Northcote Community Garden Orchard Map

This is a map of our Orchard (November 2013). (Sorry you may need a magnifying glass to read the names of the trees - I will put a bigger version of the map in the Orchard folder shortly) All trees planted seem to be thriving. The beehive will be placed in the orchard shortly - as soon as the bees have settled into their/our new hive.

Alistair

November 2013 Working Bee

We had a great afternoon tea at the working bee today. Some of the great food included pikelets and NCG tree-ripened mulberry jam made by Dianne, cous cous by Christine, a broad bean salad by Heather, a broad bean salad by Elizabeth, (Tanya's) olives by Heather and olives by Rebecca.

Lots of much-needed mulching and weeding was accomplished around the perimeter of the gardens. We managed to neatly put back to the outside of the fence all the logs and wood that were carelessly thrown into the gardens by the mysterious mowing monsters.

We also discussed and walked around the proposed area for an extension of the gardens to the south. And we discussed the mowing along the outside of the gardens (along the east side next to railway lines).

Here are some photos taken today:

 

                                                                      afternoon tea

                                                                     

                                                                       

                                                                    

 Pierre de Ronsard rose (named in reference to Ronsard's (1524 -1585) poem "Ode to Cassandra")

Here's the poem:

À CASSANDRE

Mignonne, allons voir si la rose

Qui ce matin avoit desclose

Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,

A point perdu, ceste vesprée,

Les plis de sa robe pourprée,

Et son teint au votre pareil.

Las ! voyez comme en peu d’espace,

Mignonne, elle a dessus la place

Las, las, ses beautés laissé choir !

O vraiment marâtre Nature,

Puis qu’une telle fleur ne dure

Que du matin jusques au soir !

Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,

Tandis que votre âge fleuronne

En sa plus verte nouveauté,

Cueillez, cueillez votre jeunesse :

Comme à cette fleur la vieillesse

Fera ternir votre beauté.

and in English:

TO CASSANDRE

Darling, let's see if the rose

Who this morning had desclose

His purple robe Sun,

A lost point, cestus vespers,

The folds of her purple dress,

And your complexion like.

Alas! see as little space

Cute, she has over the place

Weary, weary, let fall its beauties!

O really stepmother Nature

Can such a flower lasts

That the morning even to the evening!

So if you believe me, cute,

While your age blossomed

As greener novelty,

Pick, pick your youth:

As this flower old age

Will tarnish your beauty.

Alistair 

Today @ NCG, September 15th, 2013

Orchard is Planted (September 2013 Working Bee)

What a great working bee today on this beautiful spring Sunday. There was a great flow of energy as we planted out our orchard. Everyone worked together to plant 20 (mostly dwarf heritage) fruit and nut trees. Work was also done on the beehive - it's almost ready for this spring, and on the upper pond - landscaping and planting out of a lavender field mixed with native plants. Three systems - beehive, pond & lavender plants, and fruit & nut trees - which will increase the productivity and resilience of our community gardens.

The trees planted were: blood orange, lemonade, washington navel orange,honey murcott mandarin, lisbon lemon, australian lime, josephine de maline pear, packham's triumph pear, stella cherry, goldmine nectarine, fresno peach, almond, 4 hazelnut trees (ennis and three pollinisers- casina, jemtegard 5, butler), pink lady apple, jonagold apple, opalescent apple, buncomb apple, cox orange pippin apple, pomegranate, yellow cherry guava.

Also, we planted some wattles to fix nitrogen and aid the fruit and nut trees: 4 black wattles (acacia mearnsii), 4 silver wattles (acacia dalbata), a gold dust wattle (acacia acinacea). And we planted a golden tip (goodia lotifolia).

Here are some photos of the day:

Dianne planting lemon tree

Heather (watering) & Dianne planting stella cherry, Ros in background

Ross and Heather planting washington navel orange, Rebecca in background

Biggles, Rebecca & Chris

Liz digging the hole for the jonagold apple

Biggles

Winter harvest from the orchard

Chris, Marijka

Rebecca

Christine, Ros and Chris

Christine and Luke

Fig tree, and phone tower that started the gardens (community opposition to tower) in 1995

Alistair

Hives, wicking beds and AGM next Sunday, August 18th.

Latest development on top-bar hive....a window!

Plus Alistair is expanding the "Wicking bed" experiment, now there is one near Luke's plot and on Christine and Alistair's plot...we will be watching how they go with interest.

BEE STUFF

This post is a copy from the BEE BUZZ page.

 Drawing the comb downwards (video)

"This is a great little video from Gaia Bees, an American natural beekeeper doing some very interesting work in bee colony resilience and apicentric beekeeping.
The super interesting thing about this video is that it clearly shows how, in a ‘wild hive’, the colony starts at the highest point of the cavity, and draws their comb downwards. This is precisely what Emile Warré was trying to mimic with the way his ‘people’s hive’ worked, and with his approach to beekeeping… " quote from

http://milkwood.net/2013/07/17/drawing-the-comb-downwards-video/

 Read about the Warre style of beekeeping, another method of using a topbar hive at the above address.

http://gaiabees.com

More information and loads more videos on natural beekeeping (as well as the sunhive) at this address, with a stack of resources if you wish to continue to learn more about bees.

posted marijka

 

Alistair has written an article on Christine's and his journey to France for her uncle's wedding.. Check it out on our Gardeners' page.

 

Christine and Nico Painting on letterbox.

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