Sustainable Macleod mini newsletter
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Upcoming events
For the latest information and to register for events, please visit the Events & workshops page on our website.
New members session
Sat 3 July 12PM - 1PM
Macleod Organic Community Garden
Come along and learn all about Sustainable Macleod, the Macleod Vegie Swap, the community garden, upcoming workshops and social events, and meet other new members. No registration needed.
Potluck dinner and monthly meeting
Mon 5 July 6:30PM
**Cancelled**
Kids in the garden – composting and seeds
Wed 7 July 1PM - 3PM
Macleod Organic Community Garden
FREE school holiday event
Bring your kids to the community garden to learn about compost, worms and seed planting.
Fruit tree pruning workshop
Sat 10 July 1PM - 3PM
Macleod Organic Community Garden
Join us at the garden for a demonstration of fruit tree pruning including plums and apples. Learn which fruit trees to prune when and the difference between heading cuts and the 2 types of thinning cuts and their purposes. Learn how to keep your trees low for safety, fruit accessibility and netting, and when and what to spray them for. Led by Robin Gale-Baker.
Free to members; $15 non-members
Vegie Swap
Sat 17 July 11AM - 12PM
Macleod Rotunda, opposite the Macleod shops
People bring fruit, vegies, herbs, seeds, plants or preserves. These are weighed, recorded and placed on tables in the first half hour while we chat, get to know each other and ask questions of more experienced gardeners. At 11.30am events for the next month are announced, after which people are free to take what they can use, being mindful that everyone should get a fair share. No registration needed.
Queensland Fruit Fly workshop
Sat 17 July 2PM - 3:30PM
Macleod Organic Community Garden
Join us for a free workshop with Angelo Eliades from Bulleen Art & Garden.
Queensland Fruit Fly is one of the most damaging pests of fruit, vegetables and berries in Melbourne gardens. In this workshop, you will learn about the best ways to manage them, how to achieve the best control outcomes using a strategic pest management approach (IPM), what products to use, as well as how and when to use them.
This is a free event funded by a grant from Banyule City Council.
Please note: The events listed as proceeding may need to be altered to adhere with COVID restrictions. Check the website for the latest info.
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- Make compost.
- Plant out second crop of autumn/winter vegetables.
- Cut strawberry runners and pot up in potting mix. Cut back leaves of strawberries - you can even mow them down on a high blade - and dispose of them. Divide them in spring if they are too crowded.
- Provide trellises for climbing peas.
- Net garlic to protect against corella and cockatoo attack.
- Prune fruit trees once they have lost their leaves; remove all mummified fruit from the branches.
- Spray peach and nectarine trees a full 360 degrees to cover every face of every branch, and the trunk, once bare, with Bordeaux Mix or Lime Sulphur. Protect ground with newspaper and keep chooks locked up if spraying with Bordeaux and also continuously stir mix and de-clog nozzle.
- Mulch around all fruit trees. Remove any prunings from beneath trees.
- Place hessian or cardboard around apple, pear and quince tree trunks for codling moth to lay in (remove and burn in 4 weeks then replace).
- Cut autumn raspberries to ground level, remove dead leaves from the soil and cover ground with compost.
- Prune currant bushes and other berries.
- Plant bare-rooted fruit trees.
- Clear garden beds of dead plants and test pH for suitability for subsequent crops. Adjust pH if necessary (with compost and/or dolomite to make beds more alkaline or sulphur to make them more acidic).
Written by Robin Gale-Baker
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NAIDOC Week 4-11 July 2021
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The NAIDOC 2021 theme – Heal Country! – calls for all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction.
Sustainable Macleod would like to acknowledge that Macleod Organic Community Garden sits on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded.
We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past, present and emerging and their roles as holders, protectors and educators of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
We acknowledge the traditional land management practices that kept ecosystems healthy for at least 60,000 years before white colonisation.
Visit the NAIDOC Week website for more information and free resources (including colouring-in sheets for little and big kids!).
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Planting in July
A guide to what to plant in July can be found in self-sown plants in the garden. In my garden, there is an abundance of self-sown parsley, coriander, lettuce, other salad greens and tomatoes. Begin planting seeds in punnets for planting in late August/September (early spring). Succession plant winter seedlings so that they will provide spring vegetables.
Plant seeds in punnets in a greenhouse
cucumber, pumpkin, onions, tomatoes and zucchini
Plant seedlings into soil
broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, Florence fennel, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, rocket, other salad greens, silverbeet and spinach
Plant seeds direct into the soil
Asian greens, beetroot, mustard greens, parsnip, peas, radish, rocket, turnip and herbs including coriander, chervil and parsley
Netting
Use exclusion netting on Asian greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi and turnip.
Succession planting
Plant seedlings every few weeks so that they will not all be ready for harvest at the same time.
Watering
Water soil (not leaves) deeply at least twice per week. (Rainfall less than 10mm per day does not count). Install dripline if possible.
For the best site (sun, partial sun, partial shade) in the garden for each vegetable refer to 'How much sun do my vegies need?’
For preparation refer to ‘Preparing a spring/summer or autumn/winter vegie garden’
For directions for planting in punnets and for soil preparation for direct sowing refer to ‘How to plant seeds in punnets’
For an instructional video on how to use a pH kit go to: Watch our 'Testing Soil for pH' video
Written by Robin Gale-Baker
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Plastic Free July is here!
To help us all reduce our plastic usage, Sustainable Macleod will be publishing a plastic-free hint on Facebook each day except Wednesdays for the whole of July.
On Wednesdays we will offer something that IS plastic-free. Next Wednesday, for example, it is plastic-free potting mix ($5 per 20L bucket, available from the community garden).
Send us your hints and a photo or simply upload them to Facebook.
You can also take the challenge at Plastic Free July and sign up officially to not only do your bit but also support others doing the same. Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people to be part of the solution by refusing single-use plastics.
Over 326 million people in 177 countries have already participated! Take the challenge here: www.plasticfreejuly.org
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The advice Sir David Attenborough needs you to hear
Sir David Attenborough is surely one of the world’s living treasures. In his unique style and with stunning cinematography, listen to his hopeful advice about how we can all change the planet. It starts with just changing our diets.
Spend four and a half minutes listening to what he has to say, it’s well worth your time.
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