Gazza's gardening tips

Gary Richards is a certified apiarist (beekeeper) and treasurer at the Byford Glades Community Garden, where he is developing the Urban Agricultural Education Program. 

He lives in Cardup with his wife Julie and together they run Down2Earth Gardening, a seed and seedling business using organic, Australian seeds.

It's a great time to start growing!

Let’s not forget to maintain the mulch layer and consistent watering as we move into the summer months. I like to use lupin mulch as it allows water to penetrate and at the same time breaks down to add organic matter to the soil. A layer of mulch helps the microbes too.

The tomatoes, zucchini’s, cucuzza, melons and pumpkins should be doing well - remember to give them a feed every couple of weeks. Corn, eggplants, sweet potatoes, beetroot and basil are some of our favourites too. 

We can also plant lima beans, snake beans, lab lab beans, luffa, and malabar spinach after the festive season, especially while its too hot to spend too much time outside (besides picking, watering and feeding - and making sure the worm farm and compost bays don’t dry out!) 

It's also a great time to turn our minds to the seed collection. With thoughts of growing from seed from the beginning of March, such as all the fabulous plants of the brassica family. Now is when we make sure we stock up with our favourites. 

Our Bees

In the garden we have a few European bee hives. The worker bees are doing a great job pollinating all our flowers, veggies and fruit. They share the garden with the native bees and insects. Because we use no sprays and plant biodiverse plant families, the birds, bees, bandicoots share our space. Spring help produce wonderful honey and it looks as if summer will be good too. If you have a hive, please make sure they have access to plenty of water throughout the hot spell.

For more info and tips check our website and follow our socials. 

Happy Christmas!

Gazza