Autumn or is it Summer.

Autumn in Camden Community Garden, and an update


Hawk Moth Caterpillars

Summer became Winter and now Autumn has become Summer, it certainly has saved us watering over Summer but its played havoc in the gardens, feathered freinds have a veritable smorgasboard of bugs to choose from with these big fat juicy caterpillars turning up in thier droves to munch on sweet potatoes, we have sighted several forms of these mass defoliation critters, 2 forms are pictured, but the local magpies and butcher birds have finally found them.



Harlequin Beetles

Thankfully they seem to have limited their diet to sweet potatoes, although snails have had a field day on beans around the gardens.



Harlequin Beetles just seem to be everywhere and if we can find a biological control now would be the time to implement it.

All the rain and humidity through summer had a detrimental effect on the likes of pumpkin, cucumbers, and watermelons, powdery mildew was rampant and alot of plants ended up rotting off. We have managed to get a batch of Qld Blue pumpkin in the ground and these have taken off, we hope to have this cropped picked going into winter, sadly not in time for the Camden Show.



beat using a shovel :)



Some new raised beds have appeared in the garden, these were put in over the last fortnight and will be expanded on in coming weeks, these garden beds have already being picked up by a caravan park residents group and the remaining are being allocated to disability groups.

Thanks to the volunteers who turned up impromptu last week and mulched and tidied up the herb garden, this area continues to excel and with a change of seasons we will see a change of herbs coming also, dill, coriander should start popping up, the lemongrass has boomed with the weather and lets hope it gets through winter ok, you will also quite possibly see galangal and tumeric appear, being a root crop though they should survive through winter.

Courses in the Community Gardens

Toni Salter - "The Veggie Lady"
bestowing ther does and don'ts of
companion planting.

Last weekend saw the final course in the series at the gardens for a few months, this companion planting course gave gardeners from the community gardens and outside the gardens a chance to find out what goes with what, like why do you plant basil and tomatoes together and not basil and silverbeet, or why not garlic and and beans together.


Steve and Ray discussing BBQ menu :)

 Run over a couple of hours in the shade of the peppercorn trees at the Camden Town Farm, the course was enjoyed by all concerned, a big thankyou to all participants over the last few months, thanks to Toni Salter for putting the courses on, The Department of Family and Human Services for enabling us to fund the course as well as Camden Council for providing an excellent venue, and finaly Camden Community Garden Committe in particular Ray Monahan for looking after the BBQ Lunch.