Our April working bee day coincided with Anzac Day so we decided on a later start of 10am to give volunteers a chance to attend local commemoration services. Although not as hot as last Anzac Day, it was a fine day, perfect both for the Anzac parades and our working bee.
Having prepared the plots last time, we were ready to plant some of our seedlings. Recently, we have been trying to follow some crop rotation principles, particularly to reduce the risk of spreading any disease.
So, broccoli (Super King), cauliflower (Snowball) and cabbage (Racer Hybrid) seedlings were planted into the bed that previously housed potatoes. We had prepared it with dolomite, sheep pellets and blood and bone. Because the plot had potatoes before, it was well aerated and the soil was nice and loose.
A sweet pea plant belonging to Lois was planted in the corner of the plot. She had been growing it at school and was given the choice of where it should go. Karyn helped her plant it and added a support for it to grow up.
We had decided to plant root crops (carrots and parsnips) into the plot that had garlic. Olga had brought down a couple of buckets of sand from her sandpit so that we could try and provide some freely draining soil free from obstacles for the carrots/parsnips. We have never had much success with carrots and last season we had lots of parsnips but transplanted the seedlings, which seemed to result in many legged parsnips that were very bendy…not very nice!
Johnny turned the mammoth pile of hot compost and then helped out with ferrying soil to fill a couple of tyres.
Johnny turning compost
One tyre was for the Aloe plant and the other for Lemongrass, both donated by Karyn.
We had leek seedlings ready for planting so Nicole and Karyn worked hard turning the soil and creating trenches for the plants. This was a plot where a mixture of plants had been growing, including tomatoes. Sheep pellets, blood and bone and dolomite had been added to the soil a couple of weeks before to provide some extra nutrients.
Woodside Community Garden 