The Sustainability Learning Community Organic Garden Blog

News and Events: Autumn in the Garden

2010-04-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Summer has been a busy time for us at the garden as I'm sure you're all aware! With the completion of both the chook shed and the wood fired pizza oven, we have had our hands full. All that hard work is paying off now, in terms of delicious fresh eggs and pizza!

For those of you who are interested in how we built the pizza oven, I will shortly be uploading a set of pictorial instructions of step by step construction of the oven, to assist any of you who are now thinking about doing the same thin in your own garden. Watch this space (and your email) for more info soon.

With the quieter Autumn season coming on, we will have more time to spend on activities outside of normal garden maintenance. We will be running workshops over the coming months on a wide range of topics, from composting to fertiliser production and maybe even bees. If there is a topic you would particularly like to explore, tell me or one of the coordinators and we will do what we can to make it happen.

I'm looking forward to working with you all in the garden soon, there is allot to be done and allot to look forward to!

See you there,

Jackson

Merry Christmas

2009-12-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for your help over the last year. This year has been a huge year for the SLC garden, including :

· establishing the drip irrigation system for the main veggie beds

· procuring 2 x 5000L Water tanks

· establishing the Orchard

· sales of excess produce (to the ANU food coop)

· securing a grant from the Australian Open Garden Scheme – for the chook shed

o Building the chook shed (70% done)

· rebuilding the herb spiral

· holding workshops on composting, worm farming, drip irrigation systems, water tanks, permaculture and many others.

This has all been achieved due to the hard work and dedication of the volunteers who have given up their time to make this special. So thank you for all your help this year. Next year is looking like being an even bigger year so please watch this space.

HELP OVER CHRISTMAS

Christmas is always a difficult time for the garden as the heat and lack of people really take its toll on the garden. The garden also traditionally stops its working bees from the 24th Dec – 4th of January. However the plants still need a drink and basic maintenance is required.

If you are able to help (even for only 10 minutes to water) over the Christmas break please send me an email to let me know and I will send you instructions of what to do. These are the main dates we really require help on:

24th Dec
26/27th Dec
29th Dec
1st/2nd/3rd Jan

Once again thank you all for your help and look forward to seeing you all (and our new feathered friends – the chickens) in 2010.

Cheers,
Riccardo

SLC GARDEN WINS GARDEN GRANT

2009-10-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
The SLC garden has won a grant from the Australian open garden scheme. The money will go towards the construction of a chook run, shed and fruit trees in a integrated system. The plans are to have the system finished by early December 2009 and will be built primarily by volunteers. If you would like to be part of the fun please come down and have a look.

Thanks again to everyone who was involved in the grant including: Jackson, Beth, Jasper and Sharyn.

Hope to see you all down in the garden soon.

Cheers,
Riccardo

Video Blog #1: Intorduction to the garden

2009-03-01T20:41:00.001-08:00

Hello all,
My name is Riccardo Natoli and I have taken over as garden coordinator for the SLC organic garden. We are currently looking for volunteers and now is a great time to join in the fun. Have a look at the following video for more information about the garden and then come and join in on the fun Tuesdays and Thursdays 4-6pm and Saturdays 10am-12pm.

The garden is starting to prepare for winter so now is a great time to come and help out.

Also stay tuned for more video, photos and how to demonstrations to be placed on the blog throughout 2009. Should be a great growing year!!!!

Cheers,
Riccardo

November highlights!

2008-11-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from around the garden this November:

The native/bush food garden beds on the South are finally complete!

Shed

Never too late radishes

lush potatoes, basils, tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants

onions flowering

Amy making use of the dried pea stalks as mulch for the native plants

the environment centre's balcony garden

appreciating the terrific achievements of 2008

Lawrence, Sally, and Amy

Cheers.

October highlights! (Spring, Warm, Very Warm and occasionally Drizzly)

2008-10-31T04:10:00.000-07:00

It's all happening at the Garden.

October reminded everyone that there is certainly a physical component to setting up a sustainable garden and growing great veggies! And we've had plenty of physical activity and exercise going on this month: sowing seeds, transplanting all sorts of veggies, planting lots of trees, transferring dirt and mulch, building up no dig structures, picking produce, moving beds, the works! But it's all sweat and smiles.

