Author: Lisa Wriley

Our Annual General Meeting is taking place at the Eco Garden on Monday 24 October 2022 at 12noon. Come and join us and bring a plate to share for lunch after the meeting. All positions will be declared vacant. Many hands make light work!

WOYTOPIA is on Sunday 30 October 2022 at Woy Woy South Public School and will be an awesome day. Come and visit our stall or plan ahead to volunteer with us. Call Lisa if you would be happy to help out for an hour or so. Lisa 0429 431 889.

Don’t miss the inaugural Central Coast Edible Garden Trail on 19 & 20 November 2022. Kariong Eco Garden are one of the many places hosting visitors. We will have tours of the garden on Sunday 20/11/22 at 10.20am, 11.30am, 12.30pm and 1.30pm.

REPAIR CAFE – the last one for the year in on Sunday 20 November 10am – 1pm in Kariong Hall. Bring your items to be repaired or your bike to be serviced – volunteers help with sewing, tool sharpening, woodwork, jewellery repairs and you make a donation. There is also a SWAP TABLE for items you would like to swap.

On 12 September 2022 Kariong Public School Year 6 students came to Kariong Eco Garden for an ECO Day where they learned from Tracey Howie, Jake Cassar and artists Rachel Bunney and Lisa McArthur-Edwards.

If you are interested in the kinds of things we are doing to promote sustainability come and visit any Monday morning or monthly Saturday working bee. Volunteers always welcome and extra working bee days or meetings can be arranged.

We are also advocating for a Re-use and Repair Centre/ Service on the Central Coast and fully support Central Coast Council’s plans to introduce a Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) collection service.

Did you know there is a Central coast Council in Tasmania? This is their information about a FOGO service they introduced in 2019: http://www.centralcoast.tas.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/FOGO-17092019.pdf

OUR SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP:

The Attraction of Birds

Saturday 10 September 2022

1 – 3pm

(following working bee 10am – 12.30pm)

Cost: $10 non-members. $5 active members or supporter members, or young people

Bookings: https://events.humanitix.com/for-the-love-of-birds

Local birders Kaye and Margaret Pointer will share their love of birds and gardening in a family friendly workshop.

Learn about:

• local birds
• how you can make your garden and suburb a great place for birds and wildlife
• the benefits of recording and sharing bird observations 
• their habitats and how you can assist
• how to provide safe nesting environments and materials for local birds.

The workshop will include a short gentle walk to see what birds are in the bush behind and around the Eco Garden.

Please wear enclosed shoes and bring a hat and water bottle.

There will be a bird inspired craft activity.

More about Kaye and Margaret:

The love of birds is in the blood. Both Kaye’s and Margaret’s interests started before they walked. They are two of the founding members of Central Coast Branch of Birding NSW (27 years) and are involved in guiding bird outings, and education on the Central Coast. They have participated in many surveys monitoring, or searching for birds including rare and endangered species. They have teamed up with other local birders over more than 20 years in the annual Twitchathon, to fundraise for bird conservation projects. Kaye and Margaret will knock back other activities to go birding in the garden, or across the Central Coast!

The workshop follows the monthly garden working bee from 10am – 12.30pm.  Feel free to come early and lend a hand or just enjoy a picnic lunch in the garden. 
For more information please call Lisa 0429 431 889.

WORKING BEE at the garden: Saturday 10 September 2022, 10am – 12.30pm

We will be preparing the bush circle for Kariong Public School Year 6 students’ visit and weeding the labyrinth path. BYO hat, water, picnic lunch and stay for the bird workshop if you can. You are welcome to bring something to share for morning tea – it is always a highlight of the working bees.

OTHER LOCAL ECO EVENTS

Community Environment Network: Love Trees Love COSS event /weekend.

Community Day Saturday 17 September 10am – 3pm at Ourimbah campus of university of Newcastle.  KEG is having a stall. Volunteers needed; https://cen.org.au/events/cen-event-list/733-love-trees-love-coss

COSS Crawl Sunday 18 September https://cen.org.au/events/cen-event-list/732-coss-crawl-love-trees-love-coss

Narara Eco Village Experience weekend 30 September – 2 October (3 October optional), https://nararaecovillage.com/narara-ecovillage-experience-weekend-october-2022/

WOYTOPIA – Sustainable Living Festival – Sunday 30 October 2022, 9am-4pm at Woy Woy South PS. https://woytopia.org/  KEG is having a stall – volunteers needed

Sustainable Future Festival, 10-13 November at Mingara – stay tuned for details.

For more information and to volunteer at one of our stalls, call Lisa 0429 431 889

We have been repairing one of the raised gardens beds, weeding the labyrinth path, removing some of the vigorous native raspberry, planting silverbeet, onions and beetroot, doing path and drain maintenance. We have some great new workshops planned for the rest of the year. Time for some more planting, cooking and eating!

