August 25th 2009 spring news

Our working committee met last week and we have already dug 3 new gardens around 3 suburbs of Dunedin to kick-start the new vege garden season.
Last season our group was involved in approx 20 new gardens and we also assisted in  9 gardens that required assistance from the previous year.

We were surprised and delighted to receive the Health & Well Being award at the Trustpower Community evening  earlier this month.

Our emphasis at the start of this Spring is to be as active as we can, digging new gardens in the backyards of our clients and then assisting them with the on-going planting and maintenance. And we know that at least 15-20  of our earlier gardens will require some help and advice through this year as well.
So for this work we need a team of willing  volunteers. Last season our numbers fell away until it was left to just the faithful few in the last 2 or 3 months.

If you are able to help on a Saturday morning [say 2 or 3 Sats a month] please reply YES to this email.

Help means 4 hours from 9-00am to 1-00pm.. Or it can mean 9-00am to 11-00am, or 11-00am to 1-00pm.
This will enable me to estimate the size of our team each week and the extent of work that we can accomplish.

This Saturday [29th ]we have  3 or 4 new gardens to dig plus some earlier gardens to prepare for planting. If you are able to help this Saturday please reply YES as above and OK this SAT

Gardening greetings Alan Dunbar

September 2009

Steve Dunn (ph 488 5257) will be at the garden between 9am and 11 am most Saturday mornings from 19 September onwards. Help is most welcome. Let me know if you want to help with individual gardens around the city as well

February 2009

It’s now 2009. We had a barbeque on 31 January and ate potatoes with mint from the garden plus other vegetables from our own gardens  (and your usual meat items).

The garden is looking great: the no dig plot vegetables did the poorest, grew quickly then failed due to a lack of soil depth. (sounds like the parable of the sower!) We will top this up.

The pumpkins are doing well: Anne’s idea of growing them through an old bed bedspread and weighting it down with lawn clippings worked very well at suppressing weeds and trapping in moisture.

We have been able to supply members who have no space for gardens with a fwe vegetables and some went to the food bank.

We have also visited a  number of people who want help in establishing gardens plus ongoing advice. This is very rewarding as often all people need is a few scoops of compost, some seedlings and a bit of advice and away they go. The city council have given us some funding to help.

December 2008

Currently a few of us are keeping an eye on the garden, watering, weeding and planting the remaining space.

The plots have potatoes and in the 2nd plot from the left, Alan has planted a green crop to condition the soil.

The no dig plot far right of photo) contains newspaper, pea straw and compost and the plants are doing really well.

Link to no-dig garden building

4 plots 1 Dec 2008

When everyone is back from the holidays, we will have a Barbeque at the garden on 31 January 2009.

Vegetables from the garden (and a few other items) will be on the menu.

1 November 2008 at the Community Garden

On Saturday 1st November at 10-00am we met at the garden. We planted our seedlings and dug over the last plot. We planted pumpkins around a tree. A group of us left at 11am to attend the individual gardens around the suburbs [as we did last year] since we now have a number of referrals from the social agencies to assess and assist. We also removed a few weeds at the back of the garden and discovered mint growing. Ann explained that a number of the weeds we found are in fact edible. Puha or milk thistle has long been eaten in NZ. It even turns up in restaurants. Google Puha for more information.

http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/vascular_plants/detail.asp?PlantID=211

Even the roots of the obnoxious onion weeds we have in the area can be eaten like spring onions.

18 October 2008

Group met at the garden. There are now some 14 rows of spuds in (3 varieties: Jersey Bennie, Heather,  and Swift, in two types of bed – to see how well the beds produce) and some silver beet and savoy cabbage planted in the no-dig area (thanks Neil)  (and thanks for the plants, Linda). Thanks, Alan and Celia, for your support this morning – especially for the delicious morning tea.

Next meeting Sat 18 October 10:00am

Meanwhile, feel free to turn up any time. Two garden beds still need to be dug over.

Garden day – 4 October 2008

Alan Edwards showed us a compost bin he had created on site using three stakes and a ring of wire netting. This is a very simple and cost effective way to construct a compost bin. To keep the warmth in, you can  make a simple cover using polystyrene in a sack which is placed on the top of the compost.

The benefits of compost include:

• Water retention
• adding nutrients to the soil
• adding lightness to the soil
• recycling waste

During this session, we dug over a bed and spread gypsum (to lighten the soil and add calcium).

We also began a no dig garden beginning with newspaper to suppress the grass and weeds. This was followed by straw then compost. At the far end of the plot we put compost then straw. We hope to experiment a bit to see what works best.

First day at garden- 27 September 2008

The first day at the community Garden was 27 September 2008  at 10am. As it was raining, we had a session inside with Alan Edwards who showed us how to make compost and what plants need the most. Notes from this talk will be available soon. We will meet next Saturday 4 October at 10am behind Maori Hill Church and attempt to get started with the outside garden.If its wet we will still meet to exchange ideas, seedlings etc. See you then.

Garden Development Project (GDP)

Location: Dunedin, New Zealand