Started consigning some of the Garden's peas to the ANU Food Co-op this October too, and they're selling really well! So be sure to get some for your next veggie basket...Support the local food system!

Sally has suggested we turn the unused southern beds into a bush food garden! What a terrific idea! So watch out for that!

Here's some highlights from the productive month of October.

Amy transplanting seedlings into Bed 1: Tomatoes (and lots of it), basil, potatoes (top), capsicum, potatoes (middle), eggplant, potatoes (bottom)

Cucumbers at Bed 4

Zucchinis at Bed 3

Corn at Bed 3

Radishes, leeks, beetroots and carrots in an experimental mini-water spike system at Bed 2

Pumpkin patch!

Extending the garden to the back of the Centre's wall, planted calendulas, mint, comfrey, and sunflowers (can't wait to see this go wild!).

Beetroot from the herb spiral

And the onions are ready. Tangy and sweet brown and spanish types.

The salad and herb bed. Lettuce, mints, strawberries, lavenders, and calendulas--what a sight. Pass the dressing please.

Bindu eating fresh and organic

Citrus tree (front) and Bay tree (back) at the southern end of the garden (note garden beds to the right to be used to grow bush foods!)

Locally grown organic peas for local 'berrans.

The eggplants are growing very well.

The capsicums are growing very well too.

The biggest tomato plant so far (as with the pumpkins, we are expecting a haul of tomatoes by the end of this season)

More radishes sprouting...they grow pretty quick and are pretty spicy too.

The dill flowering and feeling tall.

Dill inhabitant.

Jared weeding.

The product of sheer brawns: Steve, Jared and Lawrence's weed matting project. To ensure weeds don't grow on the planned mulched paths in between the beds, we laid out old carpet to suppress the weeds. And cutting and carrying old and dusty carpets is hardwork! But knowing we're able to hold the weeds off for future gardeners made the whole thing worth it.

Segregating Beds 3 and 4 officially (and the space in between is carpeted too!)

Sally watering Bed 2

Spanish onion, which probably ended up in Adam's dinner

The Garden has certainly come a long way. I can already foresee a lush green space with veggies, natives, and trees growing everywhere, smell all sorts of sweet and spicy scents, hear birds chirping, see some animal friends skipping about and lots of cool people with huge salad bowls.
Do you see it happening too?

See you all soon!

School Holidays (Sept 29-Oct 10)

2008-10-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures taken from the garden through the school holidays...lotsa dirt, lotsa greens, lotsa action, and lotsa smiling faces!

ready for transplanting

Aquila preparing the beds

transplanting tomatoes

watering lettuces is meant to be a father-daughter experience

Maddie and the biggest turnip to come out of the garden (1.1 kg!)

Katie helping herself to some peas

Hannah getting ready to plant a tree

Sally looking after Bed 4

Amy and our new pumpkin patch

Busy bodies: Josh, Steve, Amy, Sally, and Hannah

And the broadbeans start beaning

Sal transplanting lettuces to Bed 4.
The organic garden is tremendously thankful for all your help, wisdom, and coolness Sal!
We've managed to do so much work! Looking forward to more.

See you guys soon!

September 22 & 25 (Early Spring, Very Warm)

2008-09-28T17:40:00.001-07:00

This week, we were finally able to sow in some leek, radish, carrot, beetroot and spinach seeds for Bed 2 and potatoes for Bed 1! Barry also came by to drop over a new load of dirt, and Jenn to pick some peas!

Busy bees

Where would we be without Barry

Barry checking out the sweet peas

Steve transplanting the radish seedlings from the greenhouse

Amy and Paul

Thanks to everyone who came along! See you all soon!

September 15, 18 & 20 (Late Winter-Early Spring, Very Warm)

2008-09-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

Had an awesome time picking peas this week, of which about 30% were consumed to fuel the job!
Went out to visit the O'Connor community garden as well on Saturday. Thanks so much to Greg for showing us around and giving us all his wonderful insights on community gardening. We took away so much from the tour! Rest assured, we'll be curious as to how your plot grows!

