Cooler weather is here, the garden is growing and so is our group of dedicated gardeners. Of course, the wonderful rain has made the grass grow, as well as the trees and vegies, but all has been kept neat and tidy by the willing volunteers.
Happenings at the Garden
On April 3rd, we held our Autumn Planting Day which was very well attended. Great to welcome lots of new faces. Thanks to a generous donation from Bunnings we planted one raised bed with seedlings of corn, chinese cabbage, rocket and celery. Another raised bed was sown with seeds of bush beans, carrots, beetroot and spring onion. We then planted our new fruit trees in the newly mulched orchard area.
Our Fruit Trees
The three new trees that we planted are:
1. Dwarf Mulberry Morus nigra. A small tree maturing at 2 – 4 meters but bearing a full-size crop of delicious black mulberries from September to February. The beautiful foliage will cascade to the ground – might make an interesting cubby for our younger gardeners.
2. Star Apple Chrysophyllum cainifo. A moderate sized, but slow growing tropical tree to about 10 meters. The leaves are dark green with gold-tinged underside, making a very attractive show in the breeze. The fruit is round with green or purple shiny skin. The purple tinged white fruit is soft, sweet, and juicy.
3. Loquat Eriobotrya japonica. Popular subtropical/tropical fruit tree which grows to about 6 meters and produces clusters of soft, juicy, aromatic yellow/orange coloured fruit.
As well as these three we have many fruit trees in the garden. Unfortunately, many labels have been lost, so some will remain a mystery until they fruit. However here is a list of those that we know, in no particular order:
1. Citrus, lime (Citrus latifolia), orange (Citrus x sinensis, lemon (Citrus x limon), mandarin (Citrus reticulata), lemonade (lemon-mandarin cross). 2. Pomegranate (Punica granatum)
3. Jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora)
4. Wax Jambu (Syzygium jambolana) also called Rose Apple 5. Mangoes (Mangifera indica). We have a Nam Doc Mai, and 2 seedlings which are probably Bowen mangoes.
6. Panama Berry (Muntingia calabura)
7. Guava (Psidium guajava)
8. Dragon fruit (Pitaya spp)
9. Paw Paw (Carica papaya)
10.Bananas (Musa spp.)
11.Peanut butter tree (Bunchosia glandulifera)
12.White currant (Flueggea virosa)
13.Orange berry (Glycomis pentaphylla)
14.Bignay (Antidesma bunius)
If anyone can identify other fruit trees, please let us know.
Future garden happenings
Sadly, as Sofia was ill, we were unable to have our Nature Painting activity for the little gardeners in April. We will definitely reschedule this for the future.
We will be having our next workshop “Composting, Recycling food & Garden Waste” on Sunday June 12. Mark the date now if you are interested to discover all the ways we can recycle and make use of our food and garden waste.
If anyone has an item they wish to include in the next newsletter –question, useful article or story, pictures, recipes for your favourite veg, etc, etc please email to me, jennygreig28@gmail.com
As always, we continue to maintain and improve the garden every Wednesday and Sunday morning. All are welcome to come and see what we do and join in the fun.