It’s been a busy time at the Patch over the last couple of months, with lots still to do in preparation for spring.
The hard frosts have taken a toll on some of our plants and shrubs in the Food Forest and other areas of the gardens, and our dedicated Garden Volunteers have been busy pruning back the damage as well as clearing pesky kikuyu from the banks of the large pond near the gourd frame. The banks will be revegetated with native grasses and other hardy low-screen plants.

If you’re interested in joining our Garden Volunteer Program contact 0484 001 390 or info@gloucesterfoodhub.org for more information. Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings are currently the most popular days for working bees. It’s a great way to meet new friends, get some exercise and learn things you never knew in a beautiful, healthy environment.

Our Marmalade Workshop earlier this month was once again very successful, with approximately a hundred jars of delicious Seville Orange, Lime and Ruby Red Grapefruit produced from one very productive session. Look out for the new batches of marmalade at the Farmgate Stall soon.

We’ve also been hosting a series of Pruning Fruit Tree Workshops, with hands-on demos at the Food Forest from our talented John Galagher. Part 3, on Pruning Stonefruit Trees, took place on Saturday August 18, with the fourth and final session, Pruning Citrus, being held on Saturday September 15. Apart from being a wealth of knowledge on pruning, John can also offer advice on general care of all fruit (and other) trees. So grab your secateurs and come along and join us

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Can’t give your backyard citrus fruit away? Don’t let it go to waste! Come along to our productive workshop and learn how to make your own delicious marmalade, using a variety of citrus including oranges, mandarins, limes, lemons and grapefruit.
The workshop, hosted by Pat Burrows, will demonstrate the complete process of marmalade making, from sorting, washing and chopping the fruit, through simmering and setting, to sterilising, bottling and labelling.
For more information go to  Workshops

​One of the lovely things about winter, apart from the chance to enjoy cosy wood fires, comforting casseroles, stews and soups (maybe accompanied by a glass of robust red!) is the fact that everything in the garden slows down. The grass stops shooting up at such an alarming rate, weeds take a little bit of a break from their relentless attempts to take over the joint, and shrubs and hedges behave in a much more sedate manner.  

This slowing of growth means less work trying to stay on top of things and gives us a chance to look at the bones of the garden, regroup, review and revise what works and what doesn’t. It provides an opportunity to perhaps change the design of the garden, and maybe even put in place some structures that will help protect your plants from sun, pest and insect damage come spring and summer. 

The cooler weather, a welcome respite from the heat and humidity of summer, also makes it easier to get out there and do a few solid hours of digging, planting, mulching, trimming and pruning, without being chased inside by the hot sun and pesky flies, giving both you and your garden the perfect workout. 

Winter is also a great time to get out there, get involved and learn something new – so why not sign up for one of our regular workshops? The calendar currently includes the second half of a workshop on Pests & Diseases, on June 15, and a workshop on Pruning & Care of Fruit Trees, lined up for June 23. More news will follow re workshops for July, August and beyond, so check back regularly on the website for updates. 

Vegies to plant this month include: broad beans, cabbage, lettuce, onion, globe artichoke, peas (climbing and dwarf), radish and shallots. 

So get busy, get planting, get inspired – and stay warm!

No-one got bitten by a snake. None of the marquees fell down. No-one got lost, or fell into the dam. The sun shone all afternoon in a huge, high, perfectly blue sky. And the CWA stall completely sold out of cakes and slices.
In short, the Tucker Patch Open Day really couldn’t have gone any better.
There was music – an impressive performance from the cute and talented woodwind ensemble from Gloucester Public School – and, perfect as a laid-back accompaniment to all the activities, funky guitar and singing from Ty throughout the afternoon.
There were stalls with interesting products to discover. Bamboo straws, toilet bombs, gorgeous bags (cleverly crocheted from those ubiquitous green and gray supermarket plastic bags) and a hanky revolution at the Eco Stall.
There was wine! Lively locally grown wines to sample at the Gloucester River Wines Stall. (You could even have a seat and a chinwag while quaffing!)
There was delicious local honey and fascinating info on bees and bee-keeping at Annemie’s fabulously decorated stall.
An informative worm farm demonstration from Stef. Face painting for the kids at the Fair Trade stall run by Dom and Amy. And a Gardening Q&A at Marnie’s Plant Stall, where you could also buy a whole range of gorgeous plants for the garden.
Ken’s Wicking Demo created a lot of interest from those looking for water-saving measures for their future gardening endeavours. Or if chilling was more your thing you could head for Linda’s stall set in a shady spot just next to the cottage garden to enjoy a relaxing free massage.
Kids had fun collecting live snails and searching for kangaroo grass and other plant specimens on the Scavenger Hunt, with a prize of seed bombs and fruit for their efforts.
There were Guided Tours. A Tucker Patch Information Stand ably manned by Pat, Jeanette and Rachel – which also featured a fabulous basket of goodies worth over $250 as a Raffle Prize. There was even a Ute For Sale!
The tantalising aroma of frying onions drew hungry people to the Sausage Sizzle, where Terry and Brian also served up Bacon & Egg Sandwiches, while our Afternoon Tea, hosted by Sue and Janine, with its pretty tablecloths and posies of flowers adorning the tables, provided a welcome oasis for those wanting to sit down and have a revitalising cuppa and a delicious piece of cake.
It was an afternoon to remember, with a certain dreamlike quality to it. In the mellow early autumn sunshine the gardens looked superb, and as the afternoon drew to a close the stunning Bucketts Ranges provided a perfect and quite startling backdrop.
We hope everyone else enjoyed our Open Day as much as we did. Thanks to all the stallholders for taking the time and making the effort to attend, all the visitors for coming along to enjoy the activities, all the Tucker Patch crew who worked so hard to pull it all together – and, not least, Marnie and her team for their amazing work in getting the grounds into shape before the event.
See you at the next one!