Steve and Leanne having a grand time picking the much awaited peas

ta-da. sweet and crisp.

Amy setting up some more seedlings

Evening out the dirt

Greg welcomes the O'Connor community garden visitors

urban agriculture

Greg shows us his thriving plot and his ingenious ways of working
around water and climate constraints

Zemma and Liz appreciating the greens

teepee staking (now we know)

2-stage compost bins, and a fallen leaves collector

keyhole-like arrangement

Finlay by an anti-frost pyramid

Pretty cool eh? Pretty excited to see how the ANU garden might fare against this plot during spring! (fingers crossed). For more info on the community gardens being run around Canberra visit the COGS website at http://www.cogs.asn.au

See you at the garden!

September 8 & 11 (Late Winter-Early Spring, Very Warm)

2008-09-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

Spring is slowly creeping its warmth over the garden! And we're all smiles as the great weather inspires us to get more work done and more seeds in!

On the way to the garden, signs of spring were everywhere

Steve finding alternative ways of dealing with bad(ly-written) news

expanded bed 1

they send feelers every now and then so you don't forget about them

Steve, Amy and Sally setting up the skeleton for the northern beds

Measuring
Learned that the old seedling mix we used earlier may have been too rough, so here we're making a finer mix by using a makeshift sieve

The sun's out on the garden, you should be too!

September 1&4 (Late Winter, Sunny and Drizzling)

2008-09-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

Still working towards extending the garden, and revamping the beds for spring! And we're making great strides.

rainbow chard, rainbow roots
dug in the broadbeans and the peas
steve enjoying his fix of vitamin D
Steve and Amy and the endless supply of turnip
territorial

black earth, pink worms by bed 1&2

Trish and Amy adjusting Bed 1

Trish sowing some beetroot seeds into newspaper punnets the radishes are sprouting and so are the eggplants
capsicum!

3 greenhouses

See you all next week!

August 25 & 28 (Late winter, sunny & windy)

2008-08-31T23:15:00.000-07:00

Sowing for spring began this week! Check out the many different and sustainable methods we've attempted in order to raise healthy seedlings! We've also began mowing in the peas and the beans on the top bed in preparation for direct seed sowing next week!

Making a note of what seeds go into which type of mix

the different combinations of seedling mixes we conjured up

newspaper "punnets"--what i thought was going to be difficult origami turned out to be very fun and easy

more sowing

what we sowed in for this batch: tomato quickpick & roma, eggplant, leek, radish, capsicum, zuchinni and pumpkin

the greenhouse effect

Sarah and a turnip

flowering too soon

nitrogen fixing nodules (white globular stuff on the roots) from the beans and the peas

a forkful of peas

to be mowed in and composted in the soil

See you all next week!

August 18 & 21 (Late Winter, Sunny)

2008-08-23T02:58:00.000-07:00

Of bees, seeds and mixes.

Spreading the love

Hanging out

Lone bok-choy flowering into symmetry

Chinese cabbage sisters

turnips round 2

Spring seeds

Kelvin and Amy by the newly finished lower bed

Kelvin mixing up some compost, sand and topsoil for the seedling mix

See you all at the garden!

August 11 & 14 (Winter, sunny, very windy), Spring plan, and new garden time added

2008-08-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

And we're back!

First of all, a new working bee time has been added: Wednesdays 10-12pm. So be sure to visit us!

Next, with the help of Sally, we've just finished coming up with a rough plan for next season's plantings and activities.

The garden's got lots of exciting thing planned up : like putting up interpretive signs, moving up the beds to accomodate perrenials, structuring for more efficient water use, expanding the beds, and building habitats for biodiversity (lizard and bird homes!). See below!

Pea!

Chinese cabbage flower, for seed saving later

Garden late winter
Looking good
Amy mixing and mashing compost, sand, and leaf mould for the garden's seedling mix
our recycled seed raising facility

Jenn, Sally, and Barbara

Spring plan! Would you look at that! (click to zoom!)

