This is Cool - When a little blog makes an impact

Hey Hubby, i hope you didn't want to be anonymous because you are on Youtube.   How cool is this?  Nope, not self promoting my blog but i used it to help get funding for Shoestring Gardenings future community programs.  By the way, in no way am i suggesting that it was up to me.  Many people have worked for years in the background to bring these community programs together and continue to do so on a volunteer basis.  I was simply a participant in the pilot program who happened to start writing a blog on what i was up to.

Click on Wyndham's Environment Sustainability Events Programs to see what's on offer around our city.  Take a look at the Calendar PDF for links to various community groups.  Many of these, including Shoestring Gardening's workshops and events are free.

I was contacted by the Wyndham City Council (who had apparently been reading my blog posts on the workshops) and asked if i could say a few words on camera to a group of community and council leaders that were meeting to discuss program funding.    Of course, i refused to be on camera but i gave them permission to use my blog and the various posts that i did on the workshops and my own veggie garden during the presentation.  I wrote an email which was read out by someone with a lovely voice whilst the powerpoint played in the background.  I was told it brought them to tears.    I have only just now received a link as they had technical issues.  So here it is:

Growing Communities Yutube - Living In The Land of Oz

I was more than happy to help as we were told in one of the last workshops that i attended that funding had been pulled and that it wasn't going to continue.  I literally had a physical response.  Why Why Why, couldn't they see how good it was. I cared about these people who had worked so hard and been so generous with their expertise and time.   If it works, and it did, don't shut it down, keep it going.   Are they crazy!!!!  The hard work has been done!

Well, apparently they are not and I am happy to say that funding was approved and that Shoestring Gardening are currently running their next program of free workshops.  They are, at this stage, only held during the week but the courses are well attended and they are achieving their goals of opening up the world of growing vegetables in your own garden to others in the community.   I hope that in the future they will also be on weekends as well as this is what made it possible for me to attend.

This Friday, 25th October is their Annual General Meeting & Garden Party.  See here if you would like to attend but be quick to get RSVP into Bronwyn.   This is a really good organisation to be involved in if you have to time to volunteer and are committed to being a positive part of your local community.  Or you may simply wish to attend the workshops.

 In case you cant hear what is being said on the Youtube then this is a copy of the email i sent.  It has been edited to make it more concise but i think they covered everything i wanted to say:

Thank you for reading my blog.  It gives me a lot of pleasure to write about my journey and I hope that it has given your department an insight into just how valuable the Growing Healthy Communities Workshops have been. I don't pretend to be an expert on anything and I think that is the main appeal of my blog.  I am like everyone else just making my way one day at a time, making mistakes, learning and sometimes having success.  I've lived here for 18 years and it took a small ad in the local paper last year to help me reach out to find my own community.  This program is so important on so many levels, not just gardening.  The thing we all have in common is that we can all relate to food.  We all eat, so already we have a connection with each other that breaks down barriers.   

I regret that I'm not available this week for face to face.   I'm an accountant covering several manufacturing SME's at a very busy time of year.  I would also not feel comfortable being filmed.  You might have noted that there are no photo's of me on my blog.  I'm not comfortable in my own skin.  

I do however fully support the work of Shoestring and their association with Craig from Edible Gardens.  They work together to provide an environment where participants feel comfortable and accepted no matter their level of gardening knowledge.  The relaxed format of the presentations and the humour that often accompanies it makes for a very enjoyable and informative few hours.   This is a unique combination.  At the beginning, XXX were involved and with my lack of knowledge i felt a little intimidated by their classroom, whiteboard method of teaching.  Craig's down to earth approach and hands on, get dirty examples completely changed the (gosh what's the word....) presence, the feel of the workshops.  As they are local, any examples given were directly transferable to our backyards not inner Melbourne.

