Open Gardens

Happy New Year!

Linda Woodrow has grown food at commercial scale to supply an organic greengrocer and taught urban horticulture in concrete Havana. She’s the author of ‘The Permaculture Garden’ and the solarpunk novel ‘470’, and her current adventure is to see just how much food can be grown on a small, suburban block in Coffs Harbour.

Bellingen seed savers has scored a gig with Linda, who will run a show and tell around ‘How to grow food when you’re short on space, and time’ on site, in her garden.

RSVP below: Note that spots are limited and you won’t automatically get one, but you should get an automated reply saying you’re on the hotlist (or ‘in the system’, or equivalent). If you don’t get an automated reply, then contact Nick by emailing nick@designwithnature.com.au or texting 0474 114 773. Please ignore that there are 0 places available.

Yaam Gumbaynggirr.gundi jagun.

This is Gumbaynggirr homeland.

Hello seedsavers! After another successful plant fair and a short break, we’re back into garden visits.

This one is worth the travel: it’s ABC gardening guru Mr Phil Dudman, in his town garden, at Limore. There’s a lot of food in a small space and Phil really knows his stuff.

Numbers are limited so RSVP as soon as you can. Please ignore the number of places available on this page. We are not using that to allocate places and so it is set to zero. Note that when you RSVP, you won’t get the address, but you’ll go into seedsavers organisational system from where we’ll contact you. We’ll be carpooling. In your RSVP message, please indicate if you wish to drive and have seats for others (how many?), or prefer to be a passenger, and your locality.

If you don’t get an automatic reply to the RSVP saying ‘you’re in the system’, then contact Nick directly by emailing: mail@bellingenpermaculture.com.au. or phoning/ texting 0474 114 773.

Yaam Gumbaynggirr.gundi jagun.

This is Gumbaynggirr homeland.

It’s plant fair preparation time again. Harvest your seeds and bring ’em in to our central processing facility – which this Spring will be a table on Luigi and Crystal’s deck. If you don’t have seeds, come anyway – we need your labour, and you might learn something, talk tomatoes, eat yummy food, and maybe even score excess seed. If you do have seed but can’t come, contact Nick on 0474 114 773 or Jeff on 0438 655 728.

Bring a plate to share. If your christian name is H or later in the alphabet please bring something for lunch. A-J names please bring something sweet for morning tea. This division of labour is a guideline only and not strongly policed.

We’ll also check out Luigi, Crystal and Angelo’s garden. They’ve been on this block for a few years and the orchard is older than that. Luigi grew up in rural Italy, while Crystal grew up on farms in the gold coast hinterland. They both have food-growing genes, and are trying new stuff like syntropics.

This will be our last garden visit until late November! (Nick is going on holiday and there is no backup garden visit co-ordinator).

RSVP below, give the ‘automated tool two minutes to respond and if you don’t get the address, then email Nick at:

mail@bellingenpermaculture.com.au

If you still haven’t heard anything after a couple of weekdays then ring 0474 114 773. One way or another – we’ll get you there!

It is with great sadness that we let you know of the passing of a much loved member of the Bellingen Seed Savers community.

Leela O’Callaghan passed away on Monday 1^st July at home, with her loving partner and two long-time friends. Leela was always there to help seed savers share gardening knowledge and seeds. A bright star of the gardening world, who will be greatly missed.  

You are invited to gather to remember Leela at her house and garden; 1 Walnut Close Dorrigo (park in the cul-de sac), on Thursday 11^th July at 1pm. Bring a plate to share, and please RSVP here to let us know you are coming.  

Libby had a cracking garden in Melbourne, and has a young garden on a town block in Sawtell. We’ll check it out and attempt to answer (or to use the modern lingo – ‘workshop’) the following questions:

1. What is the difference between gardening in Melbourne and Sawtell?
2. Can you show me how to use the new Seed-savers-single-tool-library-drum-mulcher? And can I borrow it for a while? (yes and yes)
3. Can you help me put up a poly tunnel and bird net? (yes)
4. Bonus surprise questions to be announced on the day!

