Working Bee — 20 June, 2010
Another gloriously sunny winter day greeted our eager bunch of SAGErs for our June working bee.
A great amount of work was completed after a comprehensive demonstration by Fraser of the new cultivation tools recently purchased from Gundaroo Tiller. You can read a report of that demonstration here.
Our volunteers made short work of preparing another 4 or 5 rows in the commercial beds with our new tools and a number of crops were planted including carrots, parsnips, radishes, turnips and kohl rabi. There were many comments about how easy and pleasurable the soil at the site is to work.
The new tools make bed preparation so much easier -- and no tractor necessary
A broadfork is also handy for keeping the hose off the newly planted bed
With the new blackboard erected on the side of the shed (salvaged thanks to the Education Revolution!), we now have a way to keep track of our cropping activities. In time, we will be developing our record keeping in a more comprehensive manner, which we will share on this website.
Record keeping is rudimentary at this stage, but a more comprehensive system will be established in time
The potatoes planted back in April were dug up and placed in layers with thick mulch in a large tin drum for storage until being replanted later in the year. This can also be done with sand or another material, as long as it excludes the light.
Storing potatoes for later in the year
An experimental design of mobile brassica cover was constructed over the cabbages planted earlier in June, using a thick yet flexible gauge wire, polypipe and netting.
The prototype for mobile protection against cabbage moth
Guy and Helma have made and now installed some lovely row markers which is making it much easier to keep track of what’s what.
Now it's a bit easier to keep track of things
Stuart Scobie also gave a short demonstration on establishing and maintaining a domestic worm farm, which was very helpful to many of those present.
Happy worms, happy garden
Some general tidying and maintenance was also undertaken, leaving the site looking the best it’s ever been. A significant amount of development and infrastructure is now underway or completed and it’s now easy to imagine the vision of the fully operational SAGE site as represented on our home page.
A satisfying result using only hand tools
With many crops already established and more beds prepared, the site is beginning to come together in a big way