Community gardens

All posts tagged Community gardens

Ahhg…the Veges are going to Eat Me

Posted by gardenpathfood on September 11, 2013
Posted in: Community Gardens, Links to other sites, Places to Visit. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I walked in to a vegetable patch recently that definitely appeared positively carnivorous. The vegetables were so healthy and aggressive they could eat me.IMAG0415

I took a little detour to visit historic Jimbour Homestead, (on the Darling Downs, Qld) http://www.jimbour.com/  and walked in to their heritage designed vegetable plot.  It has to be Heritage Design to conform with the wonderful old homestead but in spite of this restriction the growth on the plants is spectacular. The garden is spray and artificial fertiliser free, but the extraordinary growth can probably be attributed to great soil to start with (This is some of the best soil on the downs) and lots and lots of free organics from the bull paddock, since Jimbour is also a working cattle property.

The gardeners have also become really excited about different vegetables and  have at least four varieties of kale for example all growing together and looking amazingly decorative.

One of the most ornamental of the plants had to be the artichoke and this plant is a silver, grey architectural perennial that would look amazing in a pot, or in any spot in the garden, even if it didn’t have the advantage of also growing food.

For information on how to grow and eat artichokes, I will be following this site as soon as I can lay my hands on some plants. http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4796/how-to-grow-artichokes/page/all

If you are holidaying in Queensland, then be sure to come as far west as Jimbour and visit one of our most historic, (after all Leichhardt left from here on his expeditions), beautiful and now culinary (ily?) exciting spots.  It is well worth your time.

Northey Street Community Gardens

Posted by gardenpathfood on July 10, 2012
Posted in: Community Gardens, Links to other sites, Places to Visit, Soil. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I had the opportunity to visit the Northey Street Community Gardens in Windsor, Brisbane last week and learnt a lot about the way the gardens work and some of the wonderful community  partnerships they have.

It was impressive that all the stable sweepings from the EKKA are able to be used in the timber tree plot at Northey Street and that much of the compost used in the gardens comes from local contractors, who are able to dump lawn clippings and chippings in the big bins at the gardens for composting.

The compost system is on quite a large scale as you can see in the photographs.  These big mesh bins are lined with shadecloth and placed  on one end of the three board path you can see in the left hand photo, and then covered with tarpaulin.

Once filled the two halves are clipped together and they are rolled along the track, being turned a few centimetres at a time until they reach the other end of the track- at which time the compost is ready to use. Ingenious!  Comfrey is grown in the gardens to be used as a compost starter.

See http://www.cleanup.org.au/au/LivingGreener/composting.html for  good suggestions for a compost mix, but basically you should have both green ingredients (scraps and clippings) and brown (hay, dry leaves, sticks, twigs), make sure it is aerated by either turning or piping and that it is moist but not too wet.   A good compost mix should not smell.