The Community Garden has made it through to the end of another productive and rewarding year. What are some of the key elements to successful community gardening here in Alice?
“The answer lies in the soil”. Soil health, moisture and nutrition go a very long way to creating beautiful gardens and plants. Our long standing commitment to providing gardeners with controlled watering, humus (often buffel grass), cow manure, straw mulch, compost and worm castings and juice has enabled enthusiastic plot holders and community bed contributors to build up rich and fertile soils that will continue to give.
“One year’s seeding, seven years weeding!” Weeds are wonderful soil colonisers, just look at how couch and buffel grass spread! Given an even break unwelcome weeds will take over. The broadscale and repeated use of deep layers of wood chip mulch over most of the of the Garden’s walk ways has massively reduced weed invasion but paths and inside and outside fence lines still need regular disciplined weeding! We can ignore the growth and timely pulling out of weeds if we’d simply prefer natural selection over gardens.
“Variety is the spice of life”. Ben Wall and his work for the dole teams have made a massive contribution to the life, colour, shape and functionality of the Garden.
More Garden Friends and visitors, more gatherings, greater Garden awareness, engagement, enrichment and variety are goals for 2018.
Remember:
WORKING BEES 1ST AND 3RD SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH
FRIDAY NIGHT SOCIAL GET TOGETHER LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH
Keep updated via the ASCG Facebook Page for date of the first working bee of 2018