TNG Member News 2020

December 2020

Next working bee and Christmas afternoon tea

Sunday 13 December. Working bee from 2pm-4pm. Our final afternoon tea for 2020 will start at 4pm.

Bring something to share. Hot drinks will be provided.

After, you may like to go on to Carols on the Lawn at St Lukes, starting at 5.30 (byo picnic) with carols beginning at 6pm.

A special invitation to a local open garden

Robin Hopcroft is inviting all of our members to attend her open garden from noon on Saturday December 12^th.

Robin lives at 122A Channel Highway (go down the laneway at the little library and ceramic lighthouse sign). Robin has a lovely secluded garden with many colourful and unusual plantings and a very special hand made ceramic pathway. Just take a plate to share. Parking is permitted in the Korean  Baptist church carpark.

Would anyone like a holiday painting project?

Our white timber garden bench is in need of refurbishment. It was purchased several years ago and was made by a local craftsman to the exact design of a Queensland Railway station seat from a bygone era. It just needs a light sanding and a new coat or two of white gloss enamel to restore it to perfect condition.

Hope to see you on Sunday

Your TNG Committee

 November 12th.

Next working bee and special afternoon tea

Sunday November 15, 1.30-3.30 pm

We will break for a special afternoon tea at 3.30 to celebrate David Stephen’s birthday. Please bring something to share.

Consultation on plans for garden development

You can find information, a draft plan diagram and an invitation to comment on our website here:

https://taroona.tas.au/neighbourhood-garden/consultation/

Inner Perimeter spaces

Are you gardening in a space around the inner perimeter? Sometimes we have allowed people on the waiting list to use a bit of the space in front of the fruit trees. We have  lost track of who is gardening what  piece of perimeter. If you are working one of these spaces could you please mark it with a small sign, and let me know by return email which bit you are using.

Chooks, guinea pigs, rabbits?   FOOD to GO

On Sunday we plan to pull out all the over-mature silver beet and chard plants and turn them into compost. If you need food for livestock, please help yourself to the ‘beet trees’ in the two community plots before Sunday.

Free food shelves

Don’t forget the free food shelves if you have excess produce. Put leafy greens in one of the little buckets with some water to keep it fresh. You can also leave seedlings and seeds there.

Please don’t leave items of doubtful use – eg large amounts of bulbs etc that have been dug from home gardens, as we just have to dispose of them ourselves.

Our Green Bin

Council has provided us with a green bin. It can be used for disposal of rope and onion twitch (aka twitch), oxalis, white weed, grasses with seed heads, very woody (unchoppable) veg. stalks and any other noxious weeds. However all other veg. waste should go into the compost bays.

Taps

Please do not turn off the brass tap on the greenhouse.  It is connected to the automatic watering system and must be left on. The  hose without the timer can be used by turning on the plastic lever.

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October 15th.   (Seeds of Hope Project interim report - read it here)

Next working bee and tomato Plant giveaway! - Sunday October 18, 2-4pm

Please come along to the working bee on Sunday afternoon. Judy will be distributing the tomato plants she has propagated to members for home gardens and TNG plots. Make sure your plot is weeded and ready for tomatoes and other summer vegetables. You may like to plant your tomatoes now, or take them home to nurture them on a little further before planting out.

We will do the first ‘decant’ of worm farm extract for members to use on their plots.

Shared afternoon tea at 4pm.

Sad news – Vale Wesley James

I am very sorry to let you all know that Wes James, President Margaret’s husband, died this week after a short illness. Wes was an avid gardener in his home garden, but would always find time to fix things around TNG too. He went about this work quietly and without a fuss, so that the contribution he was making to our well being often went unnoticed.  I’m sure all members will join the management committee in sending our condolences to Margaret and her family.

Compost

Calling for new members of a second compost crew

Tina has a winning recipe for making great compost, and we could double production with a second crew. A couple of hours a month, at any time that suits the members of the crew, is all that is needed. Please apply by return email.

