Plan your food garden easily

The Seasonal Planting Guide for Subtropical Eastern Australia is a great tool for planning your food garden.  It is quick and easy and gives you a snapshot month by month.

Did you know that old fashioned annual flowers are becoming endangered.  Large corporations grow a limited variety, they are not locally adapted and a lot are hybrids.  Elderly gardeners were the people who grew them and they saved their seeds and swapped with friends.  They are beautiful, prolific and attract pollinators and beneficial insects to the garden to create a balanced ecosystem.  The Seasonal Planting Guide lists flowers to plant every season, Keep a look out for the old varieties growing in local gardens and ask the gardeners for some seeds.

Some food crops have become a potential danger to our native bushland.  The need to grow as much food as we can is becoming increasingly apparent, however along with this we need to be vigilant and educated in our maintenance, harvesting and site selection for these valuable plants.  Food plants that are a potential threat if abandoned in certain locations are listed in red in the planting guide.  I encourage you to do some research on these plants before planting them in an environment that may be detrimental to the native ecosystem.

This planting guide is a social enterprise through the Mullumbimby Community Garden.  It will help to raise money for the Community Seed Bank that is now up and running.  Come down, swap some seeds or buy some of the old varieties of flowers.  If we all have the seeds, then they are safe.  When one person loses a variety there is a chance someone else will have had success.  Little by little, together we can protect our local food heritage.

You can contact me via email if you would like to be on the Safe Seeds email list for news of courses, gatherings, swaps and events.

Thankyou to all those people who have purchased a Planting Guide.

Loretta Faulkner

info@rastaseed.com

Learn how to make your own effective remedies

The course is delivered by Byron Region Community College in partnership with the Mullumbimby Community Garden on the glorious NSW north coast (twenty minutes from Byron). Byron College is a Registered Training Organisation (NTIS 90013).

The focus of the course is permaculture site establishment (rural and urban), organic food production and bunch of other stuff (see summary below). The course commences 24 Feb 2011 and runs Thurs-Fri (during school terms) until November 25 2011. Course fee is $1950 with payment options available.

Bookings and info through Byron College Ph: (02) 6684 3374 byroncollege.org.au

Inspiration We Have Come a Long Way