It actually takes a little bit of courage to turn up to a place where you don't know anyone and each workshop new faces were welcomed and included. I think our group represented a good cross section of the Wyndham community both in age, gardening knowledge (from none to experienced), race and family structures.    I am sure that the feedback forms we completed at the end of each workshop were glowing in appreciation for the team, especially Karen's lunch.   What a great advertisement for good gardening and healthy living is Karen.  I ate many vegetarian dishes throughout the programs that I would never have had exposure to and each was presented well and tasted fantastic.  Recipes were swapped as were discussions on growing the ingredients, buying seedlings and heritage seeds at reasonable prices.     

It is important that the momentum that has been created continues within the community.  To not do so, would be to waste the funding already provided.  Not only do those of us that started from the first workshop need further support as we begin to implement our new found knowledge into practical gardening but as we spread the word throughout the community and people see what we have achieved, they also need a place to go that they can afford.  I missed a couple of workshops that I very much would like to attend - e.g. pests and companion planting so that I am not reliant on chemicals and can look forward to reaching an organic garden status. I lost half my cabbages this week to cabbage moth grubs because I didn't have garlic or dill planted nearby to discourage them. How do I know that without attending the workshop - I emailed Karen.  

Shoestring's mission is to encourage ecological self-sufficiency and provide practical examples of how it can be achieved without spending a lot of money.  This makes it ideal for ALL Wyndham's residents not just those who can afford to hire a landscaper and gardener. As a full time worker, I could not have accomplished what I have this year without being able to attend weekend workshops.  Many other programs are only on during the week.  During this year my husband was unemployed for almost 5 months as were many others in our community.  This new found hobby/interest not only kept me sane but provided us with food, a common interest and all without incurring further debt.             

Nothing spreads quicker than by word or mouth.   In the last few workshops Ive been able to bring along friends and promote Shoestring's courses and those provided by other community groups.  Yesterday, I and a friend learnt to make Feta cheese in an Edible Gardens workshop (blog post pending) and I have also taken other residents to the veggie swap at the Mamborine Sensory Garden (see post) which was promoted by Shoestring.  In July, ill be taking more along to the Werribee Heritage Orchard for grafting day.  When I build my chicken coop, ill be sourcing my building materials, chickens and pellets from local businesses.  Why, because I learnt from local people, who have the same environmental conditions that I have (clay anyone).  They have promoted local businesses and so the local economy benefits.    As you can see, this wonderful program is a catalyst for so many others within the community of Wyndham.  I've said it before, it takes courage to step out and do new things.  I know now that I can always look forward to a friendly face that Ive been introduced to at the workshops and this gives me the confidence to keep on reaching elsewhere.                  

I'm not a "greenie" but I do believe that in the future we will need to look to providing food for ourselves for economic and health reasons.   There are too many factors in the current system of food supply that are open to manipulation by large companies for profits that are also environmentally unsound.  Wyndham City Council have shown their commitment to growing a healthy community by funding the Growing Community Workshops but it needs to be ongoing.  How sad it is to tell someone about the workshops that Ive done and then to have to say, Oh, but they may not continue due to lack of funding.  I don't know where to send them. 

For the first time in 18 years, i had no problem paying my rates.  I knew that a small portion of it was helping to grow MY community and to help some very special people continue their important work.  I want to be proud of my city.  I want Wyndham to be at the forefront of helping its residence to lead healthier lives.  Instead of being known for its high crime rate, obesity, graffiti, or its ever expanding suburbs of identical boxes with no character, I want to see espaliered fruit trees on every fence and on every nature strip, herb boxes outside every kitchen window, bees hives throughout the city to aid pollination, communities sharing knowledge and vegetables, solar panels on top of all the big warehouses roofs and water tanks along the sides,  and wind turbines spotted around the city (PS. there are designs that don't make noise).

I will soon be doing a post of our cities creative public arts. Why, because I started noticing them.  I've become engaged with MY city, MY home.


Nope, not looking for applause (though it would be nice) but most definitely i hope i have encouraged someone to become engaged and if you believe in something, support it and fight for it.

