July Seedy Sunday - Winter Garden Activities

The next 'Seedy Sunday' will be on 6 July from 10.30am - 12.00pm. 

With cooler weather finally here, there are so many delicious crops we can be growing.

We'll be discussing:

• a variety of crops that enjoy winter temperatures. 
• ways to protect your vegetable garden from frost.
• growing fruit trees from seed.
• activities you can plan for over the next couple of months before spring. 

This is a time of year many of us prune deciduous trees while they are dormant. We'll talk about some of the ways to reuse prunings, fallen leaves, bark and other free organic matter to build a healthy soil. We'd love to hear your recycling ideas and tips too!

If you have some spare cuttings, seeds, surplus produce, questions or ideas to share please bring these along. We had an enjoyable meeting last month with everyone going home with freebies to plant or eat from other member's gardens.   

We love new faces so bring a friend or neighbour - perhaps someone who'd like some company or needs a little support in their garden. Our group welcomes beginners, visitors and people new to our community area. We also sow seeds of friendship when we are together.

Activities for July

According to the moon calendar, we are now starting a cycle of prolific growth for above ground plants continuing through until 10 July - the ideal time to get stuck into Winter planting. Beans, peas, brassicas (like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard and kale), leafy greens (like spinach, chard, rocket and lettuce) + many other vegies grow well at this time of year.

Watch out for white cabbage butterflies (both large & small) that love the brassica family. They lay eggs on the underside of leaves so do a regular check before they hatch and do too much damage.

Read this article if you need help with identifying caterpillars attacking your plants - there are some helpful resources to help you work out the pests from the beneficial insects.

Do you need some ideas for organic solutions to get these naughty ladies under control in your garden? Cabbage white butterflies are awesome mothers and love big families - which means it can be the battle of Caterpillars vs Your Vegetables. Find out 13 ways to work with nature for more produce on your plate and sneaky integrated pest management strategies to try.

Large White Cabbage Butterfly caterpillars
Photo: www.loosha.nl - ginny@loosha.nl

QLD Garden Expo

The annual Queensland Garden Expo is on again this month from Friday 11 - Sunday 13 July at the Nambour Showgrounds. As always, it's a great place to learn with many free lectures and demonstrations on growing and cooking food crops, gardening, pruning, fruit trees and much more. You can find the programs for the 3 days on their website.

Our favourite place of course is the Giant Kitchen Garden - there's always an interesting display with many speakers sharing their passion on topics to help you learn and grow a productive food garden. This year I'll be speaking on the Sunday at 1.15pm on Micro Gardening: How to Intensively 'Farm' in Containers - Techniques for highly productive crops in pots. I'm looking forward to sharing many tips from my experiences in our climate.

What to Plant in July

Check out these guides for tips and planting guides:

Gardenate - Subtropical zone.

ABC Vegie Gardening Guide.

Aussie Organic Gardening.

This month's Seed Savers Meeting

We meet at Sweethearts Cafe who offer us a large space to get together for free (saving us a hall hire fee so no cost to you) but as a business are in effect hiring out that area to us for a couple of hours.

So as a courtesy please remember to at the very least order a tea/coffee or a yummy meal, to support the cafe. They have a delicious local and organic menu. Visit their website for more info @ http://www.sweetheartscafe.com.au/aboutus.html.

Venue: 2 Anzac Street (cnr Rosebed Street), Eudlo.

FREE to attend so bring a friend and carpool! Hope to see you soon.

By Anne Gibson