We will be ordering seeds for next season today, and raising some as seedlings (in the little recycled greenhouse facility above) starting next week! So be sure to come and join us.

And watch out for posters about the garden around the campus! Spread the word!

July 28 & 31 (Winter, cloudy & sunny)

2008-08-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
Watch out for emails from the garden list over the next coming weeks! There will be several new opportunities for everyone to get involved with the garden, among them being:

1) planning for next season's veggies, 2) making interpretive signs for the garden, 3) creatively coming up with pest deterrant measures (a scarecrow making session anyone?) for this and next season's veggies!

Here's some pictures from the garden this week: (note: I'll jot down the type of season/weather experienced during the week beside the dates from now on!--hope this helps)

the beginnings of a complementary container garden by the beds
(the idea being we grow seedlings in the bottles and transplant them into the beds when they're ready)

spinach growing out of a recycled coke bottle

a sea of onion and parsnip tops

a re-mulched 4th bed
(we've started using dry leaves around the garden for mulch and found they work pretty, if not, as well as straw mulch for our purposes)

a broadbean flowering

David and Holly

Cath wondering what's happening with the brussel sprouts (the purple leafed veggie) and the kale (the long wrinkled veggie by the right)

Trish cutting up some used carpet

Trish and Amy laying out some carpet on the paths
between the beds to smother the encroaching weeds

Weed-proofed

Cath

Selecting the biggest of the lot to weigh in
and eat for later

and the winner is...

the bok-choy weighed in at around 1.7 kg; the chinese cabbage at 1.25, and the turnip at .25

Catch you all next week!

July 21

2008-07-25T00:34:00.000-07:00

Before everything else, new garden times for this semester are:

Mondays 10-12pm and Thursdays 1-3pm!

Here's some pictures from this week. It features our very own Amy Cheng and our growing green veggies. I've decided to put just one picture to do with our turnips for this week...

Bitter but big chinese cabbages,
and we speculate Amy's experiment worked, the shaded one is sweeter.

Partners for life, but to be separated and consumed soon

bok-choys

more pea flowers (we've found a couple of pods already!)

Amy carousing the parsnips to life

Amy watering the herb spiral with some rainwater collected over the week!

transplanting some spinach seedlings

Amy harvesting a bok-choy before the rabbits finish the job for us (note the bites)

Amy picking out some leaves from our unknown oriental veggie:
any clue on what it is, anyone?

Amy gets to roast one tonight

Hope to hear from you all soon.

We've got heaps of things planned for this semester for the garden that's sure to breathe new life and raise the excitement bar for all of you keen organic aficionados out there! Will tell you all about it soon.

Permaculture Workshop One Slides

2008-07-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

Amelie Barry has been nice enough to put up her slides for last Saturday's permaculture workshop on youtube for everyone to view!

Cheers!

July 9 & 10

2008-07-11T03:28:00.000-07:00

Rain could not get us away from doing little bits of garden work this week. Similar to last week, we focussed on clearing the southern part of the garden, while also layering up the potato bins with another tire of dirt, and also twining the peas.

Snow pea flower

an example of a broccolli flowering from our container garden

Amy's experiment:
testing if limiting photosynthesis for a chinese cabbage will sweeten it

southern area of the garden A (social area?)

southern area of the garden B (shed)

false alarm:
what i initially thought was a threatened indonesian migratory bird turned out to be "just" a common swamp hen helping us with the weeding (thanks liz for saving me the embarassment)

Hamish choosing which sucker to eliminate (and put in the "to be re-used" pile, of course)

growth in our potato bins prior to the second layering

Finlay rolling the tire up to layer the potatoes, (with mum and brothers in the background)

At 5 years old,
the boy has muscles close to that of what you'd expect from a typical 22 year old student-gardener from Manila

Hamish picking his lucky turnip

Finlay, 11; turnip, 2 months (no genies this time)

See you all next week!

July 2 & 3

2008-07-05T00:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the SLC End of Sem BBQ and Movie Night last week. It was a real success. Stay tuned for future movie nights!

