Winter notes July 2019

Level 1 water restrictions have been in place since 1st of June. Luckily we’ve had a fair share of rain recently. Enough rainfall here means that we can also use our hoses to water the garden any time as long as we are using the water from our own rainwater tank. In this case, while watering our volunteers will be displaying a “tank water in use” sign which was supplied by North Sydney Council. With Level 1 water restrictions in place we can still water at any time using a bucket or watering can, and a hand-held hose with a trigger nozzle can be used before 10am and after 4pm. We would appreciate if you could conserve the water use and supervise children while in the garden at all times. Thank you.

Our autumn harvest was somewhat affected by the dry weather. So, our huge harvest of Jerusalem artichokes and sweet potatoes from the outside bed was a pleasant surprise! This was also the proof of good soil, sunshine which the outside bed receives the most, and loving and tender!? care of our volunteer Bruce Michell – well done Bruce and thank you!

We dig each bed between plantings every 3 – 4 months and prepare the soil for the next planting. Every so often we find some of the beds affected by numerous roots, big and small, of large trees in the park growing into garden beds and stealing precious nutrients from our plants. Colin Jacobson has been tirelessly working to fix the roots problem assisted by fellow volunteers. We recently asked Council to help trying to rectify the problem and they have suggested to install a new structure within affected beds by creating a kind of air pocket (of no soil) between the ground and the bottom of garden soil. We are hoping this would fix the issue for good.

During winter our plants growths are slow but steady. Other than root vegetables mentioned above we have been harvesting mainly leafy vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, kale, as well as radishes, broccolini, citrus and a variety of herbs. By netting the whole tree our mandarins have been protected from birds and are ripening nicely. We have learnt the lesson from last year when cockatoos took all of our ripening fruits within a week!

Thank you so much for your continuous support and contributions. Happy gardening!