‘The Garden’ Autumn Gathering March 2015

There are moments when everything flows in a community garden. Today was one of those magic days.

With the tropical weather pattern of February in full swing, the plant systems at the Garden have bloomed in response. The food forest is just amazing, the White Sapote in particular, has had over a hundred mature fruit around 10 - 12cm in diameter. The place is absolutely pumping with goodness, a fabulous space to both work and relax.

The ‘Garden’ is often referred as an incubator for emerging talented gardeners, who take with them the Permaculture practices to develop their own version of Eden.

Today, many of these capable folk came back to hook in to the autumn tasks at hand, whilst having a great time in the process.

In a record work output for a monthly garden gathering, 10 of the long beds in the four season vegetable beds were weeded and built up using the ‘no dig’ gardening method. Another 4 were also weeded and mulched lightly with straw ready for autumn legumes of snow peas and broad beans.

Our three metre square compost heap, built from the prior garden gathering was turned by a couple of enthusiastic and energetic young fire brands from Kiama.

The Madeira vine colonising the space behind the water tank was weeded and fed to the chooks. (The Madeira vine egg conversion is our preferred management method to herbicide application.)

Nugyen, harvested around 20 old hamii bamboo shoots for a tasty Thai soup, whilst generating plenty of good discussion amongst the foodies.
Other effective pottering buzzed around the mandala garden too.

The famous 1pm lunch was not disappointing for the 20 folk who sat down to an amazing home cooked and largely home grown table of organic goodness.

To the fantastic mob of Permaculture practioners and community gardeners, thank you for cranking the goodness and celebrating a wonderful start to autumn.

Looking forward to seeing you all next month, where we will be planting up the beds and building more bamboo trellis.

 "Crankin' the goodness" with building 'no dig' gardens on the north facing long beds

The famous 1pm lunch

Mushroom workshop Moved to Fairy Meadow

See updated details in last post.

UPDATE New Location for Mushroom workshop

SORRY but Please note we have changed the location again to
FAIRY MEADOW

Contact us via email to get the location details & book a place.

Please email
thegardennorthgong1@gmail.com  
for Location and payment details.

Edible Mushroom Cultivation Workshop Details

The workshop will be run over 2 days
on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th of October Run by Will Borowski and hosted by "The Garden northgong " 

NOTE NOW to be held at Cringila Public Schools kitchen garden.

http://www.cringila-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/curriculum-activities/permaculture-garden

Will Borowski is the owner and operator of forest fungi, teaching Aussies how to grow gourmet mushrooms and selling most of the supplies you need. He has an extensive mushroom culture library and comprehensive courses that communicates complex information for beginner to advanced mushroom growers...to get and keep all enthusiasts on their way.

Day 1: You will learn how to:
• cultivate gourmet mushrooms,
• make a still air box for mushroom cultivation
• how to make and transfer mushroom onto agar
• make grain spawn
• make sawdust spawn
• make dowel spawn

Day 2:  You will learn how to:
• use grain spawn to grow Oyster mushrooms
• grow King Oysters in a bucket
• supplemented sawdust bags for species including: shiitake, pioppino, oysters and others
• make dowels for shiitake logs and other gourmet mushroom log cultivation 

Morning tea and lunch will be included

The cost for the full 2 days is $350

or if you book and pay before the 18th Sept it's only $300 

It's also possible to do a single days for $200

Any profits will go to The Garden Note: Places are limited 

To register please send an email with your details to:

thegardennorthgong1@gmail.com

with a heading of "Mushroom Workshop" so we can easily spot it. 

Included in your fee

You will walk away from this course with over $500 worth of mushroom cultivation supplies, including:

• Inspiration and a head full of information to ensure you can grow gourmet mushrooms in your own backyard!
• Comprehensive course notes to support your ongoing learning at home
• Inoculated shiitake log
• Propagated delicious oyster mushroom bag – ready to eat 
• Inoculated shiitake plugs
• Inoculated grain spawn
• Agar plates for further propagation at home,
• Exclusive membership to the Forest Fungi Culture Club receiving discounts on mushroom cultures, and most importantly
• Ongoing support and guidance from Will Borowski through email and/or the Culture Club chat room

Edible Mushroom Cultivation Workshop 11th & 12th Oct 2014

GROW YOUR OWN MUSHROOMS
This workshop will be 2 days of jam-packed days of hands-on knowledge in DIY edible mushroom cultivation.

Learn how to grow delicious organic oyster, shiitake, enoki and other mushrooms at home. This practical workshop will take you through the basics of mushroom propagation. 

The principles can be adapted to most mushroom varieties; therefore, the sky is the limit.

Limited places - So stay tuned - more info coming soon!

INTERNATIONAL PERMACULTURE DAY

The celebration and honouring of  International Permaculture Day this May the 4th couldn't have been finer than by 'cranking the goodness' at the Garden.

In true Garden style, the organic fair trade coffee was flowing in the early morning as Greg worked his magic on the machine and kept the gardeners smiling as they hooked into garden maintenance. 

The forecast, gale force winds out of the south west reminded us of Wollongong's indigenous name, 'windy place', however the windbreak plantings provided an ideal microclimate to work in for the day.

We had a great turnout, with folk coming from Marrickville, new volunteers from as far as Wombarra and Brazil, as well as  the usual local gardening varieties who love to get down and dirty in the humus!

Todd's bobcat made short work of the north western corner in preparation for the new raised garden beds. 

Lisa, Fran and Claudia prepared new beds for the winter legumes of broad beans and snow peas. The fungi decomposed paths were dug up and mounded on the beds to build the soils before a light straw top dressing ready for direct seeding.

Tommy D, Alan and the rest of the mob got into the planting out self seeded local chard, garlic seed and a second planting for the season onion crop. They got into the rhythm with interplanting the leafy green and brassica beds with broad beans, a valuable little tip for robust yields.

In other spirals, the compost was turned, while the food forest mulched with a combination of wood chip and pigeon manure. (There's a good story about the Illawarra pigeon fanciers and the banning of falconry in Australia that will be told in good time... )
 
The Garden Feast was another joy, although small it was extremely tasty.
We believe in direct action, be the change we want to see in the world, and have a great time doing it. See you all June.

The fossil fuelled and solar powered approach to composting

The infamous Garden Feast around the 'table of goodness'

The Permaculture mob and new friends 

  

MARCH 2014 WORKING BEE

Jake and the Garden's Bowen mangoes a week prior to harvest

Family fun 

 Dragonfruit

Our first ripe Dragonfruit, after a four years of growth