Dear Community Gardeners,

You will see from the photos that the garden is looking wonderful and it is time to get back into it. We have had some fun in the garden in the last few weeks. The weather has been good and the social interaction has been terrific. We had a lovely pizza evening last Saturday and we are looking forward to the KCG Christmas Party in the next few weeks. Keep an eye on the minutes for details.

This Saturday we will be:

·         Planting eggplant seedlings

·         Sowing seeds

·         Weeding

·         Penning the procedure for pizza oven operation

·         Turning the hot compost

·         Deciding the future of the sugar cane

·         Watering

·         Checking worms

·         Enjoying morning tea & chat

 

Last weekend we had a small and happy group at the garden and we planted some beans, added some shade cloth to the hothouse, moved the current hot compost into the bay ready for use in the garden, harvested (including some delicious carrots), pegged down the recycled carpet underlay (weed matting/mulch) on the Hillside, and watered.

Join us in the garden this Saturday from 8:30 when we will be:

 

• Potting up more seedlings
• Pulling out flowering broccoli
• Putting composted manure around citrus and watering with worm tea
• Watering, Watering, Watering
• Feeding the worms
• De-bagging new horse manure
• Pulling out old calendula around the asparagus bed and planting out lettuce seedlings
• Enjoying morning tea & chat

Spring has Sprung

We've got lots of summer vegetable seedlings - All ready to be planted out - And we'll be planting them this Saturday 28 September. There's probably too many tomato seedlings and maybe excess of other vegetable seedlings too, so we're going to sell any excess to our needs at 6 for a dollar after we've finished planting for the day. Come and join us from 9am, there's jobs to suit every one and time to chat over a delicious morning tea too. 

A couple of weekends ago we had a lovely morning weeding, planting and chatting on the Hillside Native Food Forrest. It was a very productive couple of hours.

In a couple of weeks we will be commencing an experiment involving the best way to construct a no dig garden bed. This is a great opportunity for people to find out more about this easy and productive way of creating new vegie beds. Stay tuned to this blog for more details.

This weekend we will be:

• Showing Green Box backyard gardeners around
• Repairing the Pizza oven
• Procuring timber from Jamberoo for the shade house
• Planting out onion ,parsley and lettuce
• Weeding
• Preparing a materials list for the shade house
• Preparing a bed for kiwi fruit
• Watering
• Enjoying morning tea & chat

New Members Welcome!

The community garden is near the leisure centre - come and visit soon!

We would love you to share your interest in growing food with us.

No Working Bee this Saturday August 25, but check the blog next week regarding Sept 1st.

As well as some of the usual tasks in the garden, this week we will be spending an hour or so weeding and planting in the Hillside Native Food Forrest. It is time to get the weeds under some sort of control before the spring growing season. This will give the native edible plants a head start in the growing season. It will also make ongoing maintenance of the weeds easier.

We will be repairing some of the recycled underlay that is being used as weed exclusion matting and mulch on the steeper slopes. The matting has taken a battering from the recent strong winds. We will be planting some Lomandra longifolia , Carpobrotus glaucescens (Pigface) and Tetragonia tetragonioides (New Zealand Spinach or Warrigal Greens).

So if you are interested in native edible plants or just want to get our hand dirty in our verdant community garden, come along from 9am this Saturday and enjoy the friendship, community spirit and sharing of knowledge and the harvest. And of course have a lovely cuppa.

This Saturday in the garden we will be:

• Planting seedlings
• Turning the hot compost
• Weeding and planting in the Hillside Native Food Forrest
• Putting up shelves in the kitchen
• Feeding the worms
• Finishing the high-tec pizza oven repairs

Please enter the garden from the Kiama Sports Fields. Parking is in the Kiama Leisure Centre car park or in Thompson St near the end of Bong Bong St. Please wear sturdy shoes and gardening clothes. Please bring a hat, gloves and a tasty treat to share for morning tea (a gold coin donation box available in lieu of bringing food).

Hello,

A lot has been happening at the garden. Les has constructed screens to keep the birds off the strawberries and they look delicious. Vince has planted our second round of potatoes and is working on preparing another bed. The top terrace will require good watering as the lack of serious rain over the last couple of months and the drying winds are taking their toll.

There is still a good harvest to be had so come along, get your hands dirty and enjoy a lovely cupper.

