Our apologies for the long gap since the last newsletter; we have lots of garden news and changes for you this time.
New committee and office bearers.
Our 5 th AGM was held on Sunday 10 October this year, and the following office bearers were elected:
President: Rose O’Brien
Secretary : Gill Graham
Treasurer: Shelley Strelow
Social Media : Mariz Fletcher
General committee members : Kara Chesal, Jenny Greig.
Our first committee meeting will be held on Wednesday Nov 3rd, 9.30 am at the garden.
We encourage all members to attend if possible, to help make plans for the garden. At this meeting we will be deciding a timetable for talks and workshops for next year.
End of Year Party
We will be having a social afternoon tea/get together to celebrate the end of another year on Sunday 12 December at 3pm. All are welcome to attend, bring along friends and family too. If you can please bring a plate of nibbles to share.
Happenings at the Garden
We try to adopt as many Permaculture Principles in our garden as possible, so we decided that our intensive vegetable growing beds (Zone 1) should be closer to the shed and covered area (Zone 0). All the colorbond beds were moved and filled with new soil. This meant that crops in the early part of the year were limited. However, we had a good crop of turmeric, some of which was dried and ground into powder. We also had an excellent “crop” of compost made from donations of food scraps which is doing wonders for the fertility of the new beds.
In August the garden hosted a meeting of the Whitsunday Conservation Council, followed by an informative talk, and walk around the revegetation sites in the area. Thank you, Dave Young, very interesting and we learnt lots.
The old raised bed area will be converted to additional space for fruit trees. The sprinkler system has been extended, we have started laying cardboard to smother the weeds and we are looking to obtain large quantities of wood chip for mulch.
Next Year
We are planning a series of workshops. Suggested topics are herb growing, composting, seed sowing, companion and seasonal planting, etc. Let us know if there is a topic you would like discussed. We will also be restarting our Abundance Swaps. Watch our website and facebook page for details.