An awesome weekend. . .

Thanks go first to Rusty Gammon for pretty much everything shed, and to Don Begbie (Prez of Cubberla-Witton Catchment Group) for water tank procurement. And then to every one of  The Sunday Crew for putting it all together . . . Their four hours of pretty hot weekend work paid off.

Next up for the CG are starting the wildflower meadow, finishing flattening the mighty mulch mountain and making proper progress with the Garden Committee…

We are now pretty much out of disposable cash at hand, so every cent raised from now on becomes doubly precious.

The Lower Terrace is still looking viable for post July. At the spend rate we have achieved to date we can fill the Terrace with our raised growing beds (yielding 80-100 sq m of growing area) if Walter Taylor Ward grants us $15k in 2021 as Clr Mackay has indicated he wants to do.

The pending BCC Community Compost Hub should be up and running by January 2021, and we expect to ask BCC Parks to remove the temporary construction fencing around the Garden site by the end of November as well. 

We may decide to add a “temporary” low fence (perhaps in bamboo or split cane) between the Hillstone car park and the Community Garden (running alongside and attached to the existing post and rail fence) to indicate where we start, and to discourage interlopers.

So much done already, the Garden Committee to get up and running (candidates, do get in touch) and all of 2021 to plan.

 Exciting. . .

This is the new water tank for the Community Garden.

Well, actually it is the base for the new 1000 litre IBC (food-grade, steam washed) water tank we will be taking delivery of tomorrow. 

Not all that cheap, but far cheaper than being connected to the mains for the moment. 

 Better to get it right than wrong . . .

The CG Tool Shed has shifted location (by one terrace) and is taking a tad longer than we planned, largely because of the weather making working bent over and rivetting corrugated iron in the hot sun not much fun at all. However, we now want to have a sort of formal, Amish (sic) "Shed-Raising" (without the horses and carts or the scratchy retro clothes) celebration of community skills and commitment this Sunday (22 November) by mustering together to plonk the roof on the shed! 

Particular thanks to Rusty for:

a) finding, 

b) dismantling, 

c) storing, 

d) donating the shed, 

and then e) for remembering how to put it back together again...  

And thanks also to a bunch of people who enthusiastically slapped some Heritage-friendly (the SLCG is sited on part of a BCC-listed Heritage Place) Mangrove Green paint all over the 24 panels of the shed, to help it blend in. Mostly with the massive mobile phone tower not that far away.

Hopefully . . .

 Progress at pace

Apologies for not staying up to date with progress news and images, but the Facebook Group has been kicking on as usual. Our Membership Secretary tells me the Group is up around 200 followers now, which is fantastic...

So, while we haven't been web posting, we have made some really significant progress over the last seven days. 

• Dominic Filewood (our bedrock Cheeky Chippie, landscape gardener/builder/eco-warrior) has delivered exactly what we wanted the tin to say (building a 12m run of pretty smart raised beds), 

• our own Tool Shed is taking shape and position this weekend (see pics) which will mean we will soon have a safe place to put tools and kit (one that isn't our own garages/boots and homes), 

• plus the "Thanks to 100 Acre Bar" edible flower bed is so well planted with salad and cocktail flowers that it has spilled over into a couple of others for the moment. Difficult to imagine too many nasturtiums, but . . .

Shed raising on tomorrow, (thanks so much, Rusty) more bed-planting, SEQ wildflower seeds sourcing in progress, water tank on the way, and indigenous edibles like Pigface and Native Violets are ready to go in after the hot spell . . .