This Saturday 11^th August we will be: 

• Continuing the Pizza oven repair
• Feeding the worms
• Watering
• Planting seedlings
• Weeding
• Turning the hot compost

As usual we will start from 9am, please enter the garden from the Kiama Sports Fields. Parking is in the Kiama Leisure Centre car park or in Thompson St near the end of Bong Bong St. Please wear sturdy shoes and gardening clothes. Please bring a hat, gloves and a tasty treat to share for morning tea (a gold coin donation box available in lieu of bringing food). Hope to see you there.

Dear Community Gardeners,

It has been lovely to see our garden membership grow, and with spring not too far away we look forward to that membership growth blooming in the improved seasonal conditions. You will see below one of our new recruits sharing his knowledge by running a workshop on the correct way to transport some of the gardens produce. Thank you Santi (and Pia).

We have been having some cool, but comfortable gardening weather lately. This Saturday 4^th August we will be:

• Organising our new shelves
• Turning the hot compost
• Making decisions about what seeds to plant both directly in the beds and in trays for seedlings and then planting them out.
• Planting out some of our existing seedlings
• Feeding the hungry worms (please bring vegie scraps if you can spare them)

A part of the early seed and seedling planting we will be trialling the idea of reusing old plastic bottles as little hot houses for the seedlings. We will keep you posted on this experiment.

From 9am, please enter the garden from the Kiama Sports Fields. Parking is in the Kiama Leisure Centre car park or in Thompson St near the end of Bong Bong St. Please wear sturdy shoes and gardening clothes. Please bring a hat, gloves and a tasty treat to share for morning tea (a gold coin donation box available in lieu of bringing food). Hope to see you there.

Hello Community Gardeners,

This weekend there will be no working bee as it is the monthly produce markets in Kiama. We have been aware of the clash of loyalties this 4^th Saturday of the month has presented for regular gardeners and have decided that one Saturday a month is not too much to give up as a regular working bee. Of course, active members of the garden are still welcome to spend time in the garden on these Saturday, but there will be no formal working bees on the 4^th Saturday of the month for a while.

I bet the market will have trouble beating this harvest from a couple of weeks ago!

 Our next meeting will be at 4:30 on Wednesday 1^st August at the garden. Come along, get involved and have some input into the nurturing and planning of our wonderful garden.

Saturday 4^th August will be out next working bee, check this blog for more information next week.

Life is tough at the garden!

Maintenance in the garden

This Saturday, July 21 we're planning to neaten up the garden by continuing simple maintenance tasks. We'll be weeding and mulching and constructing some support for the broad beans. It should be a fairly relaxed morning from about 9.30am with morning tea to follow.  Bring some food to share, or a gold coin donation. The pictures here illustrate some of the weed varieties that are edible!

Hello Gardeners,

This weekend in the garden we will be: 

1.            Joe & Maria are coordinating

2.            Turning the compost

3.            Spiral turning the Daleks

4.            Planting seedlings & seeds

5.            Planting the figs

6.            Planting kiwi fruit

7.            Weeding

8.            Fireing up the Pizza Oven again

9.            Having a cuppa

If you are an Active Gardener and have not yet filled in your questionnaire, there will be copies to fill in at the garden this weekend. If you have a completed copy, please bring it along on Saturday or email it to the kiamagardens@gmail.com

This photo was taken about 13 months ago at our Wold Environment day celebrations. It was wonderful to welcome so many visitors to our garden. It shows how far we have come in that time.

As usual we will be at the garden from 9am, please enter the garden from the Kiama Sports Fields. Parking is in the Kiama Leisure Centre car park or in Thompson St near the end of Bong Bong St. Please wear sturdy shoes and gardening clothes. Please bring a hat, gloves and a tasty treat to share for morning tea (a gold coin donation box available in lieu of bringing food). Hope to see you there.

This weekend marks the end of the financial year! Come and invest some time in the garden where the thoughts of tax time etcetera are soothed by the gentle and eternal patterns of the seasons.

Work on the hi-tech pizza oven is progressing well and we should be firing it up for the first time in the next few weeks. In the meantime the low-tech oven is doing us proud.

This Saturday we will be:

-          Turning the compost

-          Feeding the worms

-          Taking the shade cloth off the hot house

-          Planting out more seedlings

-          Weeding

-          Propagating more seeds

-          Cooking bread in our wood fired oven

-          Organising the meeting room

-          Sharing tea or coffee, tasty treats and conversation

From 9am, please enter the garden from the Kiama Sports Fields. Parking is in the Kiama Leisure Centre car park or in Thompson St near the end of Bong Bong St. Please wear sturdy shoes and gardening clothes. Please bring a hat, gloves and a tasty treat to share for morning tea (a gold coin donation box available in lieu of bringing food). Hope to see you there.

Resting before the Climb!

