Saturday 31 March 2012

Harvest Day

CANBERRA HARVEST FESTIVAL 2012




Set amidst the beautiful trees beside Lake Burley Griffen, on the edge of the Australian National University, The Canberra Environment and Sustainability Resources Centre's Harvest Day, 2012 was a hive of activity. There were numerous workshops to attend including:

Backyard Beekeeping
No Dig Gardening Demonstration
Making Compost Tea
Constructing a Worm Tower
Harvest the Sun
Seed Blocking

and the following presentations:

The Smarter City: How Can Acting on Climate Change Make Life Better in Canberra?


Food Rescue - Good Food Should Not Go To Waste


PermablitzACT provided demonstrations for easy, acheivable innovations in the garden including creating wicking pots.







PermablitzACT

Canberra's environment and sustainability resources centre



April
  • New Development in Solar
  • Sustainable House Tour
  • Seed Sowing and Maintenance
  • Retro-fitting for Renters
May
  • Composting Made Easy
  • Worm-farming Made Easy
  • Affordable Retro-Fitting
  • Co-op Tour & Veg Cooking Class
June
  • Propagation by Cuttings
  • Investing in Energy Efficiency
  • Bike Maintenance for Beginners
  • Community Facilitation Skills
Stall holders included:

1. ACT Vegan & Vegetarian Society
2. ANU Food Co-Op
3.
ANU SLC Organic Garden
4. Australian Orangutan Project
5. Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC)
6. Beekeepers Association of the ACT
7. Black Horse Fine Foods
8. Budgi Werri Prunes
9. Canberra Loves 40%
10. Canberra Organic Grower's Society (COGS)
11. Choku Bai Jo
12. Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA)
13. Daily Green Bar
14. Eco Chic
15. Ecotel
16. ENJO
17. Gardners Ground
18. Greenhill Farm
19. Local Exchange Trading System (LETS)
20. Morsbags
21. Naturally Clean
22. Organic Bee
23. Oz Harvest
24. Pedal Power ACT
25. Permablitz ACT
26. Recyclery
27. Riverview Homestead & Hazelnuts
28. Sea Shepherd
29. SEE-Change
30. Slow Food Network
31. South Coast Organic Fertiliser
32. The Kitchen Cabinet
33. Tom's Waterhole Winery
34. Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF)
35. Daily Green Bar

Friday 30 March 2012


Canberra Institute of Technology - Solutions Plant Propagation Class - March 2012


This fascinating, informative and very useful course took students through propagation techniques including:
·         cuttings
         §    soft wood
         §  hardwood and semi-hardwood
·         layering
·         grafting
·         budding
·         division
·         root cuttings, and
·         seed propagation.

We had the opportunity to grow plants to take home using these methods. CIT's Bruce campus have gardens containing a huge variety of plants enabling us to take cuttings to grow and ultimately to incorporate these new plants into our own gardens.
Along the way we learnt about:
·         hygiene
·         potting mixes
·         hot houses and shade houses
·         plant structure
·         seed collection, and
·         pest and disease control.

The class photo was taken at our last class. It was sad leaving after six weeks of learning, and enjoying the company  of passionate gardeners. We took home our newly created plants and all the new skills we had learnt.

For information on upcoming CIT solutions gardening courses check out this link.

CIT Solutions - Gardening and Rural

Monday 5 March 2012



   
    This site is about exploring all things edible that can be grown
     or sourced locally in the Australian Capital Territory and South Eastern New South Wales.
   Look out for news and events, tips and advice, recipes and more.
      
Lots of ideas for creating your own Edible Garden can be found on my hub at Hubpages.com