The SLC End of Semester BBQ and Movie Night

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This week, we began clearing the southern area of the bed in preparation for the assembly of the shed and the eventual establishment of a social area. Also, a few important questions were raised as to why the brocollis came out really...small, this as opposed to our successfully enormous bok-choys....It has been suggested that there might be too much Nitrogen in the hotrot soil we're using...other theories, any one?

Also "test-ate" a turnip from the garden, and i can safely say i've never tasted turnip as tasty and fantastic.

Thanks to Leanne, Jo and their kids for coming and helping out with the weeding and clearing! Also, congratulations to Amy for officially becoming the garden's support worker for it's LEAD program! Hooray!

the biggest they grew to despite very leafy growth

at a small size, most of the brocollis were already on the verge of flowering like this

so we harvested and mulched the brocollis

the lucky turnip

the peas are clinging and flowering

the herb spiral, parsley looking in good shape thanks to recent rains

newly acquired worm farm

"i eat your trash"

Rorie

Leanne

solemnly contemplating on weeding the perrywinkle invasives

See you all next week!

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!The SLC Recipe Corner!

Recipe #4 (#3 was the laksa in the newspaper article...)

Fennel, Spinach & Parmesan Salad (submitted by Amy Cheng)

2 baby fennel bulbs

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup pine nuts

1 clove garlic, crushed

¼ cup lemon juice

100g baby spinach leaves

100g parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Finely slice fennel and place in a large bowl and set aside. Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add pine nuts and cook stirring often until golden. Remove from heat and add garlic and lemon juice. Drizzle hot pine nut mixture over fennel and toss to combine. Wait until cooled and toss spinach and thinly sliced parmesan through fennel.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

June 18

2008-06-23T04:06:00.000-07:00

Harvested the bok-choys today...! Also included 2 articles on the garden published by the Canberra Times over the last two weeks! Woohoo...word's getting out!

Reaping what you sow (-ed just 2 months ago)

Trish: Stir fry for dinner, for sure.

Cath and Robin in the Canberra Times 11/06: "Guerilla Gardener" by Susan Parsons

Amy and Lawrence in the Canberra Times 18/06: "All Things Beautiful" by Susan Parsons

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Also, here's the dvd we're screening for the BBQ this Thursday June 26! It has to do heaps with organic gardening as a mode of self-sufficiency.

"The Power of Community"

See you all there!

June 12 pictures & info for End of Semester BBQ and Movie Night! (June 26, 4-7pm)

2008-06-16T06:27:00.001-07:00

Just a few pictures here.

I couldn't resist. I couldn't not put these pictures up.

BEHOLD. GROWTH.

peas!

turnips and brocollis!

they're-a-coming (turnips)!

Bak-choys, oriental mix, ready for harvesting!

broadbeans!

sugar peas!

Doesn't the great condition of the garden just inspire you to organise, i dunno, some sort of BBQ or Movie night by the garden just so you could have a reason to hang around the garden with other like-minded folks?

a-ha, 2 steps ahead of you!!!! read after the gap. and spread the word!

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SLC End of Semester BBQ and Movie Night!

June 26, Thursday 4-7pm

Celebrate the end of semester at the Sustainability Learning Community Organic Garden! Good food, good company, and good fun!

Have you been curious about the SLC or the (now thriving) campus organic garden but haven't had a chance to get involved? Here is your chance to see and taste what it's all about!

Events:
- A free BBQ and whatever is ready to eat from the garden
- An introduction to the various initiatives being run by the SLC and the Canberra Environment Centre
- Screening of "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" + fresh pumpkin soup

June 26 Thursday, from 4-7pm at the Canberra Environment Centre and SLC Garden (Corner of Lawson Crescent and Lennox Crossing).

Tag your friends along and RSVP to Lawrence at lawrence.g.ang@gmail.com for catering purposes, or for other enquiries!

Hooray, see you there!

May 27 & 28

2008-05-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Although this week was the last official gardening session for this semester (in lieu of the exam period), Amy will be taking over for the month of June, so everyone's still welcome to come around at the same times of Wed 10-12 and Thurs 2-4 to help out with the garden!

The garden is looking very healthy and is constantly in the process of being improved...!

The Bak-choys are almost ready for pickin'!