I love this graph, it's like a big smile for gardeners and plants alike. Temperatures may still dip for months to come and the winter wind will howl, but the daylength climb is giving life its cue to get started on the journey towards the replenishment that is Spring.  Here at the garden we're resting this weekend after a couple of months of continuous activity. Regular gardeners can still come and go as they please and a few maintenance jobs might be continuing but there will be no organised activity. See you next week instead, on our way up again!

A mixed bag!

Last weekends lunchtime pizzas were a delightful aside as we began to learn how to cook in our adobe oven.  We'll be at it again this Saturday 16 June from 9am, bearing in mind that the oven will take a while to heat up - and this time we'll be modelling our cooking on  European community baking. If you want to have a go at cooking your own bread, sweet bread, savoury pastries, pizza etc, bring them along ready to cook this weekend. Apart from the oven there will be garden work to do, including turning thecompost, planting more seedlings wherever we can find a gap and feeding the worms.  If it rains we can work under cover and continue covering the library books. Work will also continue most of the day on the high tech oven and next week we hope to have both ovens ready to go.

Home again, and the homefire's burning!

It was wonderful meeting so many interested Kiama residents at Future Fest last weekend.


We were amazed at all of the stuff we managed to transport for our display, and just as amazed that it still only hinted at what we do when we're in the garden.

So, now that we're back home in the garden again this weekend and ready to continue with our current projects, it's a good time to come and visit us if you're in the area.


This is what we'll be doing this Saturday 9 June from 9am onwards 

• Fire Up our new adobe pizza oven -  It's time to learn how to use it effectively, so there will be some trial pizzas and bread happening throughout the day. Bring along your preferred pizza toppings.
• Turn the most recent hot compost.
• Plant out the seedlings left over from Future Fest.
• Tidy kitchen and rearrange meeting room in preparation for Winter.
• Feed the Worms.
• Check Fruit trees and brace those that have suffered storm damage.
• Continue internal repairs on the high tech pizza oven.
• Re mulch areas that have been windswept.
• Enjoy each other's company at morning tea.

Hope to see you there - Enter through the soccer fields, please wear covered shoes and remember that our only parking is in the leisure centre car park.

Quiet time in the garden

This Saturday will be a bit of a quiet time as many of our regulars will be away. However, there are still jobs to be done and tea, coffee and treats to be consumed, please feel free to bring along a snack to share.

There is plenty of undercover work to do should the weather be unfavourable for outdoor work so please come along.

The repair work being carried out on the hi-tech pizza oven is going well and we should be cooking away happily on a few weeks.

Jobs for this Saturday:

• Feed the worms
• Pizza oven repairs
• Blend a potting mix
• Pot strawberries
• Harvest         
• Clean the meeting room
• Enjoy a tea or coffee

Note – Kathy, Deb & Julie will not be at working bee

Perfect Gardening Weather

 

 We are still pretty excited about the Pizza Oven workshop held at the garden a couple of weekends ago. With the weather cooling down the thought of hot tasty pizzas and bread from our own ovens is enough to make the mouth water. Below are a couple of action shots of the workshop and further down the list of jobs for this weekend.

Hard at work

 

Alan Watt explaining the thermal dynamics of our pizza oven design (or quantum physics by the look of the board!!!)

The last few weeks have been a little on the chilly side, but this is perfect weather for planting peas and building compost amongst other things. Why not come along to the garden this Saturday from 8:30 for a few hours of healthy fun and conversation in the garden

You can access the garden from the Leisure Centre car park through the sports oval gates and left for a hundred metres or so. You will see the Garden Gate.

Please wear sturdy enclosed boots or shoes and a hat.

Bring a little something to share for morning tea or drop a gold coin in the morning tea kitty.

Jobs for Saturday 19 May 2012

-          Plant Seedlings, peas and pigeon peas

-          Continue with the Hi-tec Pizza oven repairs

-          Pot up yet more strawberries

-          Clean up the Meeting room for winter

-          Start a new hot compost

-          Water the garden with our compost teas

-          Enjoy a cuppa and a chat

A Taste of Things to Come!

What a weekend it was last weekend. All hands on and two efficient pizza ovens emerged. Can't promise pizza this weekend because most of us will only be gardening in the morning, but keep your nostrils tuned because the next wood fired event will be happening soon. This Saturday 12 May we would like to get all of these things achieved.  Hope to see you there!

·         Skilled group will continue work on high tech oven.

