Canberra Organic Growers Society (COGS)

20/09/2024

Come join COGS and many other great organisations this Sunday at the Kambah Woolshed. And while you’re there, pop in and say hello at the neighboring COGS Kambah Community Garden!

The Kambah Sustainability Fair gives residents a chance to talk with experts about Kambah's sustainable future. There will be two important discussions held in the woolshed. Come along to listen and have your say.

Session 1: 11.30am – 12.15pm

The ACT election comes at a time of growing unease about our democratic process. Peter Tait of the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy will release the first of a study of community views about our candidates in the upcoming election. Hear what his survey results show and have your say.

Session 2: 1.15pm - 2.00pm

Zohara Lucas from the Southern ACT Catchment group will speak on our urban ecology with an emphasis upon our Kambah parks and village creek. This subject is especially important now that the present ACT government is selling off a block of land for a community amenity within the Kambah district parkland. Hear more and give us your views.

16/09/2024

In line with our constitution, all 12 of our community gardens conduct AGMs around this time of year. These are opportunities to share some fellowship, reflect on the year past, and plan for the year ahead. They’re also a time to elect convenors and members of the garden committees.

As a non-profit, all-volunteer organisation, we depend on members stepping up to take on more responsibility when they can, and no volunteers are more critical to our gardens than our convenors. Combining gardening experience, organisational acumen, and the occasional dose of diplomatic tact, convenors are part mentor and part mayor. It’s no small job!

🙏So here’s a big thanks to all our outgoing convenors, such as COGS Kambah’s Allan Sharp, pictured here with a very attentive local ‘gardener.’

🙏And here’s an equally big thanks to all those raising a hand to take their turn. We couldn’t garden without you!

09/09/2024

Check out our planting calendar and growing guides (links below) for lots of tips on what and how to plant as we head into spring.

September is time to get a start on long-season favorites like tomatoes, capsicum, chile and eggplant. With the ground (and air) still cold and frost a possibility for at least another month, this means growing indoors for most of us, which introduces some real challenges. If you've got a successful setup for getting your seedlings off to a good start, we'd love to see it!

Last year, I invested in a couple heat mats, which keep the soil in the 25-30 degree range that seeds for most summer veg need to germinate efficiently. Even in a very bright north-facing window, however, I found my seedlings got very leggy, so this year I've added some lights and moved the setup into a cheap plastic 'greenhouse' from the Green Shed (RIP). It doesn't do much for the kitchen aesthetics but the tomatoes and chiles are germinating within a few days and going reasonably well, if still a bit leggy. I've got another second-hand plastic greenhouse set up outside, and once the seedlings are strong enough I move them out there during the day.

A real greenhouse would be the thing!

09/09/2024

While these are mainly ornamental rather than food gardens, Open Gardens Canberra's Spring Program begins later this month and may be of interest to some members.

10am to 4pm, 28th and 29th September 2024 My Place My Place 44 Brookman Street, Torrens, ACT, Australia In the front garden a varied display of well-maintained spring flowering shrubs frame a broad 180 degree view which includes Isaacs Ridge, Black Mountain and Mt Taylor. Over time the owner has est...

05/09/2024

We're in the midst of a major overhaul of COGS Oaks Estate Community Garden and could use as many hands as we can muster to help build raised beds this Friday (6 Sept) and Sunday (8 Sept) from 10am.

A great benefit of our collective model of community gardening, with 500 members across 12 gardens, is that it allows us to take on jobs bigger than a single garden could handle. COGS Oaks Estate has hit a bit of a rough patch of late, but it's a great spot with gorgeous alluvial soil, and we're sure it will be humming again in no time.

But as in all things, we are dependent on volunteers, so please stop by if you can -- and bring tools (esp drills, hammers, handsaws) if you've got 'em.

29/08/2024

We’re thrilled to unveil our new logo!

Developed by Canberra-based illustrator and designer Peter Sheehan, who happens to be the convenor at COGS Betty Cornhill, it’s as colorful and vibrant as our gardens. And we especially love it because it tells our story.

🇦🇺It tells where we are: beneath the mountains.

🌿It tells who we are: a network of gardens rooted in community.

🍅And it tells what we’re doing: growing healthy food in living soil passed on from one gardener to the next.

We’re sure our new logo will serve us well in the years ahead — and we’ve got big plans for it as we ramp up to launch some exciting new informational and educational materials. Stay tuned for more on that.

For now, it’s also time to say farewell to our previous logo, the only one we’ve ever had. It was designed by Jeanetta Main and selected from a competition among members way back in 1988. Thanks again, Jeanetta!