Just this week, Sally spearheaded the construction of a new herb bed right below Bed 1. Also, Edwina from the ANUGreen came around to film the garden for a promotional video on campus sustainability activities.

Permaculturalist Barbara Schreiner also paid the garden a visit and suggested a couple of interesting things to "sustainabilise" the garden even more--ie. using old twigs as stakes for the peas.

Just before you go through the pictures, 2 quick reminders:

1) The End-of-Semester BBQ/movie night is set for June 26, around 4pm! Come one, come all and join in the festivities. Details to follow soon!

2) the Great Green Debate, sponsored by the SLC, is also running on June 5 in Bruce Hall. Everyone's welcome to catch the panel discussion on the topic "The role of business in building sustainable futures" beginning 730pm in the Bruce Hall Dining Hall. Look to the SLC and Garden bulletins for details!

Some pictures from the garden this week....

Sal laying down newspapers for the new herb bed

Edwina filming Sal's gypsum sprinkling abilities

Sal putting in some water crystals for the plum tree

Jenn!

Sal teaching Lawrence proper mint transplanting

Trish staking snowpeas with twigs (the idea being while recycling these twigs, they provide the peas a random structure to cling to)

How cool is that?

Bigger, better, and greener (Amy and Trish weeding)!

Thanks to everyone who's been involved in truly making the organic garden into the big, fun, and healthy community project that it is.

May 21, 22 & 24

2008-05-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here's some highlights from the week...!

Jia Yun and Amy staking and stringing the peas

All staked and ready to grow straight

Potato tires/bins below bed 4

Robin

Keen minds and hands setting up a "herb spiral" for the permaculture planting session

Sal spreading out some gypsum

Laura on growing herbs this season

And in less than an hour we were ready to plant in some herbs!

Daniel transplants some lavender on the top layer (note the water crystals on the lower right!)

Efficient watering...

The herb sprial (herbs requiring high moisture on the bottom, dry tolerant herbs on the top):
parsley, sliverbeet, beetroot, strawberry, brithday candles, lavender

Mulching with fallen leaves

A most impressive project

Laura and Sal

Great stuff, yeah? I have to say, I've never seen and done anything quite like it. More to come next semester!

Next Wednesday 10-12pm, ANUGreen will be coming around to video the garden and the wonderful work that we do. Everyone is welcome to come, and be forever remembered in history as having been involved with the Organic Garden...!

Hello to all the new members of the mailing list!

See you all next week.

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! The SLC Recipe Corner!

Recipe #2

Hearty Vegetable Soup (submitted by Jenn McMillin)

1/2 packet soup mix (beans, barley, lentils)
1 1/2 L chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 sweet potato, diced
100g pumpkin, diced

1 turnip, diced
1 parsnip, diced
2 celery stalks, sliced
7 black peppercorns
1 tsp dried thyme

Place all ingredients in a large pot, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

(Keep sending in your recipes to lawrence.g.ang@gmail.com. And if it's in season, we'll put it up!)

May 12-16

2008-05-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

The garden is growing really well..., thanks to everyone who's been involved!

The brocollis and the brussel sprouts are coming out impressively, the turnips have got larger since we last thinned them, the onions are coming along pretty well too--an environment centre first, and we've got our first glimpses of broadbean seedlings!

A leaf mould/composting area has also been set-up to prepare our supply of leaf mould for next season's potting mix.

Its growing!

Peas on Bed 1

Brocollis and brussel sprouts on Bed 2

Here come the turnips!

A road of onion tops on Bed 2

Chinese greens on Bed 3

and the Broadbeans finally come out from Bed 3

(some seeds that needed dampening for better germination...will get back to you on the name)---TURNIPS!

Newly built Bed 4 half sown with peas

Leaf mould area

Regular visitors

For next week, everyone's welcome to come around for a permaculture planting session at the environment centre on May 24, 1230-3pm! Bring along a plant to plant around the centre and the garden! Refer to this week's bulletin for details!

Also, for next week's list of things to do, refer to the top right portion of this blog!

