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A Botanical market garden update from Lou Sales our Horticulturalist 

Winter is well and truly here at Botanical and we’ve had some pretty hard frosts over the past week. There is not much you can plant at this time of year (even the weeds slow down!) giving us a welcome break from garden maintenance tasks and the opportunity to get stuck into some major garden development.

We’ve built a new garden and food forest to complement our community site at Bond Place, which is due to be completed in August. We are also constructing a garden for our new Beauty Lab at Botanical. This will include a range of plants that we’ll use in our beauty products - such as kunzea, tea tree, dog rose, rosemary, lavender, camomile, lemon balm, mint, aloe vera and pig face. Today we are harvesting calendula, rosemary, lime balm, lavender and lemon grass to dry out ready for our first Beauty Lab workshop at the Winterfest on 30th June.

Many of these plants have the added benefit of being great for beneficial pollinators and our resident bees. We tucked our bees up in bed ready for winter last month, with a full box of honey per hive to keep them going over the cold winter months. We also reduced the size of our hive entrances to keep our cold drafts and to help prevent honey robbing by mice and wasps.

Since we are not growing many seedlings at the moment, we’ve temporarily converted part of our seedling raising area into a mushroom growing chamber and have been teaching visiting school groups how to grow grey oyster mushrooms in tubs. If you are keen to give mushroom growing a go too, I’d highly recommend Milkwood Permaculture’s Free Growing Guide to get you started. They also have a great online course for those wanting to learn more.

Winter is also a great time to take hardwood cuttings. Over the coming weeks we’ll be taking grape cuttings to give to our schools and the local community. If you want to have a go at taking cuttings yourself, Goodlife Permaculture have some easy to follow instructions on their website here.

Our new apprentice Travis is particularly interested in growing fruit trees, so we intend to expand our orchard this winter, moving and planting trees during their dormant season. We’ll use espalier techniques to squeeze in as many trees as we can including plums, cherries, pears, nectarines and peaches. We are looking forward to being able to share the produce with our schools in years to come.

Note: Lou Sales is our Horticulturalist who looks after our 1 acre market garden in Bridgewater, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Botanical produces hundreds of kilos of produce for our schools, community and food banks along with thousands of seedlings to keep our school gardens fruitful all year round.

Winter is well and truly here at Botanical and we’ve had some pretty hard frosts over the past week.

The ladies are jumping again this 24th June.

Our fearless founder Kirsha Kaechele is at it again! Ladies Who Jump is on back on this year and the fundraising goal is bigger than ever! $300,000 to fund our 24 Carrot Gardens program in Tasmanian schools.

It’s that time of year again, when brave ‘ladies’ (whatever that means for you) take the plunge into Tasmania’s icy waters to raise funds for 24 Carrot Gardens!

Ladies Who Jump, this year held on 24 June, is your chance to rally a team together, get your kit off and to warm our hearts by generously donating to a great cause – healthy gardens, communities and schools across the state.  

Need inspiration? Last year’s team captains and jump veterans the Crispy Carrots, Taroona Tough Titties and the Bruny Island Ladies share their expert advice.

- Choose your preferred body of water based on accessibility, beauty and how public or private you prefer your plunge to be 

- Pick your time of day – plunging as the sun comes up is guaranteed to keep you invigorated for the rest of the day 

- Indulge in ‘spiked’ coffee for dutch courage and to get the blood moving through your body

- Shrieks, swear words and squeals are encouraged

- Remember it’s not how far you plunge that counts but that you plunged at all  

- A fire pot will bring warmth back to your bones post plunge

- Be prepared for the full body post dip tingle and glow 

- Let the thought of the 24 Carrot Gardens team and hundreds of Tasmanian kids and communities having access to healthy produce and gardens warm your heart!

Our fearless founder Kirsha Kaechele is at it again! Ladies Who Jump is on back on this year and the fundraising goal is bigger than ever! $300,000 to fund our 24 Carrot Garden program in Tasmanian schools.

Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School garden development before commencing.

Students help with marking out the future garden.

Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School garden development phase one complete November 2022.

Tamas, Reuben and Andy from the 24 Carrot Gardens team who worked on the Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School garden development.

East Devonport Primary School student concept from student consultations 2022.

Romaine Park Primary School student concept from student consultations in 2022.

2022 saw the serious expansion of 24 Carrot Gardens across Nipaluna (Hobart), in the north of the State and for the first time, in high schools. Together with our school communities, support from the Department of Education and our landscape design partners Inspiring Place and the University of Tasmania, our development team commenced a total of nine new transformation projects across the state.

Through listening to local knowledge and encouraging the creativity of students, educators, families and the school community, we collaborate to envisage how under-used spaces can be transformed into beautiful and productive living landscapes. Environments that bring beauty and offer a valuable contribution to the education curriculum through learning that occurs by growing, harvesting and cooking fresh produce. 

Each site responds to place and people and is as unique as the community who has imagined and developed it. Together we design, problem solve, dream, construct, plant and through conversations of care, communities connect and take ownership  of these future ecologies. 

With more sites to transform in 2023, we are energised and inspired by the number of schools and communities now reaching out to us and expressing their interest in being part of a vibrant food culture and establishing gardens filled with delicious produce. We continue our fundraising efforts to support and enable the establishment of more school gardens. 

More gardens in more schools and communities means more access to delicious produce. More gardens make stronger community connections, generate better health outcomes and develop moments of collaboration and celebration. We believe communities with vibrant food cultures have strong futures. 

We’re looking forward to planting more seeds of radical renewal and growing a vibrant food culture across in Lutruwita in 2023!

A huge thank you to our generous and growing network of funders, volunteers, collaborators and the nine schools who joined us in 2022:

Department for Education, Children & Young People

University of Tasmania (School of Architecture and Design)

Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School

2022 saw the serious expansion of 24 Carrot Gardens across nipaluna (Hobart), in the north of the State and for the first time, in high schools.

From asphalt to wonderground: sowing seeds of radical renewal across Lutruwita.

The Ladies Are Jumping Again!