gardening

Costa enlists the help of the neighbours to harvest produce and replant vegies for the summer months.

The verge garden beds have been extremely successful and productive and now it's time to harvest the produce and then replant to ensure that there will be vegies through the summer months. Costa enlisted the help of his street community.

The Harvest

The areas being rejuvenated are the beds either side of the central path - a total area of around 40 square metres. The girls Jess and Mimi are looking after the shallot harvest , Eden and Ellis are taking out all the fennel and Iona has collected the crop of endive and is starting to remove the tatsoi. The tatsoi went to seed early but have been left in the beds as the flowers attract the beneficial bees to the garden.

The harvested produce will be offered to the helpers and anything left over will be left on a table for neighbours to collect on their way home from work.

Success Stories

Some of the potatoes got damaged in the harvesting and clearing, but Costa and the girls are pleased to discover that the potatoes that Tino donated have survived and taken off and they now have their own crop growing.

The girls ask if they can keep a potato. They want it to feed some ants they've found. Costa remarked, 'They want to feed the ants. If the girls want to feed the ants, I'm not going to stand in their way.'

The other plant that's been doing well is the Red Coral lettuce. The community have been repeat harvesting this and when it's put with some of the chicory and tatsoi, it makes a great side dish - but it's now at the point where it needs to be taken out and replanted.

There's a huge amount of produce collected - plenty for the whole street.

Replanting

The brassica crops - like the broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower - have taken a lot of goodness out of the soil, so it's time to replenish and get some new layers of Costa's no-dig 'lasagne' back on top to feed and fuel the next lot of planting.

To rejuvenate the soil, Costa added:

    1 layer of lucerne

    Manure

    A second layer of lucerne

This is watered in with molasses and fish top class air emulsion. It's now ready for replanting!

One of the things Costa really likes about the project is that everyone gets involved when they can - whether it's before or after school or during the day. It's real community involvement.

Young Rory plants some coriander which Costa refers to as 'Rory's Coriander Corner'. It's going to go all along the path edge so that it easily picked by passersby. There will also be some tomatoes going in with basil grown underneath - they are a great companion plant to tomatoes.

Rory's pretty pleased to hear that tomatoes are going in. 'I love tomatoes!'

Further information: No Dig Garden Recipe and Growing Tomatoes

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