Beechworth Sustainability

The food, water and relocalisation group has some great activities planned for 2010!

March: Preserving morning at Beechworth Neighbourhood Centre. Sat 27 March from 10am – noon. Learn how to make sauces, chutneys, jams, salsas, and even fruit wines.

April: Visit by Yea Seed Savers and informal seed swap. Charlie and Fay Robinson’s property.

May: CERES Electric car workshop - tentatively 1st weekend in May

June: Composting workshop.

July: Vegetable bed preparation and planting.

August: Winter soup day.  It’s often too cold outside at this time of year so it's the right time of year for some warm soup and a get together.

September: Movie night at BNC  -  Film: The end of suburbia: oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream and/or The age of Stupid.

October: Visit to productive small gardens.

November: Breakup party at BNC. 

Specific dates and locations will be advised closer to the time, but if you would like more detials about any of these events please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

On Saturday 25th July a dozen or so hardy sould braved the chill to get the lowdown on planting and pruning fruit trees from Charlie. We got the low-down on inward and outward facing buds, pruning to espalier, pruning for vase shapes, and even when not to prune!

As you can see, one of the benefits of hosting an event is some extra hands to help with planting!

After an informative session in the orchard, we retreated for a warming cuppa and a quick lesson on making your own white opil spray for fruit and citrus trees. The white oil works by coating bugs and mites so they suffocate.

Charlie's home made white oil

• In a plastic bottle (soft drink / juice or milk) fill the bottle 1/3 full with vegetable oil (Charlie used canola)
• Top up the bottle to almost full with water
• Shake vigorously until it turns cloudy
• Add in a squirt of dishwashing liquid (or you can use pure soap flakes if you prefer for the totally organic option)

To use the spray dilute 1 part of the above oil mix in 20 parts of water, and spray on your fruit and citrus trees. Now is a good time to take this pest management step.

Thanks to Charlie and Fay for hosting the event!

Wondering what to plant in your Beechworth garden in June? Donna suggests any of the following:

• Asparagus,  Asian Greens
• Broad beans, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts
• Cauliflower, Celery, Celeriac, Chinese Celery
• Daikon, Dill
• Endive
• Garlic, Garlic Chives
• Kale, Kohlrabi
• Leek, Lettuce
• Onion
• Parsley, Peas
• Radish
• Snow Peas, Spinach, Swede
• Turnip

Growing Garlic
Garlic is one of the easiest vegetables to grow and only needs a bit of soil preparation prior to planting. Garlic is traditionally planted on the shortest day of the year and is then ready for harvest by Xmas.

Prepare the ground by working in plenty of well rotted manure or compost then apply dolomite at a rate of one handful per square metre.

Plant fresh locally grown stock if you can. I always leave a small percentage of my garlic crop for planting the following season.  Choose the large outer cloves for planting.  Plant individual cloves 3cm deep and 6 cms apart.

If you need any encouragement to grow garlic note that most commercially available garlic comes from either the US or China and has been bleached prior to export ( with what I don’t know!)  A small patch (around 2 square metres) will provide all the garlic for an average household needs for 12 months.

Happy garlic growing!