community | open garden

By MEREDITH KIRTON

Mandy Stubbs, discovered her passion for permaculture 3 years ago.  Her garden prior to this conversion was supposed to have been a fairly easy care affair (and for 9 years this suited them well (except when the drought hit the following year and much of it died!) …that is until the reality of global warming and climate change struck, and books like those of David Suzuki changed her perspective on everything. Husband Paul is slower to yield, however, and at the moment is prone to thinking, in the mind of Mandy at least, that she’s always “going on about the planet and being an Eco Warrior …driving him around the bend!”

Mandy firmly believes “not to be put off by what others think.  If you believe it you can’t help yourself, but act”.  Now a coordinator of the Permaculture Sydney North Lane Cove Group (www.permaculturenorth.org.au) , Mandy does lots for the cause, including helping at Permapatch (www.Permapatch.org.au) , a community garden in the grounds of Chatswood’s Uniting Church on Mowbray Road, which has about 50 members, and designing many of the Permaculture’s garden displays for various shows, including one which she got to take out the coveted “Garden Display Award” for in the 2008 Gardening Australia Expo Sydney.  “I got to kiss Peter Cundal”, remembers Mandy, “and show people that they can grow edibles in small spaces in Sydney, in everything from pots and vertical plantings”.

Mandy certainly lives what she believes, with her garden reaping many vegetables and recycling all its green waste with worms, compost and chickens. “I adore my chooks”, says Mandy, “you give them scraps and they give you manure and eggs!”  Mandy’s own mother taught her much as a child growing up in England.  “I grew up with all those fabulous fruits, chicken, rabbits, veggies.  Everything was home grown and home made, even many of our clothes”.   Economic necessity was the reason back then, and might be the persuasion needed for Mandy’s own son. Nick, 22, is certainly beginning to see the garden in a new light too.  “He’s starting to come around”, says Mandy, “especially seeing he needs the money, so often asks if he can help!”

Always there is work to be done in the garden, but Mandy’s favourite time is going out at 6pm into the garden with a glass of wine and finding something to pick for dinner.  “I love looking at all the things – cuttings, seeds and so on, that I’ve been given by friends”.  Mandy believes in giving back, and plans for 2011 include a “greening the verges” project in her suburb where grass is replaced by food bearing and nature attracting plants, and she can stick in a sign that reads “please pick the food”!

Mandy Stubbs’ garden is open as part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme 26 and 27 March, 2011
The address is 5 Second Ave, Lane Cove.  There will be fee talks at 11am and 2pm daily on permaculture and composting.

There are around 150 different species of edible plants to encourage diversity. Verge planting with fig, guava, apple, herbs and veg.  Also pure breed chickens, bee hive, composting, worm farms, rain tanks, water recycling, solar. Tea, coffee, homemade cake. Homegrown/homemade items for sale. Diverse range of organic herb and vegetable seedlings for sale.   Experts will be on hand all day to answer gardening and sustainability questions. Sponsoring Permaculture North Lane Cove, towards helping the community live sustainably in all different kinds of ways. $6 Open Garden Scheme entry fee.  www.permaculturenorth.org.au

Photography by SUE STUBBS  | Blog designed by RED PEPPER GRAPHICS

community | MLC Sydney

By MEREDITH KIRTON

GrowHarvestCook’s Meredith Kirton has been working with MLC School Sydney to develop a kitchen garden in their junior school.

Head of Junior School, Diana Drummond, reflects “With the opening of MLC’s new Junior School precinct in 2009, students and staff set about creating a warm and engaging learning environment, reflective of our multi-cultural community.  A visit to the old Junior School site during the year confirmed that the students missed the plants and flowers and specifically, the vegetable garden that grew in their old playground.  And so the idea of creating a new Kitchen Garden was born.
Throughout 2010, the girls designed, raised money and started to learn about this new garden.”

Events such as a kitchen garden day with herb and vegetable packs for sale were very succesful for raising funds for this project.  Six year old gardener Elkie, seen here picking her veggies, says “The best bit was everything. I got some leeks and lettuce and radish which I pit in the vegie garden at home. My peas didn’t grow though and I don’t know why? All my friends liked it too”.

The school has some keen gardeners, including Adele Jackson, who has contributed to our ghc seed saving pages and Chloe Zurynski, who is the kids editor at Burkes Backyard magazine. ´ I like gardening because you really get a chance to see (and often taste!) the result of your work”, says Chloe. “It keeps you motivated. For me, gardening is something I’d just do for fun after a tiring day of school to relax and soak up a bit of afternoon sun. It takes the stress away and gives you space to think.”

“It’s great that my school, MLC Burwood, has also picked up a bit of gardening fever. Our Junior School has started a kitchen garden. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the girls to learn about making their very own food. So far they’ve learnt valuable gardening skills such as transplanting veggies into larger pots and how to grow their own vegetables at home. Best of all, the girls seem to have a green thumb and are immensely enjoying their gardening!  It’s extremely rewarding when you taste your delicious home grown produce and realize that it is the result of a little effort and a few enjoyable, down to earth minutes of watering the garden each day.”

