What your garden could be saving you today

I had a walk round my local Coles supermarket last night and here is what i found, and the savings that can be made made with your own garden not to mention the satisfaction of growing them is well worth it.

The Vegetables below we are all picking quatities of now:

Green Beans $4.98kg*
Spring Onions $1.98 bunch*
Spinach $3.48 bunch*
Beetroot $4.98 for 5 smaller than a snooker ball, (i picked 3 today almost as big as a softball)
Zucchinis $4.50kg

Fresh "8 Ball" Zucchini

Lettuce $2.48 each*
Lebanese cucumbers $5.98kg*
Herbs $2.48 bunch***
Pak Choy $1.98 for 2*
Garlic $17.98kg*
Fennel $1.28 each*
White onions $4.98kg*
Chillis $13.98kg*
Leeks *
Potatoes

*picked from my garden this week at home and Community Garden plot

City Farms, Community Gardens gathering and Power of Community.

Last week between jobs i had the chance to view the Power of Community documentary at the Macarthur Future Food Forum (say that fast) on saturday at the Macarthur Diversity Services Initiative building in Campbelltown, and visit the City Farms and Community Gardens network meeting hosted at Lilyfield by the Whites Ck Garden.

Firstly the Power of Community, this is something that we will hopefully look at screening in camden at a venue and time to be confirmed, or you can view the link below and watch the video yourself :)

Surviving Peak Oil and Power of Community

Hubberts peak oil graph extrapolated across gas and oil .

The Documentary shows how Cuba was thrown almost overnight into a Peak Oil situation, it is something i had never even considered or thought about and was certainly well worth sitting through if not for the underlying message but the whole power of community and sustainable gardens info.

Summer Garden Tips

Holiday Care

Here’s a few tips for surviving the holiday break over summer.

Don’t mow your lawn too low before you go away, otherwise you might find it completely dead by the time you get back. It’s always best to keep it a little bit longer in summer to shade the soil below, this helps retain more moisture in the ground and protect roots that are close to the surface.

Ask a neighbour

Take care of your precious work in the veggie garden by ensuring that a neighbour or friend can do some watering if you go away. You could try to rig up some shadecloth temporarily over sensitive plants or areas of the garden if you’re especially concerned about them.

Updates, News and some

We have found these little critters in the millions, how do i deter them from eating our vegetables, they seem to like tomatoes and strawberries, the ones pictured (right) have taken refuge around a thorn apple.

Just some of the Zucchinis donated to the local senior citizens club this week, as well as potatoes, leeks, spinach and beetroot. The small one is the size of a tennis ball to put the large ones in perspective

Artichokes are just one of the vegetables growing in the gardens, these particular ones are globe artichokes, more architectural than productive but nice to have in our garden, hard to believe that these were only planted from a 100mm pot back in late september

Love Food Hate Waste, who doesn't!!!

Here are some numbers to think about;

• NSW households throw away $2.5Billion worth of food each year,
• Over $230 Million in drinks thrown out,
• Over $800 Million in fresh food thrown out,
• Over $350 Million in pre packaged and Long Life products thrown out,
• Over 300kg of food waste per household per year to landfill,

Some scary figures for sure, but we can all do our bit in reducing this needless waste, look at menu plans for your week, do shopping lists, look at storage options.

Be sure to check out the Love Food Hate Waste website for some great information, i would also like to add the following heading to go with the site, "Grow it", but its about growing the right amount.

With that in mind, take a look at the "Square Foot Gardening" principles its all about growing enough food for your family without waste, the Square foot gardening site gives some great info and tips on how to grow all your families vegetables economically and all year round.

Happy Gardening Steve