 Worm Farm

We need some more ‘brown’ material to add to the farm which is top heavy with  high nitrogen inputs and has an infestation of vinegar flies (not a problem to the worms or decomposition, but unpleasant for users).

How can you help?

• If you have a bag of shredded paper or fallen (autumn) leaves, please bring it to the garden and leave beside the worm farm.
• Limit the amount of citrus you are adding – maximum of a small proportion (say 10%)  of you total deposit please.
• Do not deposit on top of the worm blanket – lift it, deposit, replace.
• One option is to freeze your scraps – this is a good way to keep them smell-free if you can only deposit once a week for example. The worms wont mind a frozen deposit and it will soon melt in the farm, but not before vinegar fly eggs are killed.

Special working bee on Sunday November 15!

We will break early on Sunday November 15 at 3.30 for a special afternoon tea – more news closer to the date!

St Luke’s Spring Festival - Saturday  17 October  2-5 pm

Judy and Deirdre will be giving away the last of the Seeds of Hope seedlings (not tomatoes) and running ‘sow your own’ activities. We need 2 or 3 more volunteers. Would anyone like to help out for an hour or so? Let us know by return email please.

October 3rd.

Seeds of Hope Open Afternoon

Our open afternoon on September 20^th was a great success, with our registration at the gate showing attendance through the afternoon of 237 people. Our Seeds of Hope Project was made possible by a grant from Kingborough Council.

Honoured guests included Mayor Dean Winter, who formally opened the event, Councillors Steve Wass and Amanda Midgley, and Attorney General Elise Archer. All are good friends of our garden. Elise Archer was pleased to see tiny spring buds coming forth on the pomegranate tree she donated. Elise was instrumental in obtaining funding for the drawing up of plans which will be included in our application for a grant to the Tasmanian Community Fund.  Bridget was able to discuss these plans for improved access and safety with Elise and with many other visitors on the day.

Thousands of seedlings and seeds were given away, as well as information about how to grow vegetables. Many people took the opportunity to sow their own seeds to take home too. More than 15 small children created a mini succulent garden to take home.

The ‘food corner’ was a great success, and Peter says that 95 slices of cake, numerous drinks, 40 sausages in bread and 31 vegetable skewers, all with a choice of condiments, were sold.

Chris sold several of his attractive wooden planter boxes and donated proceeds to TNG.

The Free Food Shelves were well stocked for the first time, and most of what was on offer had been snapped up by the end of the day.

Special thanks must go to Judy, Michael and Helen for writing the successful grant proposal, to Judy and Chris who did all of the seed propagation, to Bridget who organized the building of the Free Food Shelves and Cawley who painted them. Thanks also to Peter who prepared all of the BBQ food and staffed the BBQ for the whole afternoon.

Many others contributed by making cakes, staffing the tables, preparing the site and pulling down at the end of the day. A big thank you to everyone who contributed.

Next Working Bee – TOMATOES!

Next working bee is Sunday 18 October 2-4pm

We hope that the named tomato plants propagated by Judy will be ready for planting out. Come along and get some for your plot and also help to plant some in the shared plot. We may have the first ‘worm juice’ from our worm farm to spur them along.

St Lukes Spring Festival Saturday October 17^th, 2-5pm

TNG will have tables at the festival to give away the remainder of our Seeds of Hope Seedlings, and will also have a sow your own activity with the remaining seeds. We will not be giving away tomato plants at this event, as these will be kept for members to take on the 18^th.

Forestry tubes

These are the long black plastic pots which were used for some of our seedlings. If you have them and no longer need them, could you leave them in the shed please.

Our Green Bin

Kingborough Council has provided us with a green bin which will be invaluable for disposal of noxious and troublesome weeds. Please put twitch (ie rope grass), oxalis, white weed in the green bin. It may also be used for large woody cabbage stems etc too big for the compost bays. Please do not fill it with ordinary vegetable residue and weeds which should go in the compost bay, or with other rubbish which should go in the regular bin or recycling bin.

