Dear fellow gardeners,
Our AGM is scheduled for Tuesday 9th December at 6pm. It will be held at the gardens and we will be having our Christmas party after the meeting (a good incentive for a quick meeting). Even though an AGM might seem boring we really do encourage all members to attend as we need your input for next year’s plans and the Committee would like all members to know what has been happening and what is being planned. If any members wish to nominate for positions on the committee for the coming year nomination forms are available at the garden. We can’t leave them out as they get blown about in the wind so just come down on a working bee day to grab one. We also have a pretty good time at our Christmas get togethers. For the party we thought it’s too hot for a B.B.Q. so “bring a plate” is the order of the day as well as byo drinks and chair. We are hoping that Shirley will bring one of her amazing pavlovas because it is the best we have ever tasted, hint, hint Kev. Family members are very welcome and the more kids the better. Hope to see you there!!
Another season has passed by already, here we are with Summer starting next week. Spring has been a very busy and productive season at the garden and as always we have learned lots.
We have had some new members join recently so welcome and happy gardening. It is always exciting to welcome new gardeners and it’s lovely to see the enthusiasm shown by our existing members when it comes to showing new members around and sharing our lovely space.
Speaking of sharing, you probably already know by now that we have received funding to build the toilet. We received a state government grant of more than 14 thousand dollars and the Premier’s visit to deliver the good news has lifted our profile in the local area. Thanks largely to Kev Strong and our local member Don Page we can add this grant to existing savings and start on the toilet in the New Year. Woo Hoo. This means that not only can we gardeners stay longer on working bee days but we can also invite more groups from the community to visit and share our garden. We are aiming to encourage childcare centres and aged care groups as well as disability services to visit our garden for pleasure, knowledge sharing, exercise, social contact with the community and just plain fun. We are all looking forward to this new exciting development for our garden. It’s funny how exciting a toilet can be, the simple things in life can bring the most pleasure.
Now to the serious business of compost. The pile of plant material to be composted seems to be never ending and the 1 or 2 people who work on the compost are a little overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that accumulates there. We have the pile where it is as compost needs layering and proper building for it to work so we want you to leave your greens there but leaving whole plants, roots, stems and all, makes our job heaps harder as we have to chop it all up before it goes in the compost. If you take out plants and leaves from your own garden we would really, really appreciate it if you could take the time to chop it up a bit before you leave it in the pile. There are always tools on the table in front of the whiteboard.
We are having a bumper season with the cherry tomato plants all over the garden. Nothing seems to eat them and they are plentiful. Bed E in particular has lots of varieties so help yourself to some whenever you are there. There is also plenty of spinach, rainbow chard and silver beet. We had a good crop of potatoes this last couple of weeks, though we have again learned something this season, we need to plant lots more beds with potatoes as they are always popular with everyone and none go to waste. At the moment there are also lots of zuchinni in various beds, you just have to look under the leaves. The ones in bed F are white zucchini and they are really nice and sweet. Over near the TAFE fence our pumpkin, watermelon and squash mounds are coming along very well. Again we learned from last season and have put in lots more plants as our pumpkins were very well received last year.
Hope to see you at the AGM.
Happy Gardening from the BCG Committee.