On the 23 March, Kelly held a fantastic workshop at her home at Murphy's Creek on composting and no-dig gardening.  We had about 18 people attend including two famlies with children.  We even had a couple from Bell.  The first thing you notice as you drive into Kelly's place is just how beautiful and well-kept her garden is.  It was such a tranquil location.  To begin with Kelly showed us how to create a compost heap and gave us a recipe to follow.  She told us that there are five main things to remember when composting: water, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and size and if you get those things right you will have a great compost heap.  Importantly Kelly explained how to vary the quantities so people with a small garden can have a small compost heap.  Not everybody has the space to have a large compost set-up like Kelly but she encouraged everybody to give it a try and showed us how that can be done.

Kelly then showed us around her amazing vegetable garden.  I can't describe just how good and healthy everything looked.  We also got to see the nets that Kelly has bought from Netpro.  She highly recommends them for keeping fruit fly off tomatoes and fruit trees.  We then had a shared lunch under some trees beside Kelly's dam.  It was a stinking hot day so we really appreciated the shade.  It was so lovely just to sit and chat and get to know one another a little bit more.

After lunch we created a no-dig garden from scratch.  From clearing the site to planting the camellias it took under an hour.  I was blown away with how quickly it was completed.  As you can see it was a real hands-on workshop with everybody helping out.  The secret to the no-dig garden is all the different layers starting with a relatively thick layer of newspaper.  As Kelly said if that is done properly at the start you should have no problem with grass growing through. 

I can't thank Kelly and her husband David enough for hosting the workshop and teaching us all about composting and no-dig gardening.  They showed us very plainly and simply how it can be done and made it achieveable for us all.

Laurel has sent me a photo of her finished rug.  Doesn't it look great! I love the colour scheme and the touches of the black and white variegated fabric scattered throughout. Laurel said that the finished size turned out to be 94 x 77cm. Well done, Laurel and thanks for sending in a photo.

Over two nights in March Annette conducted a crocheting workshop.  Our ladies were very successful and well on their way to mastering the granny square.  If anybody would like to learn crocheting please join us at our Coffee, Cake and Craft nights on the first Wednesday of the Month at 7.30pm at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Administration Building, 23 Glenvale Road.  Annette would be happy to show you how to crochet and you also get to meet other ladies interested in craft.  We always have lots of laughs.

At the March morning tea, Glenys demonstrated how to make Fig Jam.  Glenys was very organised as she had frozen some of the figs that she had picked from her tree earlier in the year.  Glenys is just so wonderful at sharing her knowledge and experience.  For a copy of the recipe please click on the following link - Fig Jam Recipe.

I am finally catching up on some blog posts from some of our recent activities. On the 23 February Margaret conducted a terrific homemade laundry liquid and soap making workshop. The 15 ladies who attended the workshop were all quite amazed with how easy the soap was to make.  Although the instructions look quite complicated on paper when you actually see someone make it it isn't quite as difficult as first thought. Margaret also gave each participant a sample of soap to take home.

The laundry liquid is quick and easy to make.  Margaret even grated the soap as seen in the picture which really didn't take long at all.  Once again all the ladies were able to take some laundry liquid home to try it out.  For the instructions on how to make the soap and laundry liquid please click on the link - Soap and Laundry Liquid Instructions. Margaret used the instructions from Rhonda Hetzel which can also be found on her wonderful blog - Down to Earth.