The Green Space

Woree students learn new growing method

Woree High School students attended a workshop at The Green Space to learn how to make a styrofoam box wicking bed. They took their wicking beds back to the school to monitor and maintain their planted seeds.

Education garden attracting visitors

With the new front gate open on volunteering days, The Green Space education garden has been attracting locals and visitors from interstate and overseas. They are interested in some of the more unusual vegetables we are growing and love exploring the garden and asking questions. We’ve had a lot of interesting conversations about growing vegetables and have shared cuttings and seeds with our local visitors. The Green Space is open on Wedensdays 9am-3pm and Fridays from 1.30-3.30pm.

The Veggie Patch In The Green Space education garden, we have been learning about some of the beneficial insects that are in the garden, what they eat and how to encourage them to multiply. Beneficial insects need food and they eat ‘bad bugs’ - aphids, red spider mite, caterpillars, as well as any ‘bad’ fungi such as powdery mildew. They also need flowers, such as basil, coleus, marigolds and other flowering herbs.

With the help of the biosecurity team, which presented at the August Volunteers Information Session, we have been learning to be patient, watch and see the ecosystem working.

There is no spraying of chemicals nor the natural sprays such as garlic and chilli, as they too can

Good bugs vs bad bugs

Sarah Gosling

be detrimental to the good insects. Spraying any fungicide is also not advised as it will also kill beneficial fungi in the garden.

Infected leaves and caterpillars are removed by hand (caterpillars can eat an enormous amount in a few days). Good bugs have been seen helping out: lady bugs eating powdery mildew on cucumber leaves; small black lady bugs eating red spider mite on eggplant leaves; and hoverfly larvae eating aphids on brassicas. We have also come across ‘blown up’ aphids which have been parasitised by wasps; and (as pictured) a caterpillar also parasitised by a wasp. Wasp larvae parasitising the caterpillar is of benefit as the good wasps will hatch and support with control of the leaf eating bugs. It is very exciting to watch the ecosystem in action in The Green Space garden, and to watch the plants recover (not all recover, but an increasing number do, as we learn how to manage them).

Volunteers Support Officer Sarah Gosling (centre) assisting Norma (left) and Helen with weaving their hats.

Weaving workshops

connecting and learning

Norma and Helen

The Green Space provides not only a space to learn how to grow your own food but also a variety of useful new skills. Over a series of weaving workshops held in November and December, Volunteers Support Officer Sarah Gosling demonstrated techniques in coconut frond weaving. Volunteers were shown how to make mats, placemats and a hat.

Rikki with her finished woven mat.

Catherine, Miriam, Sharyn, Helen and Mengting enjoying the companionship of weaving together.