Thanks for visiting Living In The Land of Oz

Au Revoir Girls - A Hard Decision

Oh Lordy, I know some of you who have read my posts on my Girls will think I'm stark raving mad.  After all that longing, waiting, courses and subsequent posts, finally getting them, caring for them and enjoying their company, i have now let them go.  They are not far away and I can still visit them at my friend Ella's Shangri La of chook palaces in Lara.

Im trying to train Tilly at the moment so the days where The Girls were allowed free access to the back yard were limited. 

Why Oh Why i hear you ask?  Simply, its not the right time for me. Those who know me will know that our family life is not always easy and sometimes i take on more than i am able to manage.  Recently, we have been through some difficult times and so i have to ask myself how i can scale things down, regroup, better manage my time and focus on what's important to all of us (not just me), right now!

I know that this looks all very pretty but it was only this way after sweeping all the mulch off the footpaths (almost a daily task after work), and pressure hosing the poop off  everything including immediately outside the sliding door and laundry door which made access to the line this way impossible.   There was also a pile of  kitchen scraps and green waste  on the tiled area which The Girls were never really interested in and so it lay there all week wilting before making its way to compost bin the following weekend.    

I'm sure there are chickens in my future but at a time when i don't have Miss Tilly (read Puppy Trouble) to deal with, when i am not working full time and when i have a proper purpose built chook yard in the area that i will leave for that purpose.  Tilly is having the most fun digging there.  It was always important to me that The Girls have the best possible quality of life and recently ive felt bad (yet more guilt to add to the pile i already have) that i couldnt provide that. They were being forgotten other than the cleanups.  No joy, no cuddles, no time observing their funny ways and little time in the back yard.

I think they will be much happier as Ella has a large block and can provide The Girls with lots of friends and plenty of space to roam and dig for bugs and worms.

They were initially placed in a separate coop until nightfall so that they could be introduced quietly this evening.

They will now have a boyfriend and I'm sure that he will find them most attractive and so i may just end up with their offspring in the future.  Ella currently has chicks crossed with this big boy and a silkie and they are so so cute.

Anyway, it is done.  The side of the house they lived in has been pressure washed down and the table and chairs have returned to an area previously known and now again, as Cafe Dyson.  I spent the afternoon sitting out there with my sister sipping cool drinks and felt relaxed knowing that I've gained several hours of my weekends back again.

Cafe Dyson -  The coop is all clean and waiting to be delivered to Ella's.  I think she is going to let her little ones use it till they can run with the pack.

I will miss their fluorescent yellow eggs but I'm sure i can sneak a few from Ella or better still, pop down for a visit and have some bacon and eggs for breakie, like this morning.

Oh, please try and find this stuff or make it.  Its unlike caramelised onions.  Its a jam and is absolutely marvellous with a savoury breakie.  It would be fab on vintage cheese.

Onion Marmalade, with black olives and Balsamic Vinegar.

Followed by blueberry curd on croissants.

Oh, ive just learnt when trying to find you a link that this comes from the UK.  Oh Dear.  Let me know if you come across a similar Australian item or a recipe.

Cheers everyone and....

Morning Update

Ella sent me photos this morning and told me they had a good night.  She placed them all together in the one nesting box and this morning they are out in the run with the others.  I fear that Molly will have to come down a peg or two on the pecking order but really, she was a bossy boots and at times quite mean.

Thanks For Visiting Living In The Land Of Oz.    

Veggie Bed Cleanup and New Fangle Dangles

My first strawberry for the season.  Almost too pretty to eat.  My neighbour picked the right time to pop his head over the fence (not hard when he is hanging his washing on the line and he's well over 6 ft) and so Mohammad was gifted my precious strawberry.  He made all the right noises to pacify my having forgone the pleasure.   I didn't get a picture but i also gifted my very first blueberry to my Bestie when she arrived.  I'll have to wait for the next one to try them out.

Yes, that's right "fangle dangles".  Yet another expression that my mother has passed on to me.  I could also have called them "thingameejigs" or "whatsits" or "doodads" or "gizmos" or....   So what new items am i referring too?

