I’d like to put a shout out to all the wonderful volunteers who keep the world going! For the Community Nursery, they are the reason we have been going strong for over 20 years. The photos dont show a lot of work being done but not surprisingly lots does get done, including producing around 10,000 native plants a year, providing workshops, accommodating lots of school groups and many other things.
On Friday 26th June 2020, we will celebrate volunteers at the nursery 10am-noon, with food, stories and sharing tips and tricks of vegetable gardening in Southland.
I had a bit of fun finding the photos attached and they bring back great memories of volunteers past and present and some memorable times at the Nursery. May they continue!! Hope to see you at our Friday event and if you haven’t been for a while then come along and share the fun.
Chris
Posted: 24 June 2020
We have all missed the “community” aspect of the Nursery over recent months. So……… back by popular demand we are having an open Friday morning for volunteers on Friday 26 June 2020 – 10am-noon. That means shared food will be back on the menu and we will all share our lockdown stories and yummy food – bring something made from the garden or some food that got you through lockdown as well as recipes we can add to our lockdown cookbook. The scheduled Veggie Gardening workshop will still happen but we will all share our Veggie Garden tips and tricks and Bronwyn and Erica will have some resources that will help us all plan our vegetable gardens this season. No booking required for this one – just turn up and we will be happy to see you again. Then, after a few more workshops we will be closing for a couple of months through winter, so hope to see you on the 26th June. The photos below were from yesterday!
Chris, Linda, Bronwyn, Erica
Posted: 15 June 2020
Thanks to everyone who has booked in so far. Due to demand for cuttings workshops we will run an extra one on Friday 19 June – and the Veggie Gardening will be on 26 June. Permaculture and Forest Gardens will include Vegetables as well. We have also had some other suggestions so if you are interested in these let me know. Some we have in mind to run in spring/summer when its getting warmer! The extra topics are Renewable Energy Technologies – Solar Water Heating and Solar Electricity, Growing and pruning fruit trees, Foraging, Food preservation, Soap making, Art, Fungi
All workshops will be 10am – noon and the schedule will be as follows and bookings are required email Chris at : [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]
Friday 12 June 2020 – Native Plant Cuttings Workshop - Linda
Friday 19 June 2020 – Native Plant Cuttings Workshop - Linda
Friday 26 June 2020 – Vegetable Gardening in Southland – Bronwyn and Erica
Friday 3 July 2020 – Principles of Permaculture and Forest Gardens – Geoff
Friday 10 July 2020 – Setting up a Community Nursery - Chris
Posted: 8 June 2020
We will be operating the Community Nursery on Fridays a bit differently from 1 June 2020.
Instead of volunteer mornings we will be going to workshops where you will need to pre-book. This change has been brought upon both by Covid distancing requirements and the season (we are going into winter and nursery activities decrease).
All workshops will be 10am – noon and the schedule at present will be as follows
Friday 5 June 2020 – Native Plant Cuttings Workshop - Linda
Friday 12 June 2020 – Native Plant Cuttings Workshop - Linda
Friday 19 June 2020 – Vegetable Gardening in Southland – Bronwyn and Erika
Friday 26 June 2020 – Vegetable Gardening in Southland – Bronwyn and Erica
Friday 3 July 2020 – Principles of Permaculture and Forest Gardens – Geoff
Friday 10 July 2020 – Setting up a Community Nursery - Chris
The workshops will be by booking only (email [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]) – first come first served (sorry, no just turning up!) and depending on responses, the topics and dates could change. I am also planning fruit pruning workshops etc but if you have something you’d like us to run let me know. I will keep you updated via the website news and events as well as emails but my post lockdown promise to myself is spending more time outside and less time on the computer so apologies in advance if I drop the ball on this one. I don’t have emails coming to my phone so please don’t expect an immediate response to short notice emails.
I am also open to individual volunteers coming to help out on a day other than Friday, let me know if you are interested in that, but again it will need to be notified to me in advance.
Chris
Posted: 2 June 2020
We are missing you guys, but we are still closed on Fridays!! However, under Covid-19 directions the Nursery will be open on Friday mornings soon, but running a bit differently for volunteers for the foreseeable future.
We thought the best way for us to continue at the moment (with social distancing, gathering numbers, time restrictions, hygiene, and tracing rules, not to mention the non-shared morning teas!) would be for a pre-booking system for Fridays.
Realistically we can only have 4 people in the sheds potting up and as the potting requirement is lessening as we go into winter we aim to run a series of workshops on Fridays for 6 people interspersed with “work days” with specific tasks assigned – these tasks will be weather dependent so will probably be put on the website News and Events on Mondays for the following Friday (and trust the weather forecast is good enough for planning tasks) and you will need to register your interest for the Friday by email. Unfortunately, you can’t just turn up on a Friday anymore.
The type of workshops will include plant propagation – seeds and cuttings, beginners guide to vegetable gardening in Southland, permaculture for beginners, foraging or using garden produce, pruning of fruit trees and bushes etc as well as the usual nursery tasks such as weeding, potting up, moving native plants around and tidying the nursery.
Other workshops could be how to make sourdough, kefir, kombucha, yoghurt (without actually making them!) or any other things you can think of that people may be interested in – they’d be 2 hour sessions 10am-noon.
Any other ideas welcome and if you’d be interested in particular workshops let me know in advance and that will help with our planning.
There could also be other opportunities to help as individuals on other days, but that will need to be pre-booked too.
If you want to wear a mask or gloves please bring your own, we will have hand sanitiser and hand washing facilities on – site.
Keep safe and any questions please ask.
Chris
Posted: 14 May 2020
