Community Garden News 

Well we have certainly faced plenty of challenges in the garden this year, and now the ferocious wind! 

Fortunately, most of the broad beans have been well strung up, and we have delayed most of our spring planting. Even the peas have fared pretty well, although the netting has had a bit of a beating.

We have a good supply of lettuce, bok choy, cauliflower and spinach which we will endeavour to have to the Medical Centre Larder early in the week, as well as the usual Wednesday harvest.

Having realised that our blueberry plants were suffering from very wet feet we transplanted them to a dryer part of the garden, where they have settled and blossomed and sprouted magnificently, so if your blueberry plants are looking sad, try them in a dryer part of the garden and give them a good feast of lime. Blueberry bushes also grow exceptionally well from cuttings…just a small twig into some potting mixture and in few weeks roots form and will be ready for planting out about three months later. 

Hopefully the current weather will settle as October advances and we plan to plant a number of tomatoes…high yielding, rather than anything too fancy, using both planters and pots, for which we can provide plenty of protection from birds. We are also embarking on Kumara cultivation…this year in a mound that we have been building through the winter months with sheep dags, horse pooh, grass clippings and general compost. We hope for a pumper crop this year.

We are thrilled to have received a generous grant from the Community Board which should keep the supply of plants and general running costs under control for the next 12 months. Many thanks. 

Anyone is welcome to join us at the garden, Wednesday mornings between 10-12, at 51 Oxford Street. Enthusiasm is the only requirement!