That would be the addition of my new feeder and drinker for the girls.   Looking through many Aussie blogs over this year including mine (Keeping Chickens Workshop), I've seen a few people get these, so the supplier must be feeling pretty chuffed with himself and doing well.  Gav from Greening of Gavin has trialled these with much success.  They are available through their Royal Rooster Website. On arrival a couple of days after purchase,  i can see that they are made from simple plumbing materials and yet very cleverly made. It feels good to support a small local manufacturer just outside Melbourne.   I am hoping that they will cut down the free ranging wild birds that make such a mess (poop) in the yard and eat all the girls feed.

Now the training begins.  I'm sorry to say that although i adore the girls, they are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.  Although they are very cute, lay the odd egg and i hear make great mothers, there's a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock, if you know what i mean.  There has to be a reason for that damm chicken to keep trying to cross the road, right? Maybe it should just stay where it is. Now pigs, that's a clever animal but since i don't have a pigsty out the back, the girls are my only farm animals in residence, dumb or not.   (I'm waiting for the backlash - here it comes!!!)

Well its been only a few days and the girls have surprised me.  They are still clucking very loudly to be fed each morning at 6 but they they must be eating it as the level has dropped and I've caught them a few times with their heads inside.

 
That's Molly at the feeder and Lacy at the drinker.  They are the most bossy of the 4, so i hope the smaller ones are getting their share.

At least with the drinker being such a small receptacle, the sparrows are not dirtying the water having baths.
When we finish the front yard, it will have a bird bath for the birds to quench their thirst in.  So long as they stay away from the back yard and my seedlings, I'm happy to accommodate them during the hot summer.

The weekend was spent cleaning up all the beds and pulling out the winter crops that had gone to seed or for that matter, gone nowhere.  That would be the brussel sprouts, which for some unknown reason, i seemed to have planted many.  Also i pulled what i thought was cabbage plants with a mountain of leaves out and added them to the pile in the girls yard which was about a cubic square metre by the time i was finished.  Thank goodness they haven't worked out that they are suppose to eat the green stuff i put in there.  The next day while walking past i spotted this in the pile.  I actually grew a cauliflower.  It looks super good so i took it back from the chooks.  They didn't want it anyway.

I'm seeing cauliflower with cheese sauce in its near future.

Beetroot and leaves, Snow Peas, and various lettuces

Silverbeet and Chard -  all frozen and vac sealed in the freezer.  The boys don't eat these and yet Hubby made no comment when he had his quiche tonight.  It had spinach and chard on the bottom topped with leeks, bacon, asparagus,  feta and  cherry tomatoes.  Yum.    

Naughty girls laid some eggs behind the chard tree.  Yes that's right, chard tree.  It was over 6ft and the stem was 5cm thick.   My rotating compost bin is stuffed to the gunnels and so i was lucky that a friend came round and took the green waste home to his compost. 

My plantings for spring now include:

Bed 1 - Corn and Lettuce. When the corn reaches a foot high I'll plant beans around them so they can climb up.  This bed also has mint and dill and small white flowers as companion plants.  I tossed some radish seeds in the gaps over the weekend.

Bed 2 - My perpetual baby spinach is living up to its name and still going strong from last year.  Ive continually picked leaves for salads from it.  This bed also has the two parsley plants (flat leaf and curly) which took over the bed during winter.  After a hard prune i found mushrooms from the mushroom compost underneath which i didn't think were safe to eat.  There is also beetroot plants coming to an end now, garlic chives and a pot with lemon balm in it.

Bed 3 - There are several snow pea plants on the trellis that are going strong and are picked often.  The only other thing in here at the moment is the silverbeet which also keeps on keeping on.  Plenty of space for something but not tomatoes as this bed had them last year.

