Category Archives: Event

Events run by us or others

Planting out a spring garden at Rebecca and Andy’s place

This month the Guildford Kitchen Gardeners are getting our hands dirty.  Rebecca and Andy have been wanting a vegie garden for a while, and have generously agreed to share putting it together with us.  If you’ve been wanting to set up a garden and haven’t known where to start, this is a great way to learn.

They’ve done all the hard work, so we’ll come in and help them finish it off, followed by afternoon tea, of course.

Please bring:  your gardening gloves and gardening tools, something for the sharing table if you have excess in your garden, some homemade yumminess to share for afternoon tea.  (these last two are not obligatory – if you’d like to bring something to share, please do but don’t feel obliged, we will have plenty).  Also, if you have a camp chair, you might want to have a sit down after all the hard work.

Here’s how it will work:

1.30:   Arrive and reacquaint with everyone
2pm:  Let’s get to work!  Rebecca has plans of what’s to be planted where, as well as seeds and seedlings.  We’ll be moving some soil, then planting seeds and seedlings.  There are also a couple of trees needing new homes.  Rebecca will have seeds and vegie seedlings, but would love donations if anyone has herb seedlings looking for a new home.
3.30:  Time for a well earned cuppa, biccie and a chat.
4pm: Done!

As we go, we’ll discuss soil health, companion planting, timing of planting various species, recipes and whatever else is of interest.

Please RSVP for address, to guildfordkitchengardeners@gmail.com.

Bees in the Backyard

The next Kitchen Gardeners’ Society meet is coming up and it’s all about bees.

Once again it’s at Steve and Elizabeth’s house, Marmalade Cottage (RSVP for address).

Sunday 5 August
1.30 – 4pm

Bees are an essential part of the productive garden – they pollinate for fruit production, and if you have a hive, give you honey.  Without them, life on earth starves.

As well as learning about bees and keeping them, we’ll have the sharing table – if you have something from your garden or kitchen you’d like to share, please bring it along, and take home something from someone else’s garden.

After the bee presentation, we’ll have afternoon tea.  If you’d like to bring something along yummy, please do.  Perhaps with a honey theme?

There isn’t a great deal of shelter in the backyard, so if it’s wet, bring your umbrella.  It isn’t a terribly kid-friendly place (there’s poo and rusty metal) so you’ll need to keep a close eye on any little ones.

Please email guildfordkitchengardeners@gmail.com to RSVP.

Backyard Chickens with the Guildford Kitchen Gardeners

On Sunday, 1st July the Guildford Kitchen Gardeners met at Marmalade Cottage to learn about keeping chickens. This was an inspiring and informative afternoon, which will hopefully have given some of our members the knowledge to go ahead and adopt some feathery friends with confidence.

Elizabeth spoke about the basics of chicken-keeping – housing and feeding them, and the many benefits of having chickens. She also discussed adoption of battery farm hens: where to get them, how they differ from ordinary hens, and how to help them adapt to their new life. Guests had a chance to see the recovering battery hens in their backyard home. The Kitchen Gardeners hope to stage a mass rescue of battery hens in the near future, if you are interested in being a part of this then please email guildfordkitchengardeners@gmail.com.

Steve spoke about the chicken run which he built from recycled and repurposed materials, and explained how with a bit of creativity anyone can create a home for chooks in the garden – it doesn’t need to cost a lot of money!

Barb discussed some common health problems which chooks can suffer from and how to treat them, where to buy chooks and how to decide on the breed that’s right for you.

If you are interested in finding out more about chickens, you may consider going to the Midland Junction Poultry Society Annual Championship Show – this will be held at Claremont Showgrounds on the 4th and 5th of August 2012. A variety of purebred chickens will be on display and there will be many opportunities to talk to the chook experts and purchase chooks.

The next meeting will be on Sunday 5th August, and we will be learning about beekeeping! Email guildfordkitchengardeners@gmail.com for more information.