{"id":297,"date":"2016-04-28T21:49:01","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T21:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/?p=297"},"modified":"2018-02-20T02:46:09","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T02:46:09","slug":"from-commentator-to-cultivator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/2016\/04\/from-commentator-to-cultivator\/","title":{"rendered":"From commentator to cultivator"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSC_0122\"<\/a>

Our plot with chilli bush in the centre<\/p><\/div>\n

I look down on the garden that has popped up at the end of our very short street and now view\u00a0it with a new found sense of urgency. With a plot offered and gratefully accepted\u00a0in our very small street…\u00a0I now want to share the micro story of this horticultural experiment in downtown Melbourne and compare it with the extensive extravaganza which is my parents’ 25 acres at a place called Humpty Doo just south of Darwin. Their place has over many years been fertilised by well fed chooks (chickens).<\/p>\n

We have people from all around Kensington – arguably one of the best inner city suburbs of Melbourne who are concerned about food miles, the community and social responsibilities to neighbours involved in the project.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Just around the corner a lovely young couple pot seedlings in recycled pots and place them on a small table outside their apartment. Offered free, but with contributions accepted, they are bringing a mini nursery to inner Melbourne with dirt, seeds, water and kindness.<\/p>\n

I could have put out a shingle saying “We are from Darwin – adopt us!” – but having a community garden is better. It certainly is a talking piece and the interesting nature of the set up and the fact it isn’t fenced (only one of two unfenced Melbourne City Council supported plots in the city) draw parents with their toddlers playing in the park, local neighbours and dog walkers to gaze at the growth of vegetables and fruits in these tubs.<\/p>\n

As happenstance would have it, we walked past the large fenced community garden this morning located in the Flemington housing estate and although I saw many beds and plants, they didn’t seem to have the sophistication and technology of the Davis St beds. It would be valuable to compare the crops and yields of this “traditional” fenced community garden with\u00a0the smaller, non fenced “pop-up garden”.<\/p>\n

So what am\u00a0I going to grow in our community plot? Chillies as one would expect and the other items come straight from the autumn and winter playbook for vegetable growing in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Volumes of what we grow will be recorded and reported before we consume and it will be interesting to see how we as a group respond.<\/p>\n

There is an app called Gardenate which allows us to identify best plants to plant when, keeps a record of our interactions and allows us to record harvest. This data is shared back in a scientific study of inner city sustainability.<\/p>\n

Here is a link to the Facebook photo album I posted earlier<\/a> – you don’t need to have a Facebook account to view this album<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I look down on the garden that has popped up at the end of our very short street and now view\u00a0it with a new found sense of urgency. With a plot offered and gratefully...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"From commentator to cultivator","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[334,354,20,22,12,21,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chilli","category-davis-st-garden","category-food","category-gardens","category-joe-christie","category-melbourne","category-xsymetrix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/DSC_0123.jpg?fit=319%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9FFqw-4N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1261,"url":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/2018\/04\/chilli-sauce-recipe\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":0},"title":"Chilli Sauce Recipe","author":"xsymetrix","date":"April 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"With our amazing climate change weather we have being experiencing in Melbourne, we have chillies growing and fruiting in mid April. This gave me an excuse to drag out an old recipe I created and filmed a few years ago when the Jolokia chilli held the record as the hottest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chilli"","block_context":{"text":"Chilli","link":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/category\/chilli\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/habaneros.jpg?fit=1200%2C1105&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/habaneros.jpg?fit=1200%2C1105&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/habaneros.jpg?fit=1200%2C1105&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/habaneros.jpg?fit=1200%2C1105&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/habaneros.jpg?fit=1200%2C1105&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1344,"url":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/2018\/12\/community-garden-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":1},"title":"Community Garden Update","author":"xsymetrix","date":"December 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Well the change of seasons has brought a change of plants in the garden. Broadbeans have given us a good crop and it is wonderful to chat with folks who generally bring their children to the adjacent park at Parsons Reserve before the children include the community garden in their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chilli"","block_context":{"text":"Chilli","link":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/category\/chilli\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nov2018Winner.jpg?fit=962%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nov2018Winner.jpg?fit=962%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nov2018Winner.jpg?fit=962%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nov2018Winner.jpg?fit=962%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":706,"url":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/2017\/08\/our-garden-is-almost-a-year-old\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":2},"title":"Our garden is almost a year old","author":"xsymetrix","date":"August 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe that the community garden on Davis Street has been growing vegetables for almost a year. That also means that my family has spent a year down in Melbourne after moving from Darwin. A bit like the seedlings planted in the community garden our life in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Davis St Garden"","block_context":{"text":"Davis St Garden","link":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/category\/davis-st-garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_2806.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_2806.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_2806.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1252,"url":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/2018\/03\/another-working-bee\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":3},"title":"Another working bee","author":"xsymetrix","date":"March 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Davis St Community Garden successfully completed another working bee with new vegetables planted and some plants harvested and further beds cleaned and watered. Although there was much talking while the watering took place it was a chance for us to catch up. We have considered that our next meeting should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Davis St Garden"","block_context":{"text":"Davis St Garden","link":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/category\/davis-st-garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_7696-1.jpg?fit=960%2C721&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_7696-1.jpg?fit=960%2C721&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_7696-1.jpg?fit=960%2C721&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_7696-1.jpg?fit=960%2C721&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":323,"url":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/2016\/05\/harvest-time-the-second-harvest\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":4},"title":"Harvest Time – The second harvest","author":"xsymetrix","date":"May 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Well I have been back up in Darwin for almost a month now which means I haven't seen how our small garden plot in Kensington is going. What I have seen though is that there have been two harvests of salad from our small plot. 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I then planted the celery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#Gardeners"","block_context":{"text":"#Gardeners","link":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/category\/gardeners\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gardener1.jpg?fit=1200%2C370&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gardener1.jpg?fit=1200%2C370&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gardener1.jpg?fit=1200%2C370&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gardener1.jpg?fit=1200%2C370&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/gardener1.jpg?fit=1200%2C370&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1111,"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/1111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xsymetrix.com.au\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}