Hope to see you at the next working bee on Sunday October 18th

 September 8th.

Next working bee-Sunday 13 September 2-4pm

Tasks

1. Weed berry patch in prep for Bridget to prune them in the next week.

2. Prepare materials for compost demo on Open Day

3. Move timber from stack in top corner and stack it on the rack behind the hop frame

4. General tidy and clean up.

This is an important working bee to clean up things ready for the Open Day and Seeds of Hope Launch on Sunday 20 September

 Seeds of Hope Launch and Open Day-Sunday 20^th September 1-4pm

All of our members and friends, and the local community, are invited to the Seeds of Hope Launch on Sunday 20^th.

For details see poster

Plot preparation for spring

Now is the time to weed and tidy plots, removing spent vegetable plants and preparing the soil for spring and summer vegetables. It would be great to have the garden looking its best for the Open Day on September 20^th, with the advantage that you will be ready to put in some of the free seedlings and seeds to be given away at the Seeds of Hope Launch.

Urgently Needed!!

For the preparation of seedlings and activities on the Seeds of Hope Open Day we need:

• cardboard tubes
• butter /margarine boxes (ie plastic containers that marg and butter are sold in)
• egg cartons

Please leave them in the red buckets in the shed, NOT IN THE GREENHOUSE!

We must keep the greenhouse clean and free from pathogens – so no dirty gloves, pots etc to go in there!

Volunteers needed for 20^th September

Thank you to those who have already put their names down. We still need people to help with set-up 11am-1pm, and to assist at various stations in 2 time slots, 1-2.30 and 2.30-4pm. We particularly need members who  are confident to give advice on vegetable growing to our visitors who will be picking up free seeds and seedlings.

Buskers

Does anyone know musicians who would like to provide some ambient music on the day?

Cakes

A very popular stall on our last open day and a great fund raiser to add to all the free activities. We still need offers of more  café style cakes which can be cut up into luscious large slices. Bakers – please supply a written list of the ingredients. No fresh cream!

Finally – its too early for tomato seedlings, so there will be a special tomato plant giveaway in late October.

Late August News

Seeds of Hope Launch - Date changed to Sunday September 20th. starting at 1pm

The scheduled working bee on Sunday September 13 will allow us the opportunity to prepare the garden for visitors.

Seeds of Hope Launch is the major event of our successful grant application to Kingborough Council's Covid recovery grants program. The whole community, not just our members, is invited to take part.

We will be giving away spring vegetable seedlings and seeds, and information on how to nurture them. There will also be a compost making demonstration, and several other free activities.

Members are asked if they can:

1.  Make a cafe-style cake to donate to the cakes and drinks stall. We will be selling afternoon teas for $5.00 (slice of cake and a hot or cold drink). The afternoon tea will be our major fundraiser for the year. All other activities are free.
2. Volunteer an hour or two for one of the rosters.
3. Tidy and weed plots so that the garden is looking good for the event, but also to make plots ready for planting those free seedlings!

Respond to tng.member.news@gmail.com

Added 23 August 2020

August News

Working bee

2-4 pm Sunday August 16.

Please come along. Afternoon tea at 4pm, weather permitting. If weather turns out really bad, we will post a cancel notice on TNG Facebook .

We will be planting the Pomegranate tree donated by Elise Archer at 3.30pm.

Seeds of Hope Hub Project

Our application for a Covid response grant from Kingborough Council was successful and the project “Seeds of Hope Hub” is now underway. The aim of the project is to promote gardening, particularly food gardening, around our community, and to provide information, inspiration and seeds and seedlings.

You may have noticed that the greenhouse has been refurbished and that the production of seedlings is well underway. Open the door and have a look inside, or have a chat to Judy if she is in there. Remember there are still distancing rules in place – maximum  2 people in the greenhouse at any time. The seedlings are part of preparations for our grand opening of the project on Sunday September 13^th.