Bed 4 - Pretty much empty except for 6 heritage tomato plants about 15cm high on the trellis and strawberry crowns which i haven't separated yet, and some marigold seedlings.  I think this will be my tomato bed this year and so there is plenty of room for perhaps a dozen more later in spring.  There is also basil seeds thrown in here to help keep the bugs at bay.  I've put a few in Bed 7 as well in case a disaster hits and i lose all the tomatoes from Bed 4.  I may do up some pots too.

Bed 5 - Zucchini plants, marigolds and about a dozen leeks left over from winter being stored in the ground.  I picked a couple on the weekend and they are still great.  I eat lots of salad and so later on more lettuce will go in.

Bed 6 - More Zucchini - i know but i do love them and hope to pickle them this year. Perhaps Ive gone overboard as they were quite successful last year and i seem to run away from my failures, like carrots. I've put them in the waist high beds this year as they landed on the ground last year. I also have a raised trough planter with more strawberry plants, as above.  There's room for more but i don't know what yet.

Bed 7 -  Capsicums still growing from last year, two grafted tomato plants, lemon balm on the loose and bordered by alyssum.   Still space left.

Bed 8 -  A black passionfruit vine was planted a few weeks ago and since it is still only a foot high i have put cucumbers on the same trellis over summer.  Lots more room for more stuff in this bed.  

7 & 8 are against the wall of the back of the house and so being under the eaves they miss the rain and also get the heat off the wall.  I have to be really careful to water these two beds often and I'm looking forward to getting my irrigation system up and running (so to speak), literally.   I have a 2000L tank that is full and a water pump in the shed just sitting there.  So many projects on the go at once.

In Beds 3, 4, 7 & 8 which are all about 45 cm high i have to find a solution to the Girl problem.  They love to get into them and Tilly thinks they are pretty nice to dig in as well.  Working on some mesh gates that i can put in and remove when working on beds.  The other beds are all 90cm high and are lovely to work in.  No bending.

In separate pots i have garlic, borage, blueberries, rosemary, lemons, kumquats, mandarine, pear and of course lavenders to bring in the bees.  Surrounding the garlic box i have made a potato bed that is growing profusely. I cant keep up with it and have to keep topping the soil and mulch.   Gosh i hope that there are some spuds in there and not just lots of leaves.

So that's the role call and along with mowing and whipper snipping around all those beds it was full weekend of gardening.  Now its just feed, water, feed, water, feed and be on bug alert.

Thanks for visiting Living In The Land of Oz

The Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show - My First

I put this photo up front because this is my favourite memory from childhood visits to our local agricultural show.  They weren't Disney characters back then but clown heads with big open mouths slashed with red.  I heard an ex-carnie (person who works in carnivals) say on the radio the other day that they and many other of the carnival attractions are rigged so that you cant win top prize.  That bottom pin is never going to fall over with a sandbag being thrown at it because it is weighted to stay put.   Bit of a spoil sport but then how many kids are listening to drive time radio on their way home from work.

standard take-away fare that certainly hasn't changed.

Fairy Floss - i use to love this stuff but couldn't stand the sugar overload now.   

Back home, back then, you knew whose Mum had baked the cake that had won first prize in the cooking competition and you knew who had made the best jam or chutney. It was certainly stiff competition when most of the older women in town belonged to the Country Women's Association (CWA).

The men in town all knew who would take out top prize for livestock, as it varied little year by year.  Usually it was one the rich cockies from a big station out of town who could afford to buy in pedigree breeders and pamper a beast in preparation for the show.

We all knew at school  who had thrown up on a ride and who (tsk tsk) had been seen smooching with one of the "carnies" around behind the livestock sheds.  In hindsight i think the attraction was not that these guys were so attractive it was that they were different.  Meaning you didn't spend your entire life growing up with them.

Arhh...  good memories.   Well it was all such a long long time ago.

Last Saturday, i went with Tom (his first show ever at 16) and friends (Naomi, Ian and son, David) to my first ever "Big Smoke" show.  Not just any show but the Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show.  In small towns throughout  the country the local shows prize winners usually get automatic entry into a regional show and then they progress to state level if successful. I'm sure this is the same worldwide and so by the time you get to Melbourne, you've got to be right up there with the best of the best.

