Spring 2008 Edible Garden at Geelong Botanic Gardens

With the increased awareness in productive and sustainable gardening, the Central Lawn has been converted into showing the differing ways that vegetables can be grown. Many methods have been used from the No-Dig method, developed by Ester Dean, the traditional method and gardening in containers. Organic and sustainable practice has been followed, from the recycled timber and brick, even old brake drums used as containers.

The Blue Potato Boxes

These boxes will show the six bed rotation system. The rotation system is suitable for warmer climates where legume crops (Peas and Beans) and Brassicas (Cabbage and Broccoli) cannot follow one another, as in warmer climates they are primarily grown in the cooler months. Infestations of root knot nematodes are also a problem so a green manure bed has been included:

1. Peas and Beans
2. Brassicas
3. Green Manures
4. Onions and root crops
5. Sweet corn and cucurbits
6. Tomatoes, chilies, capsicum and/or other solanums

The boxes were filled with a compost mixture.



The Four Cultural Beds

These Beds will show food grown in other countries, Africa, Americas, Europe and Asia. The beds are using the No-Dig method. First the frame was made using recycled timber. The timber was lined with plastic as it had been treated with arsenic to prevent rotting and we did not want this leeching into the vegetables. Then a thick layer of newspaper/cardboard was laid down. On top of this was placed a 20 cm thick layer of organic matter (leaves or pea straw). Then topped with a garden compost mixture of compost, composted mulch, sea grass, leaf mould and dolomite. The vegetables were then planted into this.


Le Potager en Parterre Bed

A parterre is a formal garden consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. This will feature a selection of seasonal vegetables, to illustrate that there is no reason why a productive garden can be beautifull and relaxing as well. This bed will also feature Heirloom vegetables that were grown by the original curator, Daniel Bunce.

The garden also includes examples of companion plantintg, Heirloom vegetables and some rare and unusual vegetables that have been sourced by GBG from various seed companies from around the country.

Container Garden

Pots of various sizes and materials show you that even a small space can be used to grow vegtables and herbs.

Heritage Varieties

An heirloom variety of vegetable usually predates World War 2. Heirloom varieties have been bred for flavour, and qualities like growing well in different micro climates, so they are much more useful for the home gardener. By contrast modern F1 hybrids are bred for qualities like their ability to be harvested by machine, their ability to withstand the transporting process over long distances and their ability to be refrigerated. Varieties grown here have been chosen for their historical value, ie: they were grown by the first Curator and mentioned in his book, Manual of Practical Gardening 1838 and from Stinton's Nursery and Plant Farm catalogues, (an old Geelong Nursery).

Seed Saving

Where possible seed has been collected from local seed savers and Heritage Seed Companies. Some of the vegetables will be allowed to go to seed and the seed then collected and saved for the next season.

These notes have been prepared by Katie, our keen organic gardener working at the Geelong Botanic Gardens. Katie will be writing regular updates on how the Edible Garden is growing.



May 2008

Plants sustain life in many ways, providing food, clothing, housing and medicine. The backyard Vegie Patch is a long-standing Aussie tradition, but how many people now have a vegetable garden? At the Geelong Botanic Gardens we encourage you to not be daunted by the lack of time in thier day to day lives, lack of water available to water a garden, living with smaller backyards or any other negative you might come up with! We'd like to invite you to come on a journey with us to discover how to grow your own food.

The Edible Garden is being established in the Central Lawn of the Botanic Gardens. During the late 1800's this area boasted an impressive Fernery made of wooden slats. How times have changed!

The Chilean Wine Palm, Jubaea chilensis, shown here used to grow under the roofline and is now a magnificent specimen. In its' native Chile the sap was used to make Palm Wine, unfortunately this use meant the death of the tree and it is now a threatened species. The palm also produces fruit and the soft centres can be eaten, we choose to keep them for seed to grown more palms.

The Edible Garden has a strong foundation in sustainable principles and we have been busy finding recycled materials from local sources.

	Rethink As you can see this area of the garden has lots of potential.
	Recycle The base of the garden is crushed recycled house bricks. We have trialled this material over summer to mulch a formal garden bed and it looks good, drains well and suppresses weeds. It can be purchased from Regional Recyclers.
	Re-use Just like any householder the City of Greater Geelong hoards materials which might come in handy one day. We have found the brick and timber edging for the garden beds lurking in our local depot and put them to good use.