Just some of the produce available at the Tucker Patch Farmgate Stall on Friday 23

I’m sure most of us would be familiar with this novelty song from the 1920s!
The story goes that one day in New York in 1922, songwriting duo Frank Silver and Irving Cohn were on their way to work when they stopped for a snack. At a greengrocer’s, the Greek immigrant owner told them in his broken English: “Yes! We have no bananas today.” The reason the grocer had no bananas? A blight in Central America had caused a shortage. The songwriters made the phrase into the title of their next song and, in a Broadway revue called Make It Snappy, the tune was introduced by star Eddie Cantor and zoomed to number one on the hit parade for five straight weeks.
So how, you might be wondering, does this relate to the Tucker Patch website?
 
Well, like many other regions of NSW, Gloucester has been going through an extended hot, dry spell that has impacted many aspects of everyday living – including how our gardens are bearing up under the pressure of intense heat and limited water. And Tucker Patch is no exception. With a dry dam and the high cost of town water, production has slowed, with limited amounts of produce anticipated over the next few weeks until the drought breaks and we get decent, solid rains.
This, compounded by the fact that one of our main growers, Wild Lemon Farm, is moving interstate, means we may not have such a wide range of fresh vegies available at our Farmgate Stall for several weeks to come. It would be wonderful to supplement our supplies if possible, so if you have any spare produce in your garden (even if it's only one bag of tomatoes or a bunch or two of herbs) please feel free to bring it to the Farmgate on Friday mornings between 8am and 8:30am, either to swap, sell or donate. 
Don’t forget to sign up for our Asian Vegies Workshop, which will be held next Friday February 23 at the Patch. Time’s running out, so don’t miss out! Go to the Workshops section of the website for more information.
Meanwhile, perhaps a raindance or two to the tune of ‘Yes, we have no bananas’ is in order.

Happy New Year to all our members! We hope you all had a wonderful festive season with family and friends and are surviving the current spell of hot summer weather.

If you’re in the process of planting late summer crops (see ‘What to plant now’, below), make sure you protect your seedlings from the effects of the burning sun by using at least 30% shadecloth. Don’t forget to also provide shade for your tomato vines and other fruiting crops and vegies, keep them well mulched and water either early in the morning or in the cool of the evening after the sun has gone down.

Interestingly, the 2017 Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere took place at 3:28 am on Friday, 22 December – so in some ways this means summer is on the way out. Although the heat we’re experiencing is likely to continue for some months yet, the days will now start to get shorter, which means it’s time to also start planning our autumn and winter crops. Log onto this column every month for details of what to plant, when.

And if you’re looking at planting something different this year, why not come along to our workshop on Growing Asian Vegetables and learn the ins and outs of growing lots of tasty, nutritious vegies such as pak choi, Chinese broccoli and cabbage, mustard greens, watercress, shallots, Chinese celery, Daikon radish, lemongrass and more. The workshop will be held on Friday 23 February at 1.30pm – more details will be distributed soon.

Meanwhile, don’t forget to stay cool yourself! Get your gardening done early in the morning and come indoors when it gets too hot – and if you’re partial to a nice cool beverage when the sun goes over the yardarm, why not try our ultra-refreshing Gin & Cucumber Gimlet in our recipe section under ‘Drinks’, provided by Tucker Patch member Tess Hilleard. It’s a great way of using up excess summer cucumbers too!

