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Mandurah Community Gardens Inc.

News

from the Gardens

We're now on Pinterest

19/2/2020

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mandurahcommunitygardens on pinterest
With the use of Facebook in decline, Mandurah Community Gardens has decided to create another location for you to connect with us - we now have a profile on Pinterest.

Mandurah Community Gardens on Pinterest is a great way for sharing information and links by "pinning" the post into a topic board. It is like searching for information on Google but using pictures and text to discover information. It also allows you to communicate with us too by leaving comments or sending us a message AND you can easily share our profile, a topic board or a pin to anyone else.

Currently we have organised our pins into 3 different boards:
Group Activities - promoting events and showing pictures from the latest events
Community Food - with recipe ideas, Foodbank information and healthy food information.
The Gardens - gardening tips, gardening results, generally what members are doing in the gardens.
We may add more boards later on to help organise everything to do with Mandurah Community Gardens in a meaningful way.

Pinterest is a friendlier and more interesting social platform than the others, being more informative than opinionated, it offers a more considerate way of sharing with little to no trolling (anonymous rude critics). It also collects much less personal information than other social platforms do, and it does not manipulate what is shown to you as some other social media does.

Previews from posts on our Pinterest profile now display in the column to the right of our news page.


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If you don't already use Pinterest, give it a go! You can get the app for your iPhone or iPad from the App Store. The app is also available from the Google Play Store. You can also use Pinterest in the browser on your computer without needing to install anything.

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Reviews

18/2/2020

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Why are reviews needed?

Reviews help us know what we are doing right or what we need to do with our online presence make it an interesting and enjoyable experience for you.


Passive Vs. Active Involvement

The feedback received from reviews and seen by others helps make the virtual world of the internet more real for people visiting, its a proactive step beyond the quick click on a "like".

Through the sharing of information, creating discussions, giving suggestions or our sharing of ideas, we are communicating. A community works much better together when it communicates with each other, but the passive viewer who doesn't interact causes our group to have less significance in this modern world, and we disappear off the radar of Facebook, Google and other online platforms.  

The alternative method to getting our message out there is to advertise, and that is what the online services would prefer us to do. But for a nonprofit organisation like the Mandurah Community Gardens, letting people know that we exist by paying money would only serve to make us operate like a commercial venture, rather than the community one that we all value and love. We rely on the generosity of you and others to exist, and in turn our volunteers offer their time and efforts to help continue providing a great service to our community.


We value your words of appreciation

So, we rely on your patronage and help in spreading the word about us. If you can help us out by giving us your review and more importantly, some feedback with it, everyone in our community will know the value of Mandurah Community Gardens and be reminded that it is always there for them.
Watch the video below to see how to give your review on Facebook
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Good for the Heart

18/2/2020

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Mandurah Community Gardens is showcased with the Heart Foundation's advocacy program that reports on healthy built designs benefiting the hearts of communities. Their website, Healthy Active By Design, showcases purpose built designs that are shown to help keep us healthy and maintain the good health of our hearts. 

On their website page titled Mandurah Community Gardens, the Heart Foundation has published a study of our community group detailing how it was formed, who was involved and how it was financed. The purpose and function of Mandurah Community Gardens is assessed for the many good values it provides our society, categorised by the kind of benefit given. The Heart Foundation explains how Mandurah Community Gardens plays a vital role in our community, and how it provides an important contribution to maintaining our community's health.

Recommended reading for anyone who would like to know more about the Mandurah Community Gardens and how it helps us all.

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LOAF USING STEVIA

17/2/2020

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When I was trying to think of a way to use my Stevia to best advantage for the Friday Tasting at MCG (14/2/20), I remembered an old loaf tin recipe that I used for the kids lunch boxes back in the Eighties when sugar wasn't considered bad for your health. This was the recipe...

1 cup of self raising flour
1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of sultanas
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk.

How easy is that to remember!!!

However, I decided to replace these ingredients and create a more healthy version as follows..

1 cup of Green Banana Flour (or choose your own)
1 cup of Organic Rolled Oats
1 cup of Sultanas (The healthy ones - snigger 😜)
1 cup of Walnuts (optional - I like nuts)
1/4 of a cup of Stevia
1 cup of Soy Milk

Bake for about 30 minutes.
This recipe is from Lara, a member of Mandurah Community Gardens
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Some info from our friends at Earthwhile Australia

17/2/2020

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In their latest news:
  • Some questions for members of the Mandurah Community Gardens
  • Recently on the Podcast Sabrina's Dirty Deeds
  • What Bonnie did with her soil to get great results
  • EA Workshop Classes coming up for March

February 2020

A penny for your thoughts  Mandurah Community Garden , celebrities, compost dancing, learning opportunities, and more ..... read on  ?

