One Morning in May

By Penny Ossowski

Several BOGI members took time to browse through Jocelyn  garden. Although in the middle of suburbia Jocelyn’s garden is fully A Grade Certified Organic, this process has taken the past 3 years to complete but now allows Jocelyn to sell her produce as ‘Certified Organic’. We were given a guided tour of the garden, stopping frequently to exchange ideas, successes and failures. Along the top of the garden Jocelyn grows small things for the house such as mizuna – did you know it can be harvested every week or so for about 15 weeks by cutting larger leaves back to the top of the smaller centre ones. Jocelyn plants seed directly into her garden by using rings of drainage pipe, planting seeds into the enclosed area, the pipe sections give protection from pests and allow easy location of seedlings, they are removed when the seedlings are large enough. For fruit fly Jocelyn baits regularly with ‘Wild May’. Some of Jocelyn’s fruit trees did not survive the past year, probably because the soil was not prepared correctly when they were hurriedly planted a few years ago and some became waterlogged in the wet weather. When preparing garden beds and fruit tree sites Jocelyn plants a green manure crop. Currently Jocelyn is growing radishes, womboks, celeriac, tomatoes, mizuna, pumpkins, eggplants, fennel, leeks, beetroot, cucumbers, peas, tangelos, carambolas, passionfruit, some other vegies, fruit trees and lots of basil to attract bees.

After becoming aware the African Marigolds were a haven for White Fly, Jocelyn removed them and has placed alfoil on the ground around her tomato plants to see if this stops whitefly and any other pest attacking them. Rubber snakes can help to deter birds stealing fruit from trees but need to be moved regularly as some birds work out they don’t move. The discussions and sharing of ideas did not stop when we headed to the front patio for a cuppa and a bite to eat with everyone being hesitant to leave in case they missed a useful hint. A great morning all round, thank you Jocelyn!