Christmas Lunch 2014 and our first HONEY!

We had a lovely day today for our Christmas lunch, and in a momentous occasion for all of us, especially all who were involved in building the hive and tending the bees over the past year and a half. (Remember this Marijka, Vince, Pia, Ros, Chris and Alistair? http://northcotecommunitygardens.blogspot.com.au/p/blog-page.html) 
the first harvest of our own honey was collected by Valeria this morning!
Needless to say we all agreed it was delicious...thank- you bees!
In other momentous news Telstra will begin building a fence for our new extension within weeks!
Tania Lucas from Telstra attended our lunch, as was met with a round of applause, and it was lovely to show her our community and gardens, and how well we all cook!
After Christmas and New Year our first Working Bee for 2015 will be on the 4th January so it would be lovely to see whoever is not on holidays there.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Posted by Rebecca D.

October Working Bee and Poppodums

Well, we had a rather small turn out for the Working Bee on Sunday as you can see, but a very cheery one! Unfortunately the Indian feast turned out to be an Indian snack (thank goodness for Georgina's poppadums!) but we did manage to get some weeding and mulching done around the orchard, and Chris and Biggles worked diligently on the outside of the fence and mulching the new plantings.
It was lovely to have Heather back too, after several months adventuring overseas.
Georgina and I were able to do our official handover, so your new Treasurer is now fully in charge of our finances. (Phew, I hear you say.)

While we were gorging ourselves on all those poppadoms, Ian took the opportunity to give us a Garden Safety workshop as the beginning of a series of workshops we'll be having over the next 12 months in association with our garden extension plans and grant. There are some safety leaflets pinned to the notice board in the shed for all those who missed it, and here is a link to garden safety on the Vic Govt Better Heath site as well.

It was a beautiful sunny day and everything is bursting with life, so a great time to be in the gardens!

Posted by Rebecca.

September Working Bee and Good-bye Luke!

It was another lovely Spring day for our September Working Bee but sadly it was also Luke's last. We will miss him and his lovely calm energy in our gardens but we wish him happy gardening in Canberra.
Now that we have some money for our extension thanks to the grant that Ian managed to get, we spent time clearing part of the space and working out what to do about fencing, as well as clearing the other side of the fence near the tracks to facilitate council mowing.
We recently had our AGM as well, with Georgina becoming our new Treasurer and Liz our new Membership Coordinator, so with new members coming and old members going changes are afoot.
One of our new members, Rushida, is inspiring everyone to new heights of gourmet delights with an Indian Feast planned for our next working bee in October ...stay tuned for some luscious photos and no doubt some additions to our recipe page as well!

Posted by Rebecca.

Beautiful video on our local food growers

I spotted this today while browsing the Moreland Food Gardens network site.
It's worth watching if you have 10 minutes. Beautifully shot and put together and so inspiring!
Just down the road from us all!


Posted by Rebecca.

NCGardens Tote bags now available at Red Bubble!

You can now choose your favourite photos (or upload new ones) to put on tote bags on our Red Bubble site! Still working on transferring the tshirt designs to totes, the files aren't big enough yet.
Let us know if you have a particular image you'd like to upload!

INDIGENOUS PLANTING 1ST JUNE 2014

This event was sponsored by Darebin Council's Community Grant.

Our day dawned, a beautiful rainy day..and it kept raining till we were actually planting. Thanks to Alistair using his 'scary' hole digging machine, prior to the day, we had 50 or so holes, so the initial planting went very smoothly and quickly. We still had loads more plants and as enthusuiasm was high, small mattocks came to the fore and a lot of digging was done, more plants nestled into potting mix and watered and mulched.

Afternoon tea was served and the displays, of photos of the last 15 years or so, looked at.

We had roughly 30 people participating, 5 children, 2 doggies.

Photo Display of Indigenous Plants, Books, Publications on Indigenous Plants and Weeds, 15 years of photos of Northcote Community Gardens Members and events, working bees etc.

 

These videos only display well in a small version.

Alistair deep in conversation with Darebin Council worker Russell.

 

Russell.

 

The rain didn't deter anyone.

 

Ros having a good time.

  

Steve and Luke.

Rebecca 'The Younger', Jill and Councillor Bo Li.

 

Mollie and Gaby ready for more mulch delivery.

Planting on the hill.

 

Water Carrier Rebecca in action..

Hooded Angie who already had been at the planting at Edgars Creek in the morning.. 

Lily, neighbour from across the road and Chris.

Maureen Chris's hard working mum.

Curly tops, aka Rebecca the Younger.

 

Tanya.

  

Luke.

 

Afternoon Tea Party.

It's all in the gestures, Alistair and Jill.

Marietta and Larysa deep in conversation..

Elizabeth going home with Georgina.

 

The return of the prodigal..gal. Pauline.

 Storybook picture.  Kye and Chester, deep in communication.

 

The beautiful persimmon tree.

It's all over, time for a a cup of tea, a Lebanese custard slice and a chin wag. Star Wars the first movie, Harry Potter and 'who I will be when I grow up' comes to  mind.

Kye, Marijka and Mali.

Photo curtesy of Nanny Bint..

Photography Marijka.

Published by Marijka

JUNE 1st PLANTING DAY

We received a Darebin Council Grant to continue our revegetation of the Northcote Community Gardens Park area. We have on order 150 indigenous plants from  the Victorian Indigenous Nursery Cooperative.
 
This poster will be in the Northcote Library, there will be an add in the Northcote Leader as well as the Darebin Food Harvest Network.

March 2014 Working Bee

We had a great working bee yesterday, Sunday 2nd March. The weather was beautiful. The afternoon meal was amazing. Excellent.

Thinning plants in the lower pond, March 2014 Working Bee

Bees and bees

Well despite being a hideous day for it (forecasted to get to 43), Alistair, Christine, Ben and I went to the gardens this morning while it was still and relatively cool to tackle the bee hive for the first time. Our bees have been so industrious that they had used up all the bars that were in there from when we got them from Martin, and they needed the false back moved and more bars put in. Also the hive was on a bit of a lean and needed straightening up so that the combs will be nice and straight.

It was with more than a little trepidation that we approached the hive kitted out in our new hats and some painting overalls and gloves, and when we first took the roof off- the bees did take quite an interest in us, but after a few calming breaths and some explanations to them about what we were doing they settled down quite nicely. Then they very politely let us fiddle around in their hive adding bars and spacers.

So now they have quite a bit more room to expand and a nice level hive- so lets hope they don't suddenly decide to pick up and leave after our interference... we really are just winging it right now!

In other bee news there is a huge wild hive built in a tree down Hartington St towards Westgarth on the railway side. Hopefully the hot windy weather won't cause them any trouble.
With our bees and this hive our gardens should have plenty of pollinators around.

Posted by Rebecca.