Work has finally finished now on a substantial, productive and aesthetically beautiful garden, accessible by the entire Junior School community.  With the help of Meredith  “our dream design was drawn up and is now constructed, ready for early Autumn planting!” says Diana Drummond.  The girls will begin planting heirloom vegetables from the end of 19th Century to help commemorate the school’s 125th anniversary, which it is celebrating this year.

The gift to the School from the graduating junior school class, a beautiful Ishi Buki Sandstone Sculpture. info@ishibuki.com

Photography by MEREDITH KIRTON and CHRIS BENNETS | Blog designed by RED PEPPER GRAPHICS

community | Kendall

By ANDREW BAGNALL

Kendall Preschool has been building ‘outdoor rooms’ for a number around 5 years, gradually gaining confidence and knowledge of native plants and vegetation. We consider ourselves to be innovative in terms of providing children and families with real opportunities for developing environmentally sustainable practices, and this will continue to evolve. I am working closely with Biripi elders to provide native vegetation, which, in turn has led to a massive increase in native birds in our spaces. Today we counted 26 Rainbow Lorikeets picking at the sunflower seeds and grasses, but we have many more smaller birds living around us too. We have a small but committed group of educators who bring meaning and enjoyment through outdoor exploration, and our families and the community are gradually seeing the light! This year we were part of the Camden Haven Open Gardens, and received a really positive response from people in the community who do not usually see the preschool.

Over the last few years, we have developed a great veggie garden, and at the moment we have: spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, broad beans, cauliflowers, sugar loaf cabbage, asparagus, potatoes, coriander, chives, kale, peas, beans, beetroot, carrot, zucchini and cucumbers growing! The children are the gardeners, who plant, water, feed and harvest the crops. In our orchard, we are watching the apples growing, and the guavas are flowering. We also have citrus trees, and a mulberry growing.

Our bushtucker and sensory plants include gingers, blueberries, sandpaper figs, lemon, cinnamon and aniseed myrtles. We have native gardinias, a
native frangipani and lots of bird and insect attracting plants. We have developed a number of small frog habitats, and we hope this will encourage
the frogs in time. The native stingless bees love the native gardenias when they flower, and are a great source of interest for the children. We have
lots of native grasses which we are beginning to use with weaving with Biripi people in the next few months.

Children compost food scraps that don’t go into the worm farm, and use water from rain-tanks for gardens and also for the use with the digging patch! Most children now send a low waste lunch, and we monitor the amount of packaging that is brought in. The chook house is now a couple of years old, and our assortment of chooks are well fed by the children and families, and well looked after! Again the compost is a great space for chook pooh, and old hay. Chicken collect eggs each day, and love to handle the chooks.

We are continuing to find new ways to provide children with meaningful, creative play, and we spend most of the day outside. To us, the preschool is a space for children to engage in meaningful, nature based play where they develop a sense of pride and enthusiasm through caring for the environment.

Blog designed by RED PEPPER GRAPHICS

community | Putney

By MEREDITH KIRTON

The Gardening Club at Putney Public School under the direction of Meredith Kirton entered the Yates Junior Landcare Pumpkin Challenge.  Seeds were sown in November and in February the pumpkin was weighed and measured for entry in the competition.  Whilst not the winners, which was a 175 kg whopper from Queensland, the kids were wrapped in the experience and proud “parents” of their enormous pumpkin.
For details on the competition see http://www.juniorlandcare.com/_blog/What%27s_New_in_Junior_Landcare/post/175kg

If your school or community group is interested in obtaining grant money for your project, these links may be useful:

http://eng-au.fiskars.com/Activities-Press/Orange-Thumb

http://www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au/grants.shtml

http://www.opengarden.org.au/grants.html#grants

http://www.landcareonline.com.au/

http://www.juniorlandcare.com/coles

http://www.schoolsfirst.edu.au/docs/schools-first-application-guidelines_final_050510.pdf

http://iag.mktg.net.au/communityhelp/?src=nrma

Blog designed by RED PEPPER GRAPHICS

community | seed saving

By ADELE JACKSON

Our cucumbers were one of our most successful crops this summer. We had two types – Crystal Apple and Lebanese cucumbers. I tied ribbon around four plump cucumbers that I wanted to save for seed, so that no one would harvest them. Through the heat in January I watched the vine turn brown and the cucumber swell. When the vine was all but dead, I picked the cucumbers, and let them ripen further in our pantry. When they were soft and spongy, I cut them into quarters, and scooped out the pulp and seeds inside. I put these in a shallow dish. I then put about an inch of water on top of them. I left them in a warm place for five days, then scooped the scum off the top. One interesting thing about cucumber and tomato seeds is that the immature and infertile seeds are lighter than the mature ones, so they float to the top. I then dried these seeds and packaged them. I recently planted some that have just come up, and I have had a very high germination rate.

Adele is 12 years old, and helps look after large veggie garden in Sydney. One of her passions is saving good-quality seeds.  Her others are sailing, piano, choir and reading.

Photography by SUE STUBBS
Blog designed by RED PEPPER GRAPHICS