Building phase one - done

Plant sale, last days to order

Hi all,

We are ordering a bunch of trees for our Permaculture garden. Meanwhile, we are happy to order more for you. They'll be available at the second workshop at the latest (Saturday 25 May in Otford).
We can also add DWARF MANDARIN.
Most should be suitable for pots.
They are coming from a good nursery in NSW and are suitable for this area.
Order at otford.garden@gmail.com by Friday 3 May 2013

Species			Pot size (mm)	Supplier*	OCAGA fundraising sale price $
Citrus	Cumquat	Nagami cumquat	165	Old Farm	26.50
	Lemon	Eureka	165	Old Farm
		Meyer	165	Old Farm
		Dwarf Meyer	165	Old Farm
	Limes	Tahitian	165	Old Farm
		Dwarf Tahitian	165	Old Farm
	Mandarins	Clementine	165	Old Farm
		Emperor	165	Old Farm
		Silverhill	165	Old Farm
		Imperial	165	Old Farm
	Orange	Leng Navel	165	Old Farm
		Seedless Valencia	165	Old Farm
		Washington Navel	165	Old Farm
Tree	Lilli Pilli	Small leaf lilli pilli	200	Old Farm	11

Landcare grant

We have a Landcare grant, and we should start the work !-)

As you can see here, we have been granted a Landcare grant. It is supposed to help us design and build a garden with and for the community and particularly children.

As under the license we have with Council, we also have a new space a the back of the space. So we are revisiting the design discussed in our previous permaculture workshop (cf former blog on the Website).
With the help of Narelle Happ (from A Garden For Life), we'll now organise the following workshops - free for members:

• Saturday 16 March 2013 - 10am to 12pm - What is Permaculture / A proposed design for the garden / Listing the details of all the materials and steps. We'll also have a quick lunch and we'll finish mulching the lantana we removed a few weeks ago.

• Saturday 11th of May 2013: Building phase - all day from 11 am.
• Sunday 25th of May 2013: Planting workshop - al day from 11 am.

Any questions?

We need to prepare the soil, and so we have to mulch the Lantana. So if you want to contribute, drop us a line (otford.garden at gmail.com). YES A BIT OF YOUR TIME AND STRENGHT WILL DO A LOT FOR OUR COMMUNITY.

New design- new space

Two weeks ago, the boys cleared more than 25 sq meters of Lantana and other bush. Now we're mulching all this and measuring up everything in order to finalise a nice design including: garden beds, fruits trees, herbs, sitting area, watering, and all this kids friendly.

SO CALL TO EVERY MEMBERS- We need to:

• Finish the mulching (contact Gaetane/Andrew or Adriana/Giles to access the mulcher (run on unleaded and oil))
• Turn the soil

This can be done every friday evening and sunday evening for the coming 3 weeks.

Regarding the design and building of a real garden, save the following dates:

• 16 or 17th of March - Permaculture design workshop (30 min on permaculture and 1h30 on how this will be practically applier to our site)
• Sunday 5th of May - Foundation workshop (building beds and the sitting area)
• Sunday 19th of May - Finishing workshop (painting involved and kids workshops involved)

Clearing up the past, preparing the future

The Working bee last sunday 17 feb was awesome

 

 The boys did an awesome job of cleaning 50 sqaure metre of Lantana and other bush. This patch will be cleaned again, refenced to make sure cant fall at the back...and the soil should be fantastic or at least a bit better than on the other side.

• The girls did an awesome job of saving the last tomatoe plant which were a bit dammaged after the storm.
• The kids did a great job watering
• The crop rocket was great
• and more girls/ladies did an awesome job at looking after babies, kiddies and make sure everybody was happy.

Yeepee: The Landcare Community Garden has been awarded. We'll have fundings to set up nice beds. sitting area, irrigation system, all this kids friendly and made to be 'educative'.

Xmas...time to reflect

Two topics on which to reflect over the Christmas break (and a few tasks - cf newsletter)

0.Water rosters (if away, exchange with a friend or post on the Otford local) -

24: Pauline T
25: Sarah M
26: Natasha
27: Andrea
28: Adriana
29: Samantha
30: Madeleine
31: James
1: Eleanor
2: Lorraine
3: Nicola
4: Phil
5: Esther
6: Donna


1. Here is the design of our future garden, as resulting from our proposal and the workshop with Elemental Permaculture.
We need to put a ring on it....and the best way to do so is prioritise our work, zone by zone.
Knowing that we have a remaining grant including mulch, compost tumblers, another including a greenhouse, and a few funds, access to seeds.
We'll discuss this on Sunday 23 December from 2.30pm. Expected outcome: a list of tasks and a corresponding list of date to achieve the design.
THIS SUNDAY WE LL ALSO PLANT SALADS and BEANS.

2. Our use of the clubhouse and tennis court as we are about to finalise the agreement with Otford Tennis Club, Wollongong Tennis Administration and Wollongong City Council.
A proposal below. Please comment replying by email.
Weekly activities

• Morning Yoga (before the 7.57 am train)
• Mums and Bub Yoga
• Thursday morning parents group
• Evening Art and Craft Workshop
• Garden maintenance (no direct use of the clubhouse and court, but use of the toilet)

By-weekly activities:

• Garden working bee (sunday 3pm)
• 'French classes' - clubhouse - evening
• Drumming circle (time and noise consideration)
• Tight ropes and acrobalance (from June 2013) - tennis court
• 
  

Trimester activities

• Pecha-Kucha
• Brewer club meeting
• Committee meeting

Semester activities

• Festive gardening celebrations

 Merry Xmas ans happy new year.

What a great community party it was

...memories and a few pictures speak better than words (although i dont have all the one of the evening and night).

You can see and download the pictures here.

The fundraiser was a great success and we can now think about proper gears for our garden. We also had an Annual General Meeting to elect a committee, so you also have people to help organise all this:

• President - Electronical communication - Gaetane
• Vice-president - Garden coordination - Adam
• Secretary - Parents group - Bron
• Treasurer - Brew club - Andwoo
• Grants - Lachlan
• Garden - James
• Infrastructure - Marc

and we had a few new members, happy visitors and mery kids cropping their first 'home grown Sebago potatoes!

So a huge thanks to all the volunteers, cooks...and:
the musicians: Bhanglassi, John and Wolf, DJ Robbo
Emma Khourey and Circus WOW
Warren Windsports. A Garden for Life, The Jack of Harts and Jude, Glenbernie Orchards, Plat du Jour, Karen McDougall Yoga, Andrea and Yoga Unite Me, Kellie Bollard Permaculture Books !

So to prepare our green future, get involve this coming saturday in our FREE PERMACULTURE WORKSHOP.

We'll have to drink a few bubble to celebrate this success, a Council grant (SI SI - yes yes) and a new great partnership with the Otford Tennis Club (Thanks Pauline) and the License from the Council !!!!