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We hosted 120 students from Central Coast Sports College who took part in ADAM activities to understand the essential things to make good compost – ALIVENESS, DIVERSITY, AIR & MOISTURE.

PEG Nature Playgroup has visited the ECO garden on several occasions.

We played the EARTHCARE game – see www.earthcaregame.org to check it out.

SUP & Yoga with Tina started Wednesday morning yoga in the garden at 9.30am

Central Coast Quakers meets at the garden every 1st and 3rd Sunday at 10am.

Troubadours meet at the garden every 1st Sunday from 1pm for folk music.

We would love to see you at the 2020 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of Kariong Eco Garden.

• Date: Monday 26 October 2020
• Time: 11:00am
• Venue: Kariong Eco Garden, 2 Dandaloo Street, Kariong 2250

All positions will be declared vacant.  Would you like to join us?

Positions/Responsibilities – current and proposed:

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Safety
Garden
Bush Kids
Repair Cafe
Boomerang Bags
Eco Office & Library
Media Team – newsletter, website, facebook
Public Officer
Fundraising
Membership
General

Out last monthly volunteer working bee for 2020 will be on Saturday 14/11/2020, 10am – 1pm and the last Repair Cafe and Boomerang Bags will be on Sunday 15/11/2020, also 10am – 1pm.  Let us know if you are interested in a Second Hand stall/ Car Boot Sale on that weekend. 2nd Saturday Working bees and 3rd Sunday Repair Cafe + Boomerang Bags will resume in February 2021.

Weekly garden volunteering will continue on Monday mornings until 21/12/2020 and resume on Monday 18/01/2020 with Muddy Monday 10am – 12noon for children with their grown ups. The garden is available for school holiday activities, small events and parties – book with Lisa on 0429 431 889.

We have a CovidSafe plan and ask that if you are unwell, please stay home and get well soon.  We provide hand sanitiser and eucalyptus spray for tool handles. Please BYO gloves if you would prefer. We ask everyone to maintain 1.5 metre spacing.

Fundraising: please donate any unwanted bottles and cans eligible for 10c refund. You can take them direct to the Envirobank Automated depot at 311 Manns Road, West Gosford and ask them to credit the ‘Kariong Eco Garden’ account. Every little bit helps!

Wishing you all well for late spring and summer.

Troubadours are having Folk music session in the Eco Garden on 1st & 3rd Sundays from 1pm during winter. $3 donation (which they donate to KEG)

Volunteer mornings – on Tuesdays for the time being – 10am – 12noon.  (current limits are 10 people which is not usually an issue – unless we have an event or guest speaker)

Repair Cafe – 3rd Sundays, 10am – 1pm – so Sunday 21/6/20 – in Kariong Progress Hall. See details in What’s On. NSW Health guidelines will be followed re limits on number of people in hall but we will make it work. Volunteers helping to repair your items (not electronics yet but all sorts of things – sewing, jewellery, small household goods, tool maintenance and bicycles.

Boomerang Bags – 3rd Sundays, 10am – 1pm – so Sunday 21/6/20 – in Kariong Progress Hall. Volunteers sewing cloth bags to reduce plastic bag use & pollution.

Weekend working bees in Winter: 2nd Saturdays, 11am – 2pm – so Saturday 13/6/20, soup provided for lunch. Bring something to share if you are able.

Sunday 28/6/20 marks the 15 year Anniversary of our “Conception” ie the day we were created by a Motion of Gosford Council. Shared lunch 12-2pm (subject to NSW Health limits in outdoor spaces)

During the COVID-19 restrictions on movement and gathering, things have been quiet at the Eco Garden.  We have stopped our regular Monday morning volunteer mornings and only visited occasionally to feed the worms and give a little water when needed. The garden has been happily going wild.

Just before the ‘lock-down’ we had started dismantling the compost bays, made of recycled pallettes, along the back fence.  We moved them to their new location next to the water tank outside the Dandaloo St end gate.

In several two-person efforts, Norm Harris and myself worked on the new compost bay, using the pallette timber, corrugated iron and keeping a safe distance (we considered the task our exercise – allowed by two people outside).  Norm finished off the fronts of the compost bays, re-using the old gates.  We owe him a great thanks.

On 4th May we officially announced the Compost Bays open as a timely way to mark the beginning of International Composting Awareness Week.

We have also had regular visits from some locals who have been busy planting seedlings – thanks Nate! And whipper snipping, weeding and fixing our tap – Thanks Jason.  Other weeders I do not know by name but it has been lovely to pop in and see evidence of helpful visitors – and wonderfully, no damage worth mentioning.