NOTES FROM COMMUNITY GARDEN
Eight weeks have passed since the excitement of the official opening of the Community Garden and the volunteers have settled back into the routine of gardening tasks. Every week we have been able to supply Cathy Ruffell, the care worker, with a variety of fresh vegetables, for her to distribute to those who need them.
At the moment, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, lettuces, cucumbers, beetroot, spring onions, carrots and silver beet are being distributed and we have begun to plant the vegetables to see us through the winter. Three and a half of the four raised beds are planted out and the remaining half-bed will be filled by the end of this month.
It has been very pleasant having visitors to Havelock call into the garden, saying they had heard about it and wanting to have a look around. Their remarks have inevitably been favourable including from those who have involvement in Community Gardens in their own home town. The expertise of Marcus Dawkins has certainly borne results in the quality of the vegetables produced and the coffee grounds from the Inlet Bakery and 10-year old bark from Graeme and Sharon Smith have done a lot to break down the clay that we started with and the soil is now (almost) a pleasure to work with. The worms in the worm farm are doing their bit as well with their “worm pee” broken down to one part to 20 of water for use.
We have been very impressed with the constancy of Mariah and Nairn Wilson who have volunteered to work in the garden on a weekly basis over the holiday period. They have been occupied with weeding, watering and planting.
Talking of volunteers working over the holidays, the St John’s cadet garden, under the guidance of Robert King-Turner, looks just great. Robert and the cadets have worked hard in the last six weeks to rid the garden of docks and all the other weeds and the garden is now fully planted with a variety of vegetable, rhubarb and blackcurrant bushes. They have big plans to develop it further.
The next Community Garden event we are planning for is Chris Fortune’s cooking demonstration, to be held behind the Hall at 10:00am on Saturday 18 February. This has been arranged by Susan Foster of the Marlborough Community Hub. As you know, Chris is a renowned and skilful New Zealand chef who lives in Marlborough and he will be using vegetables and herbs from our garden, mussels from “Hairy Mussel” and “Sherrington” cheese in his demonstrations. We hope you will take the opportunity of visiting the garden after the demonstration so we can show you around.
We have had lots of nice things happen to us over the holiday. Mussel Pot continues to trade herbs for fertiliser, Heidi and Albin Franz gave us a most generous donation but it was Allan and Leslie Butland who took our breath away. They heard of some carpet in Alexandra which was going to the tip so loaded it into their vehicle- all nine rolls- and brought it up to us. Allan said that it took some organising their clothes around the precious load! We now have plenty of carpet for when we build the 5th bed once the pumpkins have finished, and for replacing the existing carpet as it rots out.
If you know of someone in need of fresh vegetables, please ring Ian Cameron 574 2558 so that they can be added to the distribution list.
Ian Cameron