Celebrate Neighbour Day - March 26

Neighbour Day will be celebrated on Sunday March 26th. It's the chance to catch up with all those people who live around us. We briefly chat with our neighbours when we bump into them at the shop or at the bus stop or while picking up the kids and we say "We must catch up" but never quite make it happen. This is the opportunity to make it happen.

If you go to the website www.neighbourday.org there should be details with posters and invitations available.

It's really just an excuse to tell your neighbours that "your barbie will be alight from lunch time onward, so drop around with your food and drink and we'll sit back and enjoy West Hobart's lifestyle for the afternoon"

Cheers

Paul Turvey

Peak Oil, Local Resilience and Financial Crisis

13 March:          Public Lecture - Peak Oil, Local Resilience and Financial Crisis

Speaker:  Nicole Foss, Co-Editor of The Automatic Earth

Venue:     Stanley Burbury Theatre, University Centre, Sandy Bay campus

Time:       7.00 – 8.30pm

Learn to speak fluent spinach via step-by-step guided lessons

This year the Botanical Gardens are once again running their garden skills programs – cost effective gardening for the home, community or farm. Hands on learning with professional experts.  $15 per person, per session. Bookings are essential, so please confirm your place. Ph 6236 3050

Here’s a calendar through to mid April

February 24

Building the vertical garden; DON’T MISS THIS !
Practically build a simple and cost effective vertical garden structure using recycled materials. This is the ultimate garden for those with limited space, or for the person who just wants something different. Tips and tricks on everything you need to get started.

March 2
Practical pest identification NEW!
Join us for a hands on journey of discovery with our expert entomologist and teacher Laurie Miller, to uncover the fascinating world of pests and predators in the garden. A must for all gardeners!

March 9
Practical hot composting (by demand)
Actually build a free standing hot compost heap and learn the truths about real compost for your own backyard.

March 16
The basics of dry stone walling NEW!
Learn how to create a dry stone wall with our expert onsite. This old world technique can really lift the appearance of a garden or rural property. This session will be a practically applied activity.

March 23
Discover the basic skills of identifying plants.
Our expert horticulturist / botanist will guide you through all you need to know about identifying plants both in the Garden and in the wild. Discover plant names, identifying features and plant keys.

March 30
Practical bee keeping; maintaining a hive 
Special Times / 1pm till 3:30pm cost $20 pp
Understanding bee hive set up maintenance and management. How to get started and what you do to maintain a hive. Participants will investigate real hive on site at the Gardens.

April 20
Building a roof garden; DON’T MISS THIS!
What a fantastic way of using a wasted space! Learn the basics of small scale roof gardens, how
they are made and what you need to create your own successfully at home.

April 27
Maintaining your berry crops in autumn and
winter
All you need to maintain your berry crops to ensure bumper crops for the seasons to come. Autumn
maintenance, pruning and practical requirements.

"No Dig" and container gardening, 14 March

A representative of Hobart City Council's "Still Gardening" Team will be speaking at the next West Hobart Neighbourhood Watch meeting.  The meeting will be on Wednesday 14 March starting at 7:30pm, in the Lawrenny Court Hall, 131 Hill Street, West Hobart.

Topics will include how to have a "no-dig" garden (especially good if you have a West Hobart clay that's hard as rock in summer but sticky as glue in winter) as well as gardening in containers and pots.

The Walking West Hobart map is now on the streets!

The attractive Walking West Hobart map has now been printed and we are keen to get it out to people as soon as possible.  So, the team will be out letterboxing and within the next two weeks the map should be turning up in every letterbox in West Hobart!  It looks terrific and will be very useful to both locals and visitors as they walk the lanes and byways of West Hobart. Small supplies will be provided to gathering places such as coffee shops and health centres in WH :)

An official launch is being organised, and details will be advised soon.

We have the map available for downloading from here.

If you have any feedback about the map, pls comment below!   If you find any errors in the map, pls drop us a line and we will take this into account if we should produce a second edition.

DIY energy savings around the home - a new website

Take a look at this new website:  Tas Energy Savings which is dedicated to describing useful products and materials required to make important energy savings around the home. The website focuses on DIY projects and explains each project (insulation, hot water cylinder improvements, lighting, draughts, windows, controlling standby energy and energy meters and miscellaneous products). So take a look and see what else you could be doing to save money, water, energy :)

Next Produce Exchange -- Saturday 4 Feb

Can you help us promote our produce exchanges? There's an A4 poster attached to put up in local shops/notice boards and a page of smaller fliers you can cut into four if you are able to drop them into your neighbours' letterboxes.

 

Hope to see you at the next one on the 4th Feb. Even if you don't have any excess produce, come along for a chat, we'd love to see you.

Gardens and Food - produce exchange and working bee

Loganberries, early tomatoes, new potatoes, strawberries, salad greens, apricots, beans... Celebrate summer bounty and afternoon tea at the first produce exchange for 2012.

Time: Saturday January 7th, 4-5pm.

Place: by the children's playground in the park next to Lansdowne Crescent school, near bus-stop 16 and the junction of Lansdowne Crescent / Petty St.

Bring: garden produce, a thermos, and a contribution for afternoon tea.

Exchanges will be held on the first Saturday of the month until our gardens wane in autumn.

Working bees at Lawrenny Court are convivial and productive; an ongoing pleasure for all involved. Come and join us at 3pm, Monday 9th January. We meet in the hall at 131 Hill St.

 

Please RSVP by Sunday evening so we have an idea of numbers for tasks, catering, and can let people know if we have to cancel.

Eenee Eco Food Loop

Eenee Eco is making a list of Hobart restaurants that compost their food wastes.    Here's what they say:

Would you like to help improve and maintain the high quality of food in Tasmania? Then you've found the information you need! All the restaurants and cafes on this tour recycle their organic waste through commercial composting, helping maintain and improve the quality of our local soil and therefore the food you eat! Will you accept the challenge of visiting all of them? 

If you are a business or home owner and would like to find out more or sign up for your own organics recycling check out our website: 
http://www.organics.recycling.eenee.com/

Update from GAF - from meeting 26th November

The next working bee at Lawrenny Court is on Monday 5^th December at 3pm. There are already half a dozen residents keen to have help with their gardens this month. Come and meet your neighbours, enjoy an hour’s convivial gardening and finish with afternoon tea. Meet at the hall, 131 Hill St. Please RSVP by Sunday 4^th so Lawrenny Court has an idea of numbers for work and scones, and we can let you know if we have to cancel.

Greg Summers enchanted us with the information that while an ounce of silver is worth $US31, brussel sprout seeds are worth $US364 an ounce.

The produce exchange / shared afternoon tea will be held on the first Saturday of each month, beginning on January 7^th in the little park / playground on Lansdowne Crescent. If there are gluts at other times, we can link members via our mailing list. 


Is anyone interested in bulk purchasing of manure or mulch? Does anyone know a good source of either of these commodities, or where you can get compost worms cheaper than 3 cents a head?
We all love visiting gardens. Would anyone like to be visited? Tidiness is absolutely not a criterion. We can bring afternoon tea to share.


If anyone would like a working bee, please let us know.

Headhunting! Does anyone have any skills they’d like to teach? We’re approaching one member who’s successfully possum-proofed a garden, and an artist who might be willing to show us how to make creative garden artefacts, like bean-tepees that don’t fall down.