Grow your own food, save money and be healthy – Bilpin Seed Savers will show you how this Saturday

Go into Woolies or Coles today and you’ll be asked to fork out $5.50 for a single lettuce, and who knows how high that and other food items could climb as we face a storm of high inflation, rapidly rising interest rates, and electricity bills set to soar, hand in hand with our upward mortgage payments.

But whoa there, let’s look on the bright side – this Saturday you can learn how to grow your own veggies and make your own edible garden to save bags of money, while having fun, and being healthy too, at a workshop from 1.30pm at Bilpin Hall.

Nick Soudakoff is a Bilpin-based organic vegetable grower who sells his produce at the Bilpin Markets and he’s going to show you what to plant, and when, how to succession plant for a continuous harvest, ideal plant spacing and growing techniques, companion planting, and he’ll also reveal which plants prefer direct sowing, and which like being started as seedlings.

There will also be a discussion about the materials you will need for the next workshop – there are two more, in July and August – and details on how to develop a seedling sowing plan.

This weekend’s class will be backed up by another in July, which will be a hands-on workshop on how to grow seedlings. It will cover:

• How to make your own seed raising mix

• How to ensure successful germination.

• How to grow and look after your seedlings

• When and how to plant your seedlings to minimise transplant shock.

Seed raising mix will be provided at the July workshop but everyone is encouraged to bring their own trays, seeds and labels. There will also be seed available from the Bilpin Seed Savers Seed Box. By the end of the July workshop you will have sown your seedling trays and be ready to start growing.

In August there will be a workshop on how to plan and run seed saving projects.

It will cover:

• Seed saving techniques for different plants

• How to avoid cross pollination

• How to select for vigour and taste

• How to harvest and store seed

• How to integrate your seed saving projects into your garden, and much more.

For any queries or more information call Nick on 0488 050 501 or email at nicksgourmetgarden@gmail.com

The Bilpin Seed Savers are a sub group of the Bilpin Garden Club.

The workshops are free for members of the Bilpin Garden Club – don’t worry though – you can pick up a membership form on the day – it costs $20 a year.

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