in the form of Cabbage, Broccoli, Broccolini, Celery and Spinach, and is being tended by committee members, these have also been supplemented with donations of Leeks, Shallots, and several herbs from the communial herb section and other gardeners.

We will soon be adopting a marking system, using the Salvation Army logo, this will mark vegetables being donated to the soup kitchen, this will enable fresh harvesting of produce for the kitchen.

Floriade is around the corner, any association members interested in attending Floriade, the suggestion has been made we take a bus trip down, please register expressions of interest here, with preference for dates between the 17th of September and the 16th of October, using the same link also register interest in a bus trip around some of Sydneys' community gardens.

Happy Gardening Comrades in Compost

Steve