We are coming up to four months past the Jimboomba floods and Jimboomba Community Garden with the help of the local community (Rotary and QCCU) are happy to say we are back on track.
As always in these situations we have had the opportunity from the past flood to re-evaluate and re-direct and re-design the garden, and we are now better than before.
Due to issues associated with flood water we have been unable to plant out our usual winter crops but the upside of this is extended time to plan our crops for the rest of the year.
So our planning included on humongous compost pile comprised of goat manure (thanks Tim) and horse manure (thanks everyone) spoilt hay, all of our garden waste, mushroom compost and autumn leaves (thank you Hills College).
Now this certainly is a hot combination and it was turned every couple of weeks to reactivate the heat, and by turning it I mean from moving from here to there and back again.
We also added a combination of these things to our existing compost beds and we turned them every couple of weeks as well until the materials were broken down.
These beds didn’t get as hot so the soil organisms like worms were able to move in and help return health to this soil.
As we missed the cooler season our planting will start in august as we prepare for our summer crops. Depending on how the season is progressing we will start to plant into pots or the ground.
The first week of august from Wednesday we will be planting tomatoes, pumpkin, beans, watermelon, rockmelon, capsicum, corn, eggplant, cucumber and zucchini.
From the second week of August, from Wednesday, we will be planting radish, beetroot and potatoes.
From the August 15 to 21, we will be focusing our attention to weeding, mulching and mowing. Than from August 23 till August 28 we will be planting leafy annuals.
This plan incorporates the moon planting guide and it is a helpful tool in the garden not only to optimise preferred growth but it also acts to remind us to plant successively for a continuing crop.
With this amount of planting continuing throughout the growing season and our fresh herbs we will be back to surplus stock which will be available again for individuals and business to purchase.
For more information on moon planting or the community garden please come along to the garden on the first and third Sunday of each month.
