Carole's subtropical/warm temperate garden at Gleniffer

Carole and Phil live in a beautiful part of Gleniffer with spectacular views of the Dorrigo rainforest.

Their north facing solar passive house with the expansive edible gardens out front is a great example of a self-sustaining household for two. Their intention is to not have to bring anything in for their garden/home and to not take any waste out, and they have almost achieved this. 

The edible gardens are inspiring, we all walked away with many ideas.

Pineapple

Here are some highlights.

The pineapples are planted from the tops of pineapples they've eaten and are in a hot sunny spot close to the house. This creates a beautiful bank of structural plants with grey greens and reds and a seasonal abundance of fruit, though there is some fighting with the local bush rats to who gets the ripe pineapples first…

Kale, possibly 'Cavallo Nero' kale, in the netted vegetable garden

In a carefully netted section of the garden the blueberries were abundant. The different varieties grown spread the times at which they ripen, a strategy applied to other fruits as well. 

There were peanuts aplenty at Carole and Phil's.

We saw lot's of tips and practical ideas as well such as the way small birds, that take care of bugs, are allowed into the netted areas with vegetables (but not the berry plot) while big birds were kept out. 

Thanks Carole and Phil. It was inspiring!

Text mostly by Erik.

Here are some more pics.

Fig

Grapes

Netted vegetable garden

Salad vegetables often need shade under our intense subtropical summer sun.

Warrigal Greens and Row Beans

Persimmon

Netted garden

Macadamias

Garlic drying on the verandah

Chili

Peanuts

Our afternoon teas are always a highlight and often showcase the edibles we grow.

Seedsavers Talks at the Centre for Ecological Learning Open Day in Bellingen

Seedsavers Erik and John were happy to support this event. The Centre for Ecological Learning is the Incorporated 'mother ship' for Bellingen Seedsavers.

Erik presented on Gathering and Saving Seeds and John presented on Edible Perennials to small but appreciative groups.

Learn more about the Centre for Ecological Learning

Charlie's subtropical garden at Thora.

On Sunday 13th November we visited our friend Charlies' beautiful tropical gardens and home in Thora.

It is highly productive garden and Charlie very comfortably lives of this land. His daughter sells a lot of his produce (turmeric, ginger, nuts, fruit) at the markets in Newcastle to provide nourishment to the city people and to generate income. 

Charlie and Karin were fantastic hosts on this very warm summers day. Charlie has lived here since the seventies and raised his family here. His children have grown up and flown the coop, but  his garden and his impressive collections of productive and ornamental trees and plants have kept on growing and keep on feeding his extended family.

Charlie has created a series of garden rooms and continues to expand. He uses permaculture and biodynamic principles and does most of the work by hand. While walking us through the garden he talked us through what tasks he was going to do in the next few days… and it was a list so long that less driven and enthusiastic people would take at least a month to get anywhere close. It was an inspiring day in an inspiring garden.

We drank many cups of tea and ate healthy and delicious food, as always we swapped plant material and seeds and a lot of good growing advice. A great day, thank you Charlie and Karin!

Report by Erik

Visiting Leela's 'manor' garden on the Dorrigo plateau

Our October gathering was held in Dorrigo at Leela's "manor".

Take one bare paddock of a couple of acres. Add an owner built house, a few permaculture principles, loads of ideas and enthusiasm and six years. It's not a bare paddock any more.

We enjoyed the company of some ruminants, chickens, unsighted foxes and amorous ducks while we were given a guided tour of the remaining 'paddock' areas soon to be citrus orchard, the netted fruit tree orchard with grafting experiments, the fenced vegie garden, the hothouse attached to the house (complete with geriatric chook) growing a banana plant in Dorrigo(!) and the new deck with terrific eastern views over the entire manor estate.

Inside the conservatory

The netted orchard

Banana plant growing in the conservatory in a plateau climate

Perennial food plants - what are you growing in your garden?

Kang Kong growing in pond in Bellinger River Valley

We are putting together a resource on perennial food plants that grow well in this area. This is for ourselves and the wider community.

Can you email in the perennial food plants that you have growing in your garden, along with where you are (Dorrigo's climate is different to Sawtell's!)? We will list the plants and the area they are growing in on the website. We WON'T be listing your names.

Send the info to news@bellingenseedsavers.com

Are you growing Surinam Spinach, aka Waterleaf?

Bellingen Plant Fair- Our Bellingen Seed Savers Stall

Bellingen Seed Savers had their usual stall at the Spring Bellingen Plant Fair. It was very successful as usual.

Fi is selling our huge range of locally grown and packaged seeds.

We spreading the word about Okinawa Spinach, how easily it grows and how useful it is.

We even had some large cuttings of Moringa. I haven't yet seen the flowers grow into fruit in our semitropical/warm temperate climate.

If you are local and interested in attending our gatherings use the contact link at the bottom of our home page.

Fermenting Workshop at Bellingen Community Gardens August 18,2016

Leela's sauerkraut demonstration

After the fermentation demonstrations we planned and shared seeds.

Jeff's yummy kombucha

Jeff recommended the Grow Youthful Australian website for fermentation details and a starter plant. Go to Kombucha

Jeff explains the kombucha process (fermenting tea, sugar and water).

Leela's improvised sauerkraut fermenting jar with her commercial fermenting jar.

Making sauerkraut is a method to preserve vegetables as well as making a healthy food.

Leela also demonstrated the process of making milk kefir just by leaving milk to ferment.

Lunch, important at all of our events.

Nell's stir fry makes good use of all of her vegetable garden. It made a pleasant warm picnic salad.

Rae's carrot cake is always in demand

Pics from July 2016 Seed Savers Packing Day at Nell's

Wow. What a successful seed packing day! Together we cleaned and bagged 410 packs of seeds; these are now ready for labelling at our next gathering. We also had the pleasure of some new faces... helloooo! Hope you enjoyed the day and that you will be back. Not only that, but we cleaned an additional 490 bags of seeds; these can be bagged and labelled later as required. Many thanks to everyone who supplied seeds and helped at the workshop on 17th July 2016 and special thanks to Nell Hayden for her delicious soups and bread that fueled us all for the entire afternoon. Do you have any of these seeds to share? Our seeds stocks are quite good now, but a few plants are in still in short supply: tomatoes (any local varieties), rock melons, zucchini’s, egg plants (long varieties, and large purple) and sweet corn. Jeff would love to hear from you if you do: seeds@bellingenseedsavers.com Potting up plants Viewing Nell's garden Packing seeds

Morning Tea

Why Seeds Should Remain a Public Good

From:

"Seeds are the source of our food. Through seeds, farmers across the world earn a living.

And yet, three multinational companies hold over 50% of global agricultural seeds. They control the sale of these seeds and therefore our food.

We urgently need to raise awareness to the problems caused by the monopoly of agricultural seeds and highlight the importance of biodiversity."

Tuesday, 2nd August 2016



See the video

Naïma Pollet
naimapollet.com
Diploma project
HEAD – Geneva