Saturday May 5, 2012 – Saturday May 5, 2012
270 Ferry Road
Description:
Come along to our community garden and learn some basic lessons for successful gardening. During the morning you will learn about:
- Seed raising and seed mixes for vegetables and herbs
- Worm farming and worm composting
- No dig gardening, and
- Make your own lime sulphur.
These workshops will provide you with the basics of how to start a seed bed and propagate your own seed, a much cheaper and sustainable option than purchasing plants from Bunnings that are generally over-sized and under nourished. You will be provided with a series of herb and seedling raising mixes for your own use and learn how to raise seedlings and herbs on a guided tour of our plant propagation area with Dan Smith and Sarah Hudson.
The worm workshop will enable you to reduce the amount of material that you are throwing out in the garbage every day and make a serious contribution to the planet as well as to your garden. All those beautiful worm castings are exactly what your garden needs to build up your soil and nutrition within. You will also learn about soil biology and micro-organisms in the worm and the no-dig garden workshop. In the latter, you will enjoy learning as to how you can make your own soil with very little effort and especially with free assistance form GCP in the form of major inputs. We make all our own soil in our gardens by diverting major waste streams that would normally go to the tip. You can also do this with little effort and expense. Purchasing soil from landscape suppliers and/or Bunnings is a road to problem plants.
Finally, lime sulphur is a product you can either easily make yourself by combining lime and sulphur or, purchase it at a reasonable price from GCP. This product is sold at a minimum price of $8 plus in gardening outlets. It is an excellent organic fungicide and can also protect against pest infestations. The paste left over from making this product is excellent for painting onto your citrus/other trees and shrubs after pruning to prevent infection.
Each participant will be able to take home a 200 ml bottle (BYO please) of lime sulphur or collect same by appointment at 270 Ferry Rd on another occasion.
Tea and bickies provided for morning tea, just bring along some water, something to write on if you would like to take notes and a hat and sunscreen if you would like to enjoy some time in the garden.
If you are staying on for the afternoon workshop please bring along your lunch.
