New Photo Gallery

Check out the new gardening photos, that members of the Woopi Green Thumbs community have taken and sent through to me. Click this link

Planting Seeds

Spent yesterday mowing the lawn, babysitting, emptying the compost (where some sort of snake had made a home) and getting a few things going in the garden (with some help). Will hopefully have some stuff to trade with everyone! We planted lettuce, wombok, beans, radish, onion, silverbeat, leaks, beetroot... and sausage trees for anyone with a kid's imagination.

Pamphlets for Project

Here are three pamphlets that I made for the gardening project- I decided to go with the big one in the end, and handed it out at Curry Fest. I've hung the same one at the local library and on three different community message boards (see attached photo below)- hopefully people will see them and check us out!

Curryfest... and gardening

I walked down to Curryfest today. I said I wasn’t going to go this year because I was told I couldn’t give out pamphlets, but alas the beautiful smells and music sent me into a trance and I woke up to find myself in the middle of the festival eating curry, drinking coffee out of a biodegradable cup and lid (who knew?), and standing in the pouring rain talking to some lovely people who I haven’t seen in ages. On the advice of some renegade classmates, I handed out pamphlets on the Woopi Green Thumbs Gardening Project anyway, with the help of two great friends. No-one even noticed, so I’ll be sure to remember not to ask permission in future. Hopefully we’ll get some new recruits to the group! Although I won’t have much to offer anyone in the way of fruits and veggies at the rate my garden's going, I’m lucky I’ve got Jada82, Shanti, Punjabi Banana, Black Rabbi Pope and Choko Man on the job!

Music To Garden By

No time to garden lately. I need to get out and do more but work and assignments- and excuses of course- are getting in the way. So instead I've collected some "Music To Garden By" to motivate me... and have spent the evening putting it on my Blog. Procrastination and fun at the same time! Have a listen if you're bored or need some motivation to garden. Feel free to send me some gardening-themed songs; sustainable living songs or songs about fruits and veggies (though this may be tricky subject matter for musicians)! I'll swap them around with my favourites.

Diary of My Day

Have gone off the garden path! I’ve discovered recently there is a push to open a shopping centre on the highway just outside of Woopi- with a Coles supermarket. This issue is connected to my project because my project is focusing on encouraging gardening and sustainable food production and consumption. Although I mostly just wanted to start a little project of people interested in gardening and exchanging things, I’m also interested in local economies generally... so now I’ve been trying to read up on all of this! There’s already a monstrosity of a shopping centre (with a Coles and accompanying liquor store) ten minutes down the road at Moonee Beach on the highway, and a lot of the shops are empty. If another shopping centre is put out on the highway it would not only be overkill, but would also divide the town- there would be no reason for people to drive into Woopi where there are a lot of unique local businesses and no chain stores. I’m sure local business would suffer. From a long term economic point of view (I'm trying to see it from a council perspective) it seems like Woopi having a niche, unique feel would be a huge advantage given that so many Australian town on the East Coast are beginning to look the same (i.e. stock standard shops like Woolies, Coles, K-Mart, Big W, Myers, McDonalds, KFC etc). Anyway, this is my current opinion which may change as I find out more… this is not as easy as it sounds. The newspaper articles on it are really confusing, the council’s webpage offers little info, the council meeting minutes are vague, I couldn’t find the plan at the library and I’m starting to wonder if there is a purpose behind making these plans so hard to access!

Here's a link to one of the newspaper articles for anyone interested.
http://www.coffscoastindependent.com.au/news/local/news/general/calls-to-rezone-highway-land-at-woolgoolga/1792477.aspx

Challenges

I haven't been blogging much lately. Am still trying to get comfortable with the whole on-line diary thing. I've also found a lot of great books on community gardening, sustainable food and local economies which have been keeping me busy and have given me a lot of ideas on how to start off. So I've launched myself into organising a few things, and well...

I’ve hit my first barrier on the road to community gardening, and doing something that doesn’t revolve around money! Unfortunately it’s been in the shape of the Woolgoolga Curryfest which I have been attending every year since it began, as I liked the idea of supporting a ‘community’ event. Anyway, I made some phone calls to see if I could hand out free pamphlets at Curryfest about gardening and produce exchange and was told that I couldn’t because other people have paid money to sell things. I don’t really understand. As delicious as pamphlets are becoming these days, I don’t think I’d be undercutting someone selling curry. I might be able to pay a discounted rate of $120 if they decide to open a separate area- presumably for all the plebs! So... I feel like I'm back at the beginning and will have to think of another means of promoting a community development project.