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Mandurah Community Gardens Inc.

News

from the Gardens

Celebrating Neighbour Day

28/3/2022

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Thomas Wood from the City of Mandurah with MCG President Jennifer Boivin
Things got started for Neighbour Day on the 27th March with Jenny doing the neighbourly gesture of giving vegetables to Tom. Sharing produce over the fence, gifting a potted plant, or dropping off a bunch of flowers from your garden are all random acts of kindness and ways to say thank you for being a good neighbour to people in your street.

Neighbour Day is an initiative of Relationships Australia and supported by the City of Mandurah and community groups like Mandurah Community Gardens. 
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We are spending more time at home and in our neighbourhood, so it is great to wave, smile and ask people how they are going. You never know you might appreciate the help from your neighbour one day.
The video below was created by the City of Mandurah to promote Neighbour Day. MCG President Jenny Boivin and Garden Coordinator Cheryl Ivey give some neighbourly advice on how to participate, and an invitation to get involved with your local community gardens.
​Thanks to Tom and Emma from the City of Mandurah for enlisting our help to promote and celebrate how gardening can bring neighbours together.
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Visit To Bentley Community Garden

5/10/2021

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​MCG President Jenny and MCG Garden Coordinator Cheryl visited Bentley Community Garden to attend a Growers and Gathers workshop put on by Community Gardens Australia.
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​Cheryl recounts the day:
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It was a great day with 26 other like-minded gardening enthusiasts from all over the metro area. We shared nasturtium pesto, a yummy pumpkin cake and some  roasted pumpkin seeds for afternoon tea. A delightful way to spend the afternoon. 
​We heard all about the history of tomatoes and how soil can be improved to suit growing vegetables, etc. We planted a couple of different varieties of tomato  seeds and will plant them in the communal beds at the garden. 

We had a tour of the garden and loved all the clever ideas. There were 2 Hills Hoist clothes lines being used for a passionfruit trellis, which provided shade as well.
​Re-use and repurpose was a common theme with 2 fridges used as worm farms as well. Lots of sheep manure was used as mulch and everything was looking green and lovely. 

Thanks to all those who organised this event and hosted us.
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Garden Funding In The News

16/6/2021

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Published on the 97.3 CoastLive website today, Mandurah Community Gardens President Jenny Boivin was interviewed by Marion Print about MCG receiving community gardens funding from the WA State Government.
​See the story below on their website.
Lisa Munday, the local MLA for Dawesville posted on her Facebook page a big congratulations to Mandurah Community Gardens for getting the community gardens funding.
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...which was on-shared with his own congratulations by another big supporter of MCG, David Templeman, the local MLA for Mandurah.
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​A BIG THANK YOU from everyone at Mandurah Community Gardens goes to Marion Print for covering this story and to Lisa Munday and David Templeman for your fantastic support!
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Community Gardens In The News

25/2/2021

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Community gardens are a vital part of the community, creating benefits for our mental health and our diet. This article was in the news today on the ABC's website. Click on the article below to go to the ABC website to read more...
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Rain Makes A Green Garden

7/5/2020

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Volunteer member Jade shared this on our Facebook page to show us how well her garden is growing after the rains in April. The plants look so fresh you can almost smell them in the pictures!

To see more, go to our page on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/pg/MandurahCommunityGardens/
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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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