Member's Gardens > Stories from the One Acre Plot > Part 8 November 2006
by Phil Ryan

While I was at the Nambour Home Garden Expo back in July this year I bought several punnets of various seedlings from the Rumbalara Nursery’s stall. Margaret Bielby spoke very highly of this nursery and the good results she had had from using their seedlings. So, with this sort of recommendation, I didn’t hold back.

Amongst the seedlings I purchased was a punnet of eight zucchinis which I planted out, spreading them through my various gardens. Zucchinis need space, lots of sunshine and air flow, hence my spreading them out – one here, one there – and in this way if one caught some dreadful virus or fungus, etc., it, hopefully, wouldn’t spread to the other zucchini plants dotted around the garden. Zucchini are vigorous feeders and to achieve good results they should be planted in a mountain of ‘triple A’ compost. The quicker you can grow them, the better quality and richness of the end product will be your reward. This goes, of course, for most veggies. Keep them well fed and watered so they can grow as fast as possible.

Another thing I have learned about growing zucchinis is that you never, ever directly water the leaves. Instead, always water the base of the plant only. Use a watering can with a long nozzle so you can reach into the base of the plant. Planting the seedlings out with my rich compost also meant I didn’t need to give these plants any more food – but I did give them a foliar spray early one morning with a mixture of garlic and molasses to keep any sap-sucking insects away.

Well, these zucchini plants took off! They grew beautifully! You could just about measure their growth by the hour. Within a few weeks each plant was nearly a metre wide, with huge leaves. Then came the flowers. They were simply stunning – the biggest I have ever seen, and which very quickly became the biggest and best tasting zucchinis one could ever hope to grow. Apart from a savage ‘slash and bash’ attack by the now dreaded white cockatoos, nothing else came near to harm them, which supports the theory that healthy plants don’t have problems. I would still, however, need to protect these zucchini from further attacks. Unfortunately, my efforts in constructing a solid form of protection, shades of the wire defences of the WW2 prison camp, Stalag No. 17, didn’t result in the sort of praise that I thought my efforts deserved and, yes, it was obvious, when it was pointed out to me, that I lacked the vital necessary skills to make this sort of defence system look ‘neat and tidy’. The standards of The Plot had been drastically lowered! In spite of all my travails, the zucchinis triumphantly succeeded in producing a crop that was mind-blowing – and to cap it all off they won a First Prize at our recent Bogi Fair! How good is that!

I don’t quite know how I attracted the attention of this year’s Fair organizer, but in hindsight I think he took advantage of my ever increasing deafness. Too late I realized I should have said a ‘no’ to this very earnest go-getter with the silver tongue for, before I knew it, he had bestowed upon me the honour of being in charge of both the Book Stall and the Plant Stall, plus I had already put my name down for a stall myself, which has been my practice at earlier fairs. So, come the evening before the Fair on Sunday, I found myself still without helpers to man these stalls! The memory of a quote by Myrtle Charteris (who grew most of the seedlings that stocked the Plant Stall at past Fairs) some years ago when things were tough and helpers very few, loomed to the surface – “Talk is cheap. Its action that is needed right now!”. A phone call on Saturday night was the first offer of support to help out on my stalls. It put a spring into my step. Up until then it looked as though all my prep work would be in vain. To add just a little more pressure, the motor in my ‘you beaut red ute’ had caught fire. I had a mountain of stuff to take to the Fair and all I could think of was “No ute, no Fair”. However, the trusty RACQ came to my rescue on Saturday morning, as did a team of wonderful people early the following morning, the day of the Fair. Bronwyn arrived first, very, very early, and didn’t stop working at setting up, pricing, sorting, receiving donations of plants, seedlings – whatever. She was fantastic. As was Tony, who came in at 8.30am, full of beans and loads of can-do. Then came Myrle, who charmed all the customers.
My sincere thanks to all those wonderful Members who donated plants, seedlings, honey, etc., and a special thanks to Annette McFarlane who donated a stack of quality gardening books and to Peter & Julie Thompson who donated several cartons of their “Belmere Clear” natural spring water, all delivered in an esky and packed in ice. An extra touch was the special label which read “Proudly supporting Brisbane Organic Growers Inc”. My biggest ‘thank you’ is to my team of helpers – Bronwyn, Tony, Myrle and my wife, Marg. Each of you helped pick me up and carried me over the finishing line. Without your ‘true blue’ support I wouldn’t have finished the race. So, Team, my most sincere thanks and, God willing, we’ll do it all again next year.

The Pestguard bag, which John Box is selling at the Bogi Shop, sold out at the Fair on Sunday. Yes, John’s got more in stock, but a lot of Members besides me must think it’s a real winner in the fight against the fruit fly and other bothersome insects that spoil tomatoes and lots of other precious fruit.
I couldn’t help feeling that our Fair this year had a lot in common with what I’m trying to do at The Plot. The effort to share the experience, live organically and awaken people to the organic way of gardening was very evident. The program of demonstrations, commencing with a hands-on President doing a ‘demo’ of how to build a no-dig-garden would have had Easter Dean, the Queen of no-dig-gardening, clapping along with all the other people who enjoyed this first rate introduction. The day’s program was packed full with the ‘how to’ skills along with concentrated effort of ‘show and tell’. This introduction to the wonderful world of organic gardening was superb and, even better, it was free to anyone who wanted to sit, listen and learn – and lots of people did just that.

I’m looking forward to spending some quality time at The Plot now that the annual fair is over, and to sharing my experiences with you. Until then, count your blessings and enjoy your garden.