Our big adventure started off at their home in Spotswood.  Ive got to show you it because it was recently renovated to become a two storey house and i love it.  Very Wisteria Lane, don't you think?

Out the back of this beautiful home are chickens and veggies in a lovely mature garden.   

We walked (more about that later) to Spotswood Station and caught trains to the Showground's doorstep.  Definitely the way to go as on Sunday a friend went by car and it took two hours to do the same journey and then they had to park miles away.  I don't travel on public transport very often and enjoyed the ride.

I had pre-purchased the tickets online. Adult - General Entry ($34) and Adult - (Entry and Ticket to Ride) for Tom $60 - Ouch!   Pre-warned i had a wad of cash but no need, they had ATM's very conveniently placed all over the place.  They certainly didn't have that back way back when.  Come to think of it ATMs didn't exist.  Gulp!

There were multiple gut wrenching make you want to vomit rides that I'm very glad Tom couldn't go on. Since his episode of Intercranial Hypertension that involved a spinal tap and going temporarily cross-eyed, he gets vertigo going on a round-a-bout so he was confined to Dogem Cars and a sedate trip on the Ferris Wheel.  His friend, David managed to go on a few of the others by himself with no ill affects.  Must be acclimatised to being thrown upside down and being shaken to death.  I couldn't imagine anything worse.

Our day, the adults that is, was spent wandering the pavilions of displayed prize winners, livestock competitions, and partaking in the the many samples provided by Victorians food producers.   We almost didn't have to eat lunch, but we did anyway.

A bakery set up inside preparing sausage rolls behind a glass wall.    

Lunch, beef pie with the flakiest of pastry topped with mash and mushy peas covered in rich gravy - $8.
   Good value and very good.  Why on earth would you go outside and buy greasy takeaway rubbish when inside you can get such wholesome quality food.  

Milk and Strawberry White Chocolate Fountains for dipping strawberries into.
    

Ian and Naomi with the Aussie Farmers Direct mascot.   I signed on for membership and when i get time ill take a look at how i can best support our local farmers by buying direct.  

Somehow Thomas the Tank and the Fat Controller made it inside out of the weather.  

Lining up for fresh prawn tasters.  Yep, Ian has Grinders coffee in hand as well.  Pretty fancy eating at these city shows.   

There were actually very few queues as we fortunately picked the AFL Grand Final Day to go and the forecast was for rain and hail.  It did neither. Everyone went Sunday which was packed, i believe.

Someone had a lot of time on their hands.  These are crocheted.  

You have got to be impressed with this outfit. 

Very clever and Funny - it really was beautiful

This is a cake made by a novice - seriously, a novice?

Not everybody got the memo about looking their best for judging.  

Really - just give up and go home or take a few notes from the next guy.  Sorry Shelby!

No joke, this dog is real.  Going for Best In Show it stood like a statue while it was primped and preened  right down to the hairspray.  There was a serious crowd gathered to watch and it didn't even blink.  When it ran it had springs and sort of pranced looking adoring up at its handler.

Two happy boys with ridiculous drink holders.  I think this was Tom's favourite thing from the Show.  He's still using it today.  

There were lots of good ideas in the backyard and outdoor living pavilions.  

OK, this is getting long.  We left about 7pm, travelling back to Spotswood by train and then a short walk back to our friends home.  We headed off shortly thereafter and were home by about 9pm.  It was a fantastic day that i really enjoyed.  My favourite for the day was the company.  Naomi and Ian were not only good companions but Ian must have taken a funny pill and kept us in stitches and near the point of peeing most of the day.  Not a nice thing to do to middle aged women.  Everything was an opportunity for a gag.  Well Done Ian, i needed to laugh.

The best $13 spent on the day.  This is a great book and i look forward to learning from the best.  

Oh, as for those feet, i am still taking pain killers and hobbling.   I need to lose weight!  No, that was not an invitation for diet suggestions.

Thanks for visiting Living In The Land of Oz