Numbers are limited – no pets please – so get your name in by RSVPing below.

If you don’t immediately receive a response to the RSVP, then contact Nick at mail@bellingenpermaculture.com.au or on 0474 114 773.

 Bring a chair and a plate to share for lunch. Carpooling is recommended – please advise if you need or can offer a lift.

You may have admired this fairly conspicuous garden from the street, when parking your car on market day or walking around town. Lindy manages to fit fruit, vegies, ducks and quail in a modest-sized back yard. Her style is an interesting balance of controlled yet a bit wild.

Numbers are limited – no pets please – so get your name in by RSVPing below. From here, one of two things could happen:

1. You get an automated message saying that you’re in the system and will eventually get a reply (this may take a week or two) either confirming that you’re in and the address, or with the rare but unfortunate news that you missed out.
2. Or you don’t get an automated message immediately upon RSVPing. In that case, email Nick below.

Any issues, contact Nick by phone: 0474 114 773 or email: mail@bellingenpermaculture.com.au

 Bring a chair and plate to share for lunch. Carpooling is recommended – please advise if you need or can offer a lift.

Bellingen Seedsavers will be pulling together groups of ten to learn about mushrooms, starting in late March and running for as long as there is interest. There’s wild foraging – what you can eat, what you can’t (an important difference) and where to find ’em. There’s also home growing (shitake, oyster etc.) using log culture.

Our host will be Jsun Lau, a big name on the national fungiculture scene. Cost will be $40/ person for a day of wild foraging. The home growing workshops will be held Bowraville, a five hour session is $70/ person, including take-home culture material. More about that later.

For now, our third foray is on Saturday 6th April.  We’ll start in Bellingen town and should have time for a side trip out to Glennifer. Bring a plate to share for lunch and no dogs please.

RSVP and if you don’t get an automated reply then email Nick: mail@bellingenpermaculture.com.au.

Jeff Holmes is a regular contributor to our veggie seed collection, our media darling (you may have heard him talk us up on local radio with Steve McGrane) and runs a busy front yard & less busy back yard.  He’ll be our generous host on Sunday the 21st of April, 10am-1pm, but there’s a catch – it’s a small space with a limited group size of twenty. As usual, no pets please.

If you need help with the RSVP, contact Nick by phone 6655 4069 or 0474 114 773, or email mail@bellingenpermaculture.com.au 

 Bring a chair and plate to share for lunch. Carpooling is recommended – please advise if you need or can offer a lift.

Bellingen Seedsavers will be pulling together groups of ten to learn about mushrooms, starting in late March and running for as long as there is interest. There’s wild foraging – what you can eat, what you can’t (an important difference) and where to find ’em. There’s also home growing (shitake, oyster etc.) using log culture.

Our host will be Jsun Lau, a big name on the national fungiculture scene. Cost will be $40/ person for a day of wild foraging. The home growing workshops will be held Bowraville, a five hour session is $70/ person, including take-home culture material. More about that later.

For now, our first foray is on Sunday 24th March.  We’ll start in Bellingen town and should have time for a side trip out to Glennifer. Bring a plate to share for lunch.

RSVP and if you don’t get an automated reply then email Nick: mail@bellingenpermaculture.com.au.

We’re gearing up already for the Autumn Plant Fair. Growers will congregate bringing little miracles – locally grown, organic vegetable seed. Maybe you’ve got something special – a bumper pumpkin, a bomb-proof tomato – share it with us.

We will process seed together, and if you don’t know how to thresh, winnow, shuck or shell, come along anyway and by the end of the day you probably will.

Can’t make it but have seed to donate? Label it with variety, characteristics, date of harvest, your locality, and where you sourced the seed from, and contact Nick (0474 114 773) or Jeff (0438 655 728) to arrange collection.