Seeds of Hope Grand open day at Taroona Neighbourhood Garden – the community is invited

Sunday September 13^th from 1 pm

There will be afternoon teas for sale, and lots of free activities. There will be seedlings and seeds to give away and a table where you can sow your own to take home.

What do we need for the open day?

We would like donations of café-style cakes for the afternoon tea stall, and also volunteers to staff it.  We also need cardboard tubes and clean butter/margarine containers for seeds .

Are there any buskers out there who would like to add music to our festivities? And is there an arty person who can lead and/or demonstrate an activity with a vegetable theme?

Do you have ideas for decorating the garden on the day?

More detail will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. In the meantime, let us know at this email address if you would like to help with any of the above requests.

Free Food Shelves

These have now been installed at the back of the shed. If you have spare produce from your plot or home garden, please consider leaving it on the shelves for passers by to pick up.

Added 14 August 2020

Mid-July News

Working bee Sunday July 19 at 2pm

We are happy to announce that we can resume our working bee schedule, and there are lots of jobs to be done.

Please come along. We will be slicing up the giant 18kg yellow pumpkin and sharing it around, and the committee would also like to tell you about the grant we have received from Kingborough Council to create our Seeds of Hope Hub.

On Sunday you are invited to stay for our traditional shared afternoon tea at 4pm. Hot drink supplies will be provided, but please bring your own mug or cup. If bringing food to share, please provide it ready separated into single serves to minimize touching of pieces.

Seeds of Hope Hub Project

Congratulations to Judy, Helen and Michael who developed the concept and wrote the grant proposal. A special thanks to David and Graham for refurbishing the greenhouse and to Geoff and Graham for work on the water supply. These works are part one of the Seeds of Hope Project.

New Worm Farm

As you will see our new worm farm has been delivered and set in place. We owe a special thanks to the team who prepared the platform for the worm farm. On Sunday we will commission it, so there are plenty of jobs in preparing the worms’ bedding and introducing them to their new workplace. Children are especially invited to participate in painting a banner on Sunday in preparation for the launch. All materials will be provided.

A day for a grand launch will be announced soon.

Hope to see you on Sunday. Watch your email and our website and Facebook page for news about the worm farm launch and start of the Seeds of Hope Hub.

Added 16 July 2020

Early July News

Can you help please? The New Wormfarm is on its way!

The wormfarm has been manufactured and is ready to be dispatched. .

It will be delivered on a truck with a tail lift crane, and it is essential to have a firm base ready so it can be accurately placed. We do not want to have to move it again.

To prepare the base we will dig out a level space of about 2 square metres, fill it with gravel and set pavers into it

Can you spare some time on Sunday July 5^th at 2pm to help make the base? Please let us know by responding to this email.  If you would like to help but cant make that time, please let me know and we can arrange another time.

Seeds of Hope Hub

We have had further  grant success! Thanks to Michael, Helen and Judy who wrote a successful submission to Kingborough Council’s Covid Recovery Grants for the “Seeds of Hope Hub”.

Here is the description from the application:

"Seeds of Hope will provide seeds, seed raising facilities, seedlings and importantly members of the Taroona Neighbourhood Garden to help those community members to grow their own food.   In addition, part of the Seeds of Hope project will involve the construction of 'Food is Free' shelving adjacent to the garden to provide community members with excess produce from the Neighbourhood Garden along with seedlings for those who would like to grow their own produce at home."

The project will get under way in time for the main Spring sowing and planting season.

Happy and Sad Worms – calling young artists

We will be designing signs to explain to people what can be deposited in our new worm farm and would like to illustrate it with some drawings of happy  well fed worms, and sad worms who have eaten the wrong foods. Do a drawing and get Mum or Dad to photograph it and email it to this address.

