Welcome to Watermelon & Waves, our Coastal Community Garden Newsletter.
Isn’t it wonderful, we are entering spring, leaving the colder days behind and looking forward to glorious spring days and getting back out into our gardens. In the traditional Noongar calendar this is the first of two springs, the season of Djilba. Djilba is from August to September. This time of the year we have clear warm days with sporadic wind and rain with an occasional very cold snap. With the warmer days comes the amazing blooms of our spring flowers. Our native blooms have yellow and cream flowers which burst out in a massive display from the Acacias. Abundance of new life also springs forth from the birds, reptiles and animals who are bringing their young into the world. This is a reminder to be careful as you enter their territory, especially the protective Magpies.
What to expect in this issue:
- What’s Happening in our Garden
- Up and Coming Events
- Gardening Jobs During this Season: June – July
- What to Plant Now: DJULBA SEASON
- This Issues Native Plant – Grey Cottonheads – Conostylis candicane
What’s Happening at the Patch
Winter is often a time of slowing down in the garden but there is lots of activity behind the scenes:
Compost bins
The City of Stirling Community Grant Program as well as a generous donation from Stuart Aubrey and our community have provided the garden with some much needed finance and products. Grant funding provided materials to construct our 3-bay composting system which will help us to recycle garden waste. It also helps us begin our Stage 2 garden project to increase production servicing our wonderful members. Funding helps provide soil treatment necessary to enhance the growth of garden produce. Donations of shade cloth from the North Beach Tennis Club are helping to protect our young fruit and nut trees from the wild westerlies. We are very grateful for the continued support of the City of Stirling, Stuart Aubrey local government and North Beach Tennis Club!
We are hoping for a recommendation for a licensed contractor to build our pergola as well as earth moving equipment such as a dingo. If you are able to recommend anyone we would love to hear from you.
Also good news; we are hoping our new street signage will so be up, increasing local awareness as well as making it easier for members and visitors to find us.
If you’re looking to be involved in any way why not come down on one of our gardening days, there is always something needing to be done, especially after all this rain. So if you are available we would love for you to join us. Keep your eye out on our Facebook page and come on down, meet other members and get involved.
Up and Coming Events:
This is a good time to renew your Coastal Community Garden membership. Good news is that registrations on the website are now available. Our apologies for the past inconvenience. Alternatively you can contact us via our CCG email (see below in our list of events)
Winter garden
Mark your calendars for these up and coming events:
- Our next AGM is on Thursday 18th September at 6pm – Flowspace 2/103 Flora Terrace, North Beach. Please RSVP by the 9th September to our CCG email: coastalcommunitygarden@gmail.com
- Fortnightly Gardening Days – don’t worry if you don’t have gloves or gardening tools; there are plenty in our shed.
We hope to send out a reminder email for these and other events.
Gardening Jobs During Djilba Season:
Learn about what jobs we have suggested for this season on our new Seasonal Jobs page which can be accessed through the GROW page.
What to Plant Now:
This too can be accessed through our GROW page, under the heading Grow in Season then look for DJILBA SEASON – AUGUST – SEPTEMBER.
This Issue’s Native Plant:
Once again this can be found on our GROW page under Grow Natives. This month we take a look at Grey Cottonheads Conostylis candicane. This page also covers information on other native plants we have looked since starting our newsletters.
I do hope you enjoy reading through our new pages.
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We are hoping to include a calendar of events in our next newsletter. As a part of our gardening family we would love to hear your thoughts and what you would like to see in our newsletter.
Thank you for being part of our gardening community.
Yours in the garden,
The Costal Community Garden team