 
Win a prize pack!

What would you like us to share with you in the coming year?

We'd love to hear from you - two minutes of your time and a chance to win a great product prize pack. 
 
Click here to take the survey

Dirty Deeds Podcast Recording

Look who we caught up with recently - yep, Sabrina Hahn invited us to come and have a chat. We had a great time checking out Sab's garden and discussing growing food using microbes with her and Jamie. Keep a look out for the upcoming release of the podcast at  Sabrina's Dirty Deeds.

Bonnie's Compost Making Adventure

Recently, my hubby became slightly compost obsessed. He counts down the days until he can “turn the pile” and goes so far as to demand (with great pride) that everyone stick their hand in to feel how warm it is!

From a microbial point of view, he somehow managed to make one of the most active composts I've ever seen! Needless to say, it got used up pretty quickly topping up existing garden beds and preparing new garden beds that were basically just sand as a starting point. So this weekend, when we were pulling out old and gone-to-seed plants from one of our vegetable gardens, the decision was made to keep all the greens and stick them through a mulcher to then add to our new compost pile. Thus began the adventure.

It turned out that we actually had way more “brown” than “green” and as we were working towards a 2:1 green to brown ratio, hubby went on the hunt for more green! This paddock turned out to be perfect for the job (anyone remember the tune: “one man and his dog... went to mow a meadow!”)

In addition to the mulched green “waste” from our garden, we commenced layering 2 parts green to one part brown in the metal cage my dad created for this exact purpose. As the layers were added it was watered and stomped down to ensure compaction. This is to give the microbes as much crushed surface area to work on as possible .... we continued on until we ran out of all brown, removed the cage, and were left with this perfectly layered, ‘cake like’ compost pile! What now!? Well now we wait... wait for it to bake into a chocolatey goodness compost that will feed our microbes, that will build our soil and grow healthy plants.

Learning Opportunities

 

"The knowledgeable and passionate team have inspired me to learn more and already I am passing that knowledge on and putting it into practice. My work as a horticulturist has become easier and more exciting through a better understanding of the soil food web. Thank you Earthwhile Australia!"  
Kathy (Horticulturist)

"Brilliant. I had the absolute joy of recently attending two classes with EarthWhile Australia, including their ‘It’s The Soil That Counts Master Class.'  I can’t thank EarthWhile enough for taking my love of gardening to a whole new level."
Andrew ( The Kalamunda Plant Company)

Check out our March Workshops  ?

Byford Foundational Class 15th March
Margaret River Foundational Class 28th March
Byford Master Class 22nd March
Margaret River Master Class 29th March

Microbe Trivia

           
What do you think this fellow is?
Is it a nematode? If yes...
Is it likely to eat plant roots?

The answers are 'yes' and 'yes'  ... although most nematodes are beneficial we are seeing a few more of these troublesome ones as ground is becoming dried out and compacted over summer. Gently aerate (e.g. with a garden fork), dribble compost/compost tea down the holes formed, moisten soil and mulch to improve plants strength and resilience to pests and diseases.

This one is a bit special cos it looks like it is about to moult or grow into a bigger skin!

For a bit of fun

Here's a colouring activity - thanks to the  American Museum of Natural History.... and you can print it from  here or colour online  here
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Malabar Spinach Fritters

9/2/2020

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For all the Foodies!

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​Malabar Spinach is a beautiful climbing plant that can also be grown as a perennial ornamental vine. I have been growing this Asian Climbing Spinach from seed for only a couple of months, so it hasn't reached its full height of about 10 feet. This spinach plant is a staple in countries like India because, unlike most other spinach varieties, it grows in summer. 

It is often eaten raw but I wasn't overly impressed with the texture. I probably should have picked the leaves sooner for use in salads. Anyway, before deciding whether I should grow Malabar Spinach as an annual next summer I decided to get the members of the Mandurah Community Gardens to take a vote and tell me what they thought. To this end, I cooked Malabar Spinach Fritters. One of the reasons I chose this recipe was because it required Chick Pea Flour. If you heard about this or tasted it before, your way ahead of me.
It is MARVELOUS!!! You can use this flour like you would any other - including pancakes. I found it at the bulk foods shop outside Woolworths in the Forum. It isn't as rare as I thought so you can probably buy it from regular grocers. 

The Malabar Spinach Fritters was a HUGE success. Everyone seemed to love them - so I will share the recipe. Although you may also like to try it fried with garlic.

1 cup of Chick Pea Flour
Pinch of Baking Powder
1/2 cup water
Salt and Pepper.

Mix ingredients to make a batter. Dip the Malabar Leaves in batter and fry until golden. Since I'm not a cook my battering skill needs work, but that didn't affect the flavour and a good time was had by all.

Shared by member, Lana - Plot #20

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