NewsletterDon Plant Fair, Seed Packing
Bellingen Seed Savers distribute seeds and plants at a stall at the Bellingen Autumn Plant Fair. In preparation, we will gather to pack seeds, and share lunch and plant knowledge. Gillian’s garden is in Fernmount.
Bring donations of saved dried seeds for packing.
Bring donations of seedlings for potting up.
Hi all,
it’s been a couple of years since some of you last saw my ‘toy farm’; I have been busy experimenting and shaping my adventure garden and food forest. Having had some successes with grafting, I have planted new fruit avenues and optimistically snuck a few tropicals into the shrubbery 😉
I am also now experimenting with colonising the rafters in my conservatory; always keen to utilize a discovered microclimate! Some other projects are having greater and lesser successes, but still enjoying the challenge and experience of it all.
Whilst the summer weather is heating up for you all, come and enjoy the relative cool with me up here in the mountains. Bring a christmassy plate to share for this late afternoon gathering.
😆Leela
NewsletterDon Workshop / Learning Event
In November we visit Tricia’s garden in Brierfield, which is a delightful setting for a Q&A gathering, despite the lack of vegie garden action.
Start collecting your questions and specimens. Our resident entomologist Debbie will be identifying your bugs!
Debbie Kent, an entomologist who has worked for both the NSW Department of Agriculture and NSW Forestry, will identify any insect you bring to the gathering. It may be something bad eating your veggies or fruit trees or it could be a good guy eating or parasitising the bad ones.
Start collecting now
You will have a whole month to scout around your garden so keep an eye out for something you haven’t encountered before.
How to collect and what to bring your insect in
Identification is always easier if the insect is alive so capturing them in a clear plastic container is the best method. But insects will only survive a day or two so any collected earlier will need to be frozen by placing the container with insect in the freezer until the day.
Include a note with your specimen – where you found it and on what plant. Add the date you collected it and any other information you think relevant. You can also bring along the damaged plant material if fresh. If collected early also put it in the freezer in a paper bag inside a plastic bag. It’s important to only have one insect species per container to avoid confusion.
Warning!
Be careful collecting any insects as some can bite, sting, squirt noxious liquids and cause skin rashes, especially some of the hairy caterpillars.
If this has put you off there is always a photograph – assuming they remain still long enough!
NewsletterDon Open Gardens, Workshop / Learning Event
We will be carpooling to this event, to arrive in time for the Farm Tour at 10am. Please RSVP if you would like to be included in the carpool, otherwise, see you there!
Entry: FREE
Tea & Coffee Provided
Where: Greenpatch Organic Seeds, 109 Old Bar Rd, Glenthorne, NSW 2430
Turn off the Pacific Highway at the Taree South exit taking the Old Bar exit and follow Old Bar Road for 900 metres. The property is on the left hand side.
Includes:
10am – Farm Tour including orchards, herb & flower gardens, nursery production & vegetable seed cropping.
11am – Bee keeping. Anna & Sven from Amber Drop Honey are local environmentally minded bee keepers passionate to share their wisdom. Workshop information is to be confirmed.
12pm – Lunch will be served for a gold coin donation. BBQ – German Sausages, Vegetarian options & Salad. Tea & Coffee provided. Enjoy the music from ‘Dingo Creek String Band’
12.45pm – 2pm Plant Propagation workshop covering the basics of Seed Raising, Divisions & Cuttings. Neville a horticulturalist has been propagating plants in a commercial setting since the late 1970’s so he will be teaching you from his own experiences.
All Day – The nursery and shop will be open from 10am to 2pm if you would like to purchase seeds and plants or seek gardening advice.
Biocast+ with Lee Fieldhouse from Islands in the Stream will also be available all day with his wealth of knowledge. He will also have his Biocast+ products available on the day.
NewsletterDon Plant Fair, Seed Packing
The seeds have been prepared and packed into bags, now they need to be put into packets and labelled. Jeff has been super-busy preparing labels for us. All we need to do is turn up spend an hour or so putting bagged seeds into packets and sticking labels on.
Bring a snack plate for this event. The plan is to have a quick eat and then a short ‘many hands light work’ labelling session of about an hour – hour and a half. We have around 300 packets to label. It will go quickly.
Bellingen Seed Savers presents seeds and plants at a stall at the Bellingen Spring Plant Fair! Saturday September 8.
Bellingen Seed Savers presents seeds and plants at a stall at the Bellingen Spring Plant Fair. Locally adapted edible plants and seeds for sale. Perfect timing for your spring vegie gardening. And the famous Seed Saver raffle. We can almost guarantee the prize will contain something edible you’ve never laid eyes on before!
Come on down. Market Park (Corner Church and Park Streets) in Bellingen on Saturday September 8th. 8am – 2pm but get there early. The plants sell quick!
Spring is the ideal time to make those planting additions to your garden, orchard or farm!
The Bellingen Spring Plant Fair features over 70 plant nursery stalls, with a huge variety of tropical and sub-tropical, native, exotic or food-bearing plants, garden supplies, and plenty of expert horticultural advice available.
Workshops, activities with undercover seating, information stalls from local organisations, fine food, musicians, free entry, lots of bargains and the chance to win a barrow full of plants donated by the stallholders, make this a great day out for garden lovers.
The Spring Plant Fair is a fundraiser for the Bellingen Environment Centre and sponsored by the Bellingen Community Markets.
NewsletterDon Plant Fair, Seed Packing
Bellingen Seed Savers presents seeds and plants at a stall at the Bellingen Spring Plant Fair (Saturday September 8). We gather to pack seeds and share lunch and plant knowledge. John’s garden is in Fernmount just east of Bellingen.
A bonus of helping pack seeds is taking home extras for your garden.
Bring donations of saved dried seeds for packing ~ labelled is very helpful!
Bring donations of seedlings for potting up.
More than meets the eye in this new Fernmount garden:
Tim Hill and his growing family have been living in what was a vacant block for just over a year now, some of you may be familiar with it as the former ‘Secret Garden’ nursery. Lots of planning, passion and effort has netted him a food forest, jumping out of the ground out and proud, in the front yard. An unorthodox style, but then a little chaos always brings opportunity.
Around the back there is more experimentation and innovation with livestock and microclimates; endless fun and education for his kids.
Join us for lunch in a young garden full of vigour and promise. See what’s been happening so far on the FB page Secret Garden Tiny Farm
You will need to bring a chair if you would like something to sit on other than the ground!
Please arrive by 11am. A little garden tour of the maturing food forest will happen at some point during the day.
This is David Pepper’s annual Winter Solstice celebration for seed savers AND the wider community. The early part of the day will be seed savers and as the day moves on, more people will arrive to celebrate. You are welcome to stay as long as you want – the celebrations often go on well into the night.
There will be a small ritual to honour Gaia and the winter solstice. You are welcome to join David in sacrificing your summer hat or similar into the fire.
Nambucca Valley Aquaponics is a fairly new enterprise run by Luke Tutt and dad on the family farm in Congarinni. A local chef by trade, Luke has embarked on growing the goodies himself, foodbox distributions and exploring various farm multifuctions and tourism attractions.
We will have a tour with him at 11am, then travel on to Michelle Morozumi’s in Valla for lunch
Bring lunch to share, chair mug etc