·         Prepare new no-dig garden bed

·         Plant Peas, Pigeon Peas and Broad Beans

·         Water and Harvest

·         Move remaining soils and store tyres

·         Bag Compost

·         Feed worms

·         Finish potting strawberries

And of course we'll love to chat over delicious morning tea!

Sweet Tooth Chokos

No working bee this weekend, but.. 

Whilst we're all busy building our pizza oven,

maybe you could whip up a batch of this marmalade!

Next Working bee Saturday 12 May, stay posted!

Lime and Choko marmalade – recipe by Jackie French

Makes one want to eat chokos!

12 Chokos

Juice of 6 limes (or lemons)

1.75 kilos sugar

1 cup water

1 dessertspoon preserved ginger (optional)

Grated rind of 2 limes or 1 lemon

Peel & chop chokos, sprinkle with lime juice and 1 cup sugar, leave overnight

Next day, place in a pan with the water, ginger and rind, then heat, stirring, until the sugar on the chokos has dissolved.

Boil gently for an hour and a half then add the rest of the sugar.

Stir until the sugar dissolves, then boil rapidly for between an hour and an hour and half – until a little sets in cold water.

Transfer to hot sterilized jars and seal when cool.

Enduring Commitment

How rewarding to see so many members here last Saturday all pitching in for the garden and our Future Fest preparations. Work will continue next Saturday 21 April - see jobs below, then no working bees until 12 May owing to workshop events. Keep on discovering chokos this week, Frank found a good use for some last weekend!


Jobs to be done this Saturday 21 April:

1.      Water plants with Seasol/Compost teas

2.      Check that the cut Bana grass is not sprouting

3.      Plant garlic

4.      Check brassicas for green grubs (and kill them if found)

5.      Water the FutureFest seedlings

6.      Plan for FutureFest

7.      Feed the worms

8.      Harvest

9.      Clean up the meeting room (winter is coming)

10.  Weed

11.  Have a lovely cuppa

Choko's Oh Choko's!

A versatile vegetable that's willing to please,  Keen to be yummy takes flavours with ease, Greets you in winter as others say bye, Holds its own texture for crunch in stir fry.Give it a chance, its fresh and nutritious - Check out our recipes and try some new dishes!

One out of Two....

There's movement on our wish list! A much anticipated pizza oven, different to this though - will soon be built at the garden, and our hospitality will grow deliciously. The base is already near completion, Pity about no chooks!
On Saturday 14 April we will be working at the garden from 8.30 am. Quite a lot of planting and potting to be done ... here's the list.   Hope to see you there!

• Continue clearing sweet potatoes above the fence line.
• Thin out and pot strawberries. 
• Plant out any pea seeds we have in the garden.
• Plant seeds in paper rolls for Future Fest usage and giveaways.
• Continue with ongoing garden projects.
• Harvest, weed and water as necessary
• Have a cuppa and enjoy a chat.

Easy Going for Easter

The Autumn garden is flourishing, thankful for all of the recent rains and enjoying the return to Sunshine we have experienced recently.

There will be no organised working bees over the Easter Break although visiting members are encouraged to harvest and maintain the garden individually.....or go about their seasonal duties!

We hope everyone returns rested and replenished after Easter for the next working bee on Saturday 14 April.  On the weekend of 5 and 6 May there will be a wood fired pizza oven building workshop at the garden. This workshop will be conducted professionally and early pre-payment is essential.  For more information contact us by email as above.

Best wishes for a Happy Easter!

Loads to do in the garden this weekend - let's get to it

Jobs for Saturday from 8.30 am

· Seeds – decide which ones to plant

· Cut the wattles to half the height of the back fence

· Fertilise

· Pizza Oven footing pad (& possibly access step pad)

· Spread the rest of the mulch

· Move the ‘ready’ compost to Les’ new worm-friendly container

· Start new hot compost

· Tie back Bamboo

· Relocate the native grasses from outside the lower driveway

· Enjoy morning tea together

Growing things

Last Saturday was a very enjoyable day. The weather was good and the visit from the Albion Park Gardeners was delightful, more about that in a future blog from Deb.

'Julie (shall we call her Minnie?) the Mulcher'

We got a lot done in the garden and the worms have never looked so healthy. We are getting litres of nutritious ‘worm tea’ to feed the garden with and under Eddie’s stewardship they are chomping through loads of organic waste for us.

Eddie pours a cup of worm tea

We had a wonderful and very filling morning tea. The conversation was varied and merry, most enjoyable.

More of the same this weekend

Jobs for Saturday 24^th March

-          Harvesting

-          Weeding

-          Feeding the worms

-          Restraining the Bamboo

-          A nice cuppa and a chat