Garden updates…

It’s been a great year for tomatoes I’m told. I know this for myself in the sense that I have a great crop of them in Auburn that came up of their own accord in the old chooks’ yard. This is quite a thrill for me, as I haven’t had much gardening experience, living in a unit most of my life, with very little outside space to myself. My neighbour down the road, Kath, has been helping me, lending me stakes, and watering when I’m away, so I have had my hand held through the process of learning what to do. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring the plants to fruition – still a while off yet.

Apart from me though, it’s been a great year all round for tomatoes apparently. I called in to the Oaklands Community Garden this morning, where my good pal Kaye is a core member of the group. They were having a working bee and it was a hive of activity when I arrived. There were heaps of tomatoes on lots of vines, including some unusual ones – purple cherry tomatoes, my favourite ‘green zebra’ variety of stripy green tomatoes, and more regular red ones. There are eggplants coming on, and healthy trees everywhere, including fruit trees. The space has plants to encourage butterflies, and a lovely welcoming and warm feel to it. It is a testament to what can be achieved – connection, friendship, action, beauty, growth, nourishment, success – by working together and sharing ideas and skills. Hooray for these little community ventures I say, and more power to them. The pics below feature Kaye in action, Kaye, Erin and Liesl, and in the distance in one of the shots, Mark over at the fence. I meant to ask what the purple berry-type plant/flower is. Does anyone know?? There are also shots of the purple tomatoes, the giveaway tomatoes of all hues, a baby eggplant, as well as the group’s scarecrow! There is a little fairy garden, and signs about and a wonderful mural style picture of a butterfly.

Still on gardens, I went to a CWA meeting in Auburn earlier in the week – we had a bit of a show and tell morning, with a theme of ‘From the garden’. There are some terrific gardeners in the group – and some good cooks and crafty types too, so it was so interesting to see what everyone had grown/made/cooked. Including some very nice tomato sauce and relish. I took some fig chutney made from the fab tree in dad’s (my) garden (see below, with a close up of the currently green figs in the current crop), as well as some pics of the still green tomatoes (pictured at top). Home produce, or community produce, is a fine thing – to grow and to share…