Strong communities, sharing knowledge

There is always something to do in the garden at the moment. I love the photo above, it is of Hanno planting tomatoes with the chooks watching him. (Clicking on the photos will enlarge them.) So the new tomatoes are in, most of the potatoes have come up and seem to be growing well, and the silverbeet seeds, planted directly in the garden, have sprouted.

Hanno used some old pavers to make an area in the garden for me to put my herb pots and a bird bath. We've always had the pots there but they were sitting on the ground and weeds were a big problem. This should make everything neater and easier to manage. You can see in the photo below that I've moved a few pots over, these are a curry plant and chillies, as well as the bird bath. I'll do the rest soon.

Things are looking good out there but like every garden, we have our problems. There are heliothis grubs in some tomatoes and powdery mildew has taken over the yellow button squash. This afternoon I'll harvest the squash on there and pull out the plants. Those plants won't be composted, the mildew would spread, I'll bin them.

Further over the silverbeet and cucumbers are growing like there is no tomorrow. We are packing as much as we can into our vegetable garden. With prices sky high and set to rise even more, we need to grow our own food to make sure we continue eating the freshest organic food possible. If we had to buy most of our vegetables, we wouldn't have this variety, and I doubt we could afford to buy all organic produce.

I wrote about pineapples yesterday and that brought about a lovely surprise. There was a phone call from a local lady, Sue, who reads my blog. She had some spare pineapples, her husband works on one of the farms, and she wanted to know if I wanted a few. She came over later in the morning with four lovely looking pines. Naturally I made one into a jug of pineapple crush later in the day, but these are left for more crush and some pineapple jam.

I met Sue a couple of months ago at a lunch for presenters of local budgeting courses. She helps run a back to basics group in my town and was invited along to the lunch to meet up and connect with us. I have invited her ladies to my Frugalistas morning tea that we will have at the Centre soon. I have started the Frugalistas because the last group in my budgeting course wanted the opportunity to meet on a regular basis to stay motivated and swap ideas and recipes. This is a good way for all of us to make the most of our collective knowledge and to pass what we know on to others.

Early on in my simple life I didn't understand the true significance of community. It's now clear to me that in these tough times, community is vital. We need to build strong communities, we need groups that have reskilled themselves for the coming changes and we need to support each other by sharing what we know and helping whomever we can. We will survive well with strong communities, without them, there will be problems.

I believe it is vitally important to learn whatever it is we need to know to keep our homes functioning well. We need to know the basics like how to garden, cook from scratch, preserve, make non-chemical cleaners, soap and bread, and whatever else is needed in our own homes. There are many ways to learn at home using books, blogs, the internet in general, or friendly neighbours. When we have our own homes in order, we should look to our communities to learn more, and to share what we know. It might be that you are the first person in your local area who knows this. If you are that person, or if you are one of many, I encourage you to step up to the task and lead rather than follow. If you have any local sustainability workshops, sign up and learn what you need to know. If you're already there and have skills others need, see what you can do to teach those in your community.

In my local community we have an important and informative weekend coming up:

Sunshine Coast World Environment Day Festival
Saturday May 31st 2008, 9am-4pm

University of the Sunshine Coast

Saturday 31 May 2008, 9am - 4pm

There is more information available here.

A few people asked about growing pineapples. The photo above was taken yesterday and is of the pineapple I'm currently growing in Hanno's kale patch. He's not amused. ;- ) I expect this pineapple to fruit this summer. There are some very good instructions for growing pineapples here. The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality so it makes a great summer drink to offer your guests. Good luck with your pine tops.