May 5-9

2008-05-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

This week, we concentrated on finishing Bed 4, while also making sure Beds 1, 2, & 3 were properly weeded, spaced, and mulched!

We also started discussing where we could potentially set-up our tool shed...we're thinking just beside the old playground by the parking lot.

Robin's got ideas of setting up a BBQ area made from recycled phone books north of the beds too!

Other than that, activities ranged from appreciating our new tools (thanks Jenn!) and sharing Lawrence's birthday cake. Good stuff.

We're also officially launching the SLC Recipe Corner (pardon the creative title) with this week's blog post! In the spirit of self-sufficiency and eating in season, expect yummy recipes--as conjured up by your friends at the organic garden--to be posted at the bottom of (hopefully) every other blog post!

Autumn plan 1 (click for bigger picture)

Autumn plan 2

Trish transplanting

Singgit weeding

Almost done

A glimpse of pea growth

In the midst of gardeners and Robin's, um, gourds

Amy watering

Lawrence testing the new shower head (don't call the cops just yet, it's grey water)

By the way, the weekly list of things to do around the garden will appear on the right hand side of the blog from now on!

See you guys next week!

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!The SLC Recipe Corner!

Recipe #1:

Pumpkin and Leek Soup (submitted by Amy Cheng)

1 leek

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 kg pumpkin

1 clove garlic

250ml vegetable stock

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup cream

2 tablespoons chopped chives

Wash and thinly slice white part of leek. Place olive oil, garlic and leek in a soup pot and cook till leek is soft. Add vegetable stock, peeled and chopped pumpkin. Cover pot and allow to cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. When pumpkin is soft, use a stick blender and blend until smooth.

Season to taste. Stir in nutmeg, cream and chives.

Serves 4.

(Yum. Do send in your recipes to lawrence.g.ang@gmail.com, and if it's in season, we'll post it!)

April 28 - May 2

2008-05-03T00:26:00.000-07:00

Here's some highlights from the week!

(Note: Pictures from the gardening event with the childcare centre will hopefully be up by next week! Will also insert the original schematics for the garden by this week!)

So the plan is to plant Beds 1&3 with "heavy givers" this season so as to make up for last harvest's heavy feeding crops. "Heavy givers" like peas and beans have been planted on both beds to fix nitrogen back into the soil.

However, we do have some Chinese greens growing on Bed 3 that are transplanted with some broad beans. By the time the broad beans sprout, the greens would've been harvested, so according to Cath, we're technically still right in saying that Bed 3's on the mend.

Bed 2, on the other hand, we've planted with some brassicas. Little turnip and parsnip leaves are starting to show up, and a couple of onion seedlings too!

We've also managed to start terracing the 4th bed.

The garden! (L-R: Bed 3, Bed 2, Bed 1)

From the other side...

Happy peas from Bed 1

Leafy greens from Bed 2

Parsnips and turnips from Bed 2

Chinese greens from Bed 3

Amy terracing up Bed 4

Spine stretching work

Newly painted potato bins for next week's project

Robin, Cath, James

Amy

Thanks to Leeanne as well for helping with the weeding!

See you guys next week! We might try and do a bit of netting for Beds 2 & 3, plant some potatoes or start putting some soil in for Bed 4!

Welcome to the SLC GardenBlog!

2008-05-02T08:33:00.001-07:00

Hurray! Its finally up...!

Welcome to the SLC's GardenBlog, the electronic home of the SLC's organic garden!

Expect this space to be filled with weekly updates and photos of the garden's progress and the different happenings in and around the garden!

As this is a community resource, feel free to comment, share ideas, and add to the content of this blog whenever you feel like it...don't be shy now!

And if you haven't joined the official mailing list, it's about time you do! simply subscribe to

http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/anu.garden

to receive emails related to the garden.

You can also email me (Lawrence) at lawrence.g.ang@gmail.com or Jenn at jennifer.mcmillin@anu.edu.au if that suits you better!

Or better yet, get real up close and personal, and visit the garden at the official times of Wednesday 10-12pm or Thursday 2-4pm, (or anytime actually) and look for either me, Cath, or Robin!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the garden, and check back on this site regularly...!