Wednesday 29 October 2014

Three beds underway

A pleasure working with the crew of Tending 3 getting the beds in place and planted out. 

A trip to Bunnings at Ashfield netted some discounted coir good for bulking up the topsoil and as mulch. Brought back a Black Russian heirloom tomato plant and various herbs to go with the Malabar Greens and Warrigal Greens. 

Someone sowed a potato in the bed so that will make an appearance. 

Brought a load of worms from the worm farm and packet seed from home to see what will and will not take in the fresh soil. 

Fingers crossed the first Tuesday Lunch club of 2015 will be from the garden.  

Ross Gibson had apparently purchased another four beds so they will be constructed at some time in the future. We still have enough soil to partially fill them. 

Water tanks and drum composting bins to come. 



See Sarah's post on Facebook here.

Friday 24 October 2014

Guys just wanna have fun.

Mycelium 

Talking with Joyce Hinterding in class about the wonders of mycelium, the working part of fungi. Could be a good addition to conditioning the soil in our raised garden beds. 

Paul Stamets name cropped up in conversation. This is one application of fungi, remediating the environment after an oil spill. Other articles make clear the need to treat the whole of the soil as an organism that needs feeding and 'tending'. 

Meanwhile, Tending 3

Internal strapping to keep it all neat and tidy.
The four raised garden containers have been bedded into the former lawn ready to be filled with the remaining soil. Straps have been added to hold the sides of the containers firm. Makes me wonder how these things get sold - flat pack easy to load in the Cherokee Suburban. Have one Olla Pot and small Warrigal Green seedling in place with some open terracotta placeholders for when more Olla Pots are ready. 


Just want to let the original Tending crew that things are happening again. Thanks to those students in the courtyard who help shovel some soil. We appreciate the effort helping to get the Tending project back on track.  


Where's Wiley
For those worried about the soil condition, when digging the trench for the garden bed containers I found many healthy looking worms in the dead roots of the grass, they vigorously escaped the full sunlight. 

I would recommend a soil test at some stage. Heavy metal contamination is always an issue. Worms, amazing creatures, they evolve to be able to absorb heavy metals and bioremediate soils, here and here.





Thursday 2 October 2014

De-growing the economy

Life in a ‘degrowth’ economy, and why you might actually enjoy it

2 October 2014, 5.46am AEST

Samuel Alexander 
Research fellow, 
Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute 
at University of Melbourne