Enjoy … and happy gardening!

What to plant now: climbing beans, bush beans, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, leeks, lettuce, spring onions, parsnip, potatoes, radish, rhubarb, silverbeet, sweet corn, turnip and zucchini.

As spring gives way to early summer, nature must surely be at its most stunning and productive best. Trees, shrubs and garden flowers are exploding into bloom creating a riot of colour in our gardens, while in the vegie patch there’s the promise of bumper crops of delicious, nutritious produce.

Out at the Patch, thanks to our gardening volunteers and growers, there’s been a burst of new life, both in our Food Forest and Market Garden area, with an abundance of seasonal vegetables coming into fruit, including interesting varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, onions, garlic, lettuce, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, leek, beetroot, radishes, potatoes, silverbeet, kale, rocket, carrots, rhubarb, rocket herbs and more.

This of course means that in the coming weeks we will have an even wider range of fresh, organically grown produce for sale at the Farmgate Stall, so if you’re looking for healthy, yummy vegies to add to the Christmas lunch menu, make sure you head out there on a Friday morning to see what’s on offer.
If you’re growing your own tomatoes, your plants may well be producing tasty fruit already. Don’t forget to give your plants some extra TLC as the weather heats up. Daytime temperatures consistently above 32°C or nighttime temperatures consistently above 24°C create all kinds of stress for tomato plants:
• It’s too hot for tomatoes to be pollinated, which means fewer fruit.
• Heat stress forces your plants to increase transpiration to survive.
• It slows down production.
• Heat stress also makes your plant more vulnerable to diseases and pests.

To help your plants survive and stay healthy, there are several things you can do:
• Work out the best place to plant in the first place. If your summer afternoons are the equivalent of a bake off, plant tomatoes where they get 6-8 hours of morning and early afternoon sun – or morning sun and dappled afternoon sun.
• Keep plants watered – once or maybe even twice a day when temperatures are consistently high. However, only increase frequency of watering, not the amount of water, to avoid water logging.
• Give them shade, especially during the hottest hours of the day. The most common method is to use shadecloth, a specialised fabric set over a structure or on supports that you drape over your plants. Use shadecloth that provides 30%–50% light exclusion.
Tomatoes will be sweeter and more nutritious if allowed to ripen on the vine, however you can harvest your fruit when they are in a mature green state – this means the tomatoes are mostly green, with hints of red beginning to appear around the exterior of the fruit. Fruit will continue to ripen after picking.

Enjoy

While the unpredictable weather is keeping us on our toes and in some cases has caused a bit of damage to plants in the home garden, the recent rain has certainly been refreshing and given a new lease of life to the various sections of ‘the Patch’ – not least the Food Forest, which just keeps getting better and better as work continues. Next time you come out to the Farmgate Stall to buy your vegies, have a wander through and see for yourself how it’s all progressing.

Of course, the wet change no doubt had a direct impact on our planned ‘Beating the Drought’ Workshop – rather ironically, it rained just as we were distributing our flyers around town and advertising it to our members and on our website! With no takers at the time, the event was cancelled – however, we have since had a bit of interest so may well run it in the next few weeks or early next year. Watch this space for more news!

We are also in the process of putting together a 2018 Workshop Calendar on a diverse range of gardening and other topics, so keep an eye out for any that might interest you.

In other news, we plan to kick off our new Community Street Stall in the main street of town (outside the bookstore) on Tuesday November 14. The stall will feature a range of information plus a limited amount of fresh produce for sale, so come along and say hello.

If you’re still trying to get your vegie beds stocked, there’s still plenty of time to get these in: bush & climbing beans, beetroot, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, celery, cucumber, eggplant, kale, lettuce, spring onions, parsnip, potatoes, pumpkin, rhubarb (crown), radish, rockmelon, silverbeet, spinach, squash, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon and zucchini.

Happy gardening!

It’s hard to keep the garden looking good and continuing to be productive through a long, dry summer without spending a bucketload of money on water. And we all want to avoid that if possible.

Just as with all our home gardens, it’s looking pretty dry out at Tucker Patch at the moment, but fortunately the permaculture methods our volunteers use to protect precious plantings go a long way to minimising the impacts of drought.

With no certain end to this dry spell in sight, this is a time when deep mulching and clever watering systems really come into their own. And there are plenty of other ways to minimize your water use and keep your garden flourishing through the hot, dry weather, without breaking the bank.