Community Garden News 

 Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’ —Robin Williams

Spring is indeed a wonderful time in the garden, and the Community Garden is no exception.

Summer hours: Wednesday and Sunday 10am-12noon

Our spring planting is well underway, and we seem to have chased away the winter blights and vermin. We have planted a large, staggered potato patch, so hope to provide a long season of potatoes. Strawberries are in flower and full of promise. We are harvesting cabbage and silver beet and some very colourful chard, and have delivered a good crop of parsnips to the Larder.

Lettuce, beetroot, spinach, zucchini, cavelo nero, beans and various brassicas have been planted. They have mostly survived the “great frost’: just a few sad beans which will be replaced as we now have a seed bank, to cover these events. Our berries are all looking healthy, under cover of nets: next week they will be joined by tomato plants. 

Medici Café has donated all their coffee grinds for our compost, which is great. Thanks Medici. We have rather more than we can currently use so we suggest that if you would like to help yourself to some of our ‘stock’, feel free to bring along a container and take some from the black bin at the far end of the garden…there is a container there for a koha, which would be appreciated: this will be used to purchase ongoing plant stock.  

What are coffee grinds good for? They provide a good fertiliser for acid loving plants: enrich your compost: deter cats and dogs from roaming garden beds ; repel pests – sprinkle used coffee grounds around your plants to protect them against destructive pests like ants, snails, and slugs.

  As we are now into the growing season we are desperate for additional assistance in the garden. From the first week in November we will be increasing our gardening session to include a Sunday session, from 10am -12noon.We welcome new gardeners at all ages and stages of expertise, please join us on either( or both) Wednesday and Sunday. We would particularly welcome a ‘potato monitor’ and a ‘berry monitor’; anyone who has a spare 20/30 minutes a week to be rostered onto watering duties and of course anyone who just wishes to share in the joy of gardening.

We have been listed as a “small garden of interest” in this year’s Puhaka Mount Bruce Garden festival, which is a great affirmation, so any assistance to make the garden look stunning would be much appreciated.  

We would also appreciate any spare mulch that people may have access to, obviously pea straw is out of the question, but once the heat really hits it is essential to keep the soil cool and hopefully moist. Organic mulch will also help improve the soil’s fertility, as they decompose, thus keeping our vegies productive.