Working bee program will resume

Sunday July 19 – 2pm – Working bee, shared afternoon tea at 4pm. All welcome.

May News

Welcome to winter!! Brrr!! The garden is looking good with many members working independently on plots and community areas during this time when we have not been able to have regular working bees. maybe in June we will be able to resume.

Some vegetables can be planted or sown in May – see our guides here:

https://taroona.tas.au/neighbourhood-garden/planting-calendar/

Theft of vegetables

Reports of theft of vegetables from personal plots have increased of late. This is a special request to all members to report thefts that have happened so far this calendar year so that we can build up a thorough picture of the extent of the problem.

The committee welcomes any suggestions about what we can do to discourage the removal of vegetables by people who have not put in the hard work to grow them. Please send any suggestions to this email address, along with reports of theft.

One suggestion is to have each plot named and labelled (see below).

Please give your plot a name and label it

We think that if each plot was named it would emphasise to potential ‘vegetable lifters’ that these are personal gardening spaces. It is possible that people taking vegetables think they are provided for any visitors to help themselves! Some suggestions for plot signs are to paint or scribe on an old cutting board, a large flat stone, a paver, a tile, a plate or plastic lid or a plaque made from modelling clay. Use paint, indelible marker, chalk used to make those café signs (it’s quite weather proof!), or glued on objects. Place the sign on a short post or glue or screw to plot end.

Use your own name or make up something interesting or amusing. Just make sure it is obvious that the plot has an owner who works to grow produce for their own family.  

Take compost and worm castings for your plot

There is compost ready in the bay nearest the fence for you to replenish your plot. You may also like to use some of the worm castings from the worm farm, but try to replace most of the worms in the worm farm  if you can separate them. Leaving the lid up on the bay for half an hour before you take castings encourages worms to retreat from the top layer.

Current Grant applications:

We have two applications for grants to improve our garden. We will hear if we have been successful by the end of June.

Big thank you to:

***The team which manufactured the latest round of compost

***Mowing team

***Those who dug, weeded and sowed/planted parts of the shared plots.

Posted 12 May 2020

 April News (posted 15 April 2020)

 AS you would know, all working bees are cancelled until further notice.

 However, here is a list of jobs that we would normally complete at a working bee, and if you have some time for outdoor exercise, you may like to do one of (or part of) the following:

In the community plots

 **Pull out the spent zucchini and pumpkin vines, and sweetcorn etc. Pile the debris in the upper bays in the compost area

 **Pull out the spent bush beans. Pile the debris in the upper bays in the compost area.

**Pull out tomato plant debris and stakes. Stakes go in the shed, debris in the compost bins as above.

 **Dig over these ex-bean, tomato and pumpkin plots, remove weeds to composting area, but make sure all twitch (rope or couch grass), oxalis and white weed  goes into the twitch bin by the greenhouse.

 (Don’t worry if you can only do part of the task, every bit is welcome. Once this is done we will supply seeds to resow these areas and add that job to the list.)

Composting

 **Mow over the veg debris and leave in a pile for compost making later. This is a big job and only recommended for people who have had a mower induction or training.

 **Turn the compost in the middle bay to the bay on the left.  When done change marker to "cooking". 

 **Move "please turn" marker to right hand bay as this will be the next job.

Other

 **Weed in the outer perimeter herb garden

 **Tidy the green house

Your own plot

Many plots still have produce in them. If you cant use the produce and it is in edible condition, please leave it in the new “Freebies” box on the outside of the new entrance (the upper entrance). How about leaving a bundle of  rhubarb stalks, or those spare cherry tomatoes?  Someone passing will be happy to take them.You can find spare seedlings and seeds in the green house…help yourself. And if you have spares, leave them there for others.

 See seasonal planting/sowing guides and list of quick growing winter vegetables. 

  https://taroona.tas.au/neighbourhood-garden/

Happy gardening from your committee

Covid 19 Hygiene precautions (posted 21 March 2020)