November Bee

It was a crisp but sunny morning for our modest November bee. A garden looking in very good shape greeted bee-ers Lena, Ian, Cameron & Jacinta… we mowed, sowed, weeded and tidied, with sparkling banjo accompaniment from David, to the especial delight of visitors Heather and young Sam. Dora appeared mid-morning with a tray of her wonderful heirloom tomato seedlings, and added these into the substantial mix of planting that Peter and Chris have been doing, along with their much appreciated general garden work, since the last bee. A big thank-you to them, and to Lena also who is continually tending the garden.

We look forward to a good turnout for December… Saturday the 12th… we'll flag it on Facebook… see you all then!

Meanwhile below: the morning in pics… (Cam & Ian were the shutter-pressers).

Lena drew our attention to just how laden with berries the bushes in the back lane are...
they will be ripe for picking in a couple of months

Splendid October Albert Street session

A perfect morning for work in an exploding garden… ongoing thinning / weeding / planting, and distributing the mature and worm-rich mulch from the composting bays...

October gardeners and visitors: Cameron, Tim, Tracy, Ian, Jason with Sage, Wren and Nia, Lindy with Ginger, Violet and Alice, Alexis, Tia and Jeremy with Jasper and Arden, Mara, Christine, Jeff with Zuri, Phoenix, Atlas and Hartly, Maureen, Stephen, Dora, Patrick and Meg with Woody, Shelley with James and Skylar, Alison…

Random pics of morning's activities...

Compost bays at the start of the day

In the jungle: Cam, Tim, Tracy, Lindy

Building up a sweat as the day heats up

Mara, Maureen, Tracy

Jeff, Atlas, Dora

Sage and Jason

Dora, Tracy, Maureen, Stephen

Gardener Tim

Alexis

Patrick, Lindy

Alice, Ginger, Violet

Jeremy (foreground), Cam, Patrick, Alexis

Cam, Alexis

Compost bays at the end of the day

Calendula collection gang: Dora, Maureen, Tia, Tracey

A bag of sunshine.

NEXT BEE: SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14

September Albert Street bee

September gardeners: Fiona R, Shelley with James & Skyla, Lindy with Alice, Ginger & Violet, Tim, Lena, Dora, Christina, Fiona P with Luna & Fab, Cameron, Ian...

A group of dedicated gardeners (known & new faces, young & old souls) spent the morning on hands & knees combing through swathes of prolific plants, thinning & weeding (& chatting), the pickings being collected & added to the open compost bays down the back.

Your documenter spent the morning down amongst the foliage, & took just one photo as we were finishing up... for the historical record. (Apologies to those who had left by then... we'll catch you at future bees!)

Community gardeners : 12 September 2015 : Albert Street Daylesford

A couple of items of interest

Connecting Country Workshops
Lena Mazza has drawn our attention to a series of spring rural workshops being run by Connecting Country from Castlemaine.

Sunday 2 August: Living with fire & wildlife
Sunday 30 August: Biodiversity in the paddock
Sunday 13 September: Conservation fencing
Sunday 25 October: Back from the brink –land regeneration

Full details are available at this link or you can call Krista Patterson-Majoor on 5472 1594 (Mondays & Thursdays)

Hosting backyard beehives
Craig Terrell is a bee enthusiast living in Yandoit. He is expanding his enthusiasm into a small business based on setting up a network of managed bee hives throughout the district. For a donation of $250, you can host one of Craig's hives in your yard or on your property. Craig and his co-apiarists will be fully responsible for managing the hive/s and, in exchange you will receive 5 litres of pure honey per year.
Autumn is the optimum time to get new hives located (best time for the bees!). Craig can be contacted on 0449 982 632. Note: Craig is also happy to have visitors out to Yandoit… interested people can call him to arrange a visit.

(Thanks Lena!)

July bee: some light-hearted heavy lifting at Rea Lands

The wall at Rea Lands has been beautifully re-built over the last 3 months...  Thanks Hepburn Shire Council and the great brick artisans that saw to this restoration.

Over the last couple of weeks community gardeners Anita and Rob began re-shaping the slope immediately inside the gate to create the makings of a large new bed with better pathways to the left and right.

Today's bee concentrated on consolidating that new bed, combined with some much needed general maintenance and mulch-spreading across the top food forest area.

1–2–3... Luke & Patrick

Let's rock...

... & roll !

Many hands... (Luke, Woody hidden, Jasper, Violet, Meg, Patrick, Tim, Jeremy)

(Patrick, Meg, Luke, Violet, Ginger, Andrew, Lindy, Jeremy)

(Lindy & Andrew mulching the almond bed)

(Su, Andrew)

The rake's regress! (Jeremy)

(Jasper, Violet, Ginger)

(Arden & Woody)

Ho hoe! (Lena)

(Fiona & Tia)

(Tim, Maureen, Woody Wheelbarrow)

(Tia & Tim)

(Helen, Lindy, Andrew dividing and planting out thyme, Meg & Su in the background)

The morning's work

Break time (Ginger, Violet, Lindy, Woody, Meg, Zero, Lena, Catherine)

Zero helps himself to a bird's eye view!

Todays gardeners and visitors included: Patrick & Meg with Woody, Luke, Andrew & Lindy with Violet & Ginger, Lena, Catherine, Maureen, Tia & Jeremy with Arden & Jasper, Su, Helen, Maureen, Steven, Fiona, Donghwan, Ellen, Tim, Greg and Ian.