23/08/2024

Happy to announce COGS Charnwood Community Garden has received a $2,000 grant to purchase a set of of electric tools, including a lawn mower, whipper snipper, leaf blower and a multi-tool with pruning saw attachment. 🌳 Replacing aging, fossil-fueled tools makes our gardens more environmentally friendly, while the easier maintenance of electric tools allows more gardeners to get involved. 😀

COGS President Neil Williams (third from right at back) is joined here by representatives of other organisations that were successful in this year's round of Community Garden Grants. Congratulations to them as well!

We are excited to announce the recipients of the 2024-25 Community Garden Grants! 🎉

Congratulations go to:
🌼 Canberra Environment Centre (Canberra Environment Centre)
🌱 Canberra Organic Growers Society Inc (Canberra Organic Growers Society (COGS))
🌼 Holy Spirit Parish, Gungahlin (Holy Spirit Catholic Parish, Gungahlin)
🌱 The Food Cooperative Shop (The Food Co-op Shop & Café)
🌼 Red Hill Primary School P&C
🌱 Church of Christ Ainslie ACT Inc (Ainslie Church of Christ)
🌼 Canberra Student Housing Co-operative (Canberra Student Housing Co-operative)
🌱 Miles Franklin Primary School P&C
🌼 Scullin Community Group Inc
🌱 Old Narrabundah Community Council
🌼 Canberra Muslim Community Inc
🌱 SEE Change Belconnen (SEE-Change)

We look forward to seeing their gardens flourish. For more information, visit https://www.climatechoices.act.gov.au/events-news/news/recipients-for-the-2024-community-garden-grants-announced

22/08/2024

Thanks to the convenor at COGS Holder for sending through this shot of a local magpie. It's nice to see someone enjoys the couch!

21/08/2024

Vale Sister Veronica Dunphy (1923 - 2024), much loved gardener at COGS Dickson Community Garden, who passed away peacefully on Saturday 17th August. Veronica had a plot at Dickson since 2014 and had started growing vegetables from a young age on her family’s farm in NZ. Her life was dedicated to caring for others as a nurse, nun and with the L’Arche community. We will miss her patience, good humour, resilience and so much more. Her funeral and Mass will be held at the Holy Rosary in Watson, 1pm Wednesday 28 August. William Cole Funeral directors are live streaming the funeral which will be available for 1 month.

19/08/2024

When your pumpkin and its support network are inseparable.

18/08/2024

Very happy to welcome Independents For Canberra candidate Thomas Emerson to our garden in Dickson a few days ago. As he notes, community gardens play a vital role in fostering social connection and well being.

Amid rapid growth, setting aside space for new gardens will help preserve Canberra’s legacy as a livable city.

16/08/2024

It's that time of year again...

The good news is that, unlike everything else, our very reasonable fees have not gone up.

14/08/2024

COGS welcomes the ACT Greens commitments to local agriculture and a homegrown food economy, including a promise to invest $600,000 to establish six new large-scale community gardens. Community gardens enable people to grow healthy organic food, build social connections, improve mental health — and save money.

Due to strong demand for plots at our twelve existing gardens, COGS has advocated strongly for expanded community gardening space, and we hope to see similar commitments from ACT Labor, Canberra Liberals, Independents For Canberra and other candidates.

13/08/2024

A bit late with our guide this month, but the warmer weather (and much appreciated rain) over the past few days are a good reminder that it's time to get planting.

In addition to the wonderfully multipurpose broad beans, August is a great time to plant peas, lettuce, spinach and silverbeet, as well as perennials like rhubarb, asparagus and artichokes. There's still time (just) to plant bare rooted fruit trees, berries and currants. And finally, the second half of the month is when many local gardeners will start seedlings (indoors) for summer vegetables like tomatoes.

Check out the growing guides on our website for more ideas!

19/06/2024

Several of our intrepid gardeners at COGS Kambah have started a test bed for Haskap berries, which we believe may be the first grown in mainland Australia.

Derived from wild berries growing in northern reaches of Europe, Asia and North America, Haskaps produce oblong bluish-purple fruits similar in taste to a tart blueberry, and are even more nutrient dense than their fellow blue superfood. The name Haskap comes from a word in the language of the indigenous Ainu people of northern Japan meaning "berry of long life and good vision".

Also known under several other names around the world, Haskaps were only brought into cultivation within the last century in the USSR, and are now grown commercially mainly in Russia and Canada. As their provenance suggests, they are a cold loving crop with a high chill requirement, but otherwise said to be very hardy and heavy-bearing, with few pest or disease problems and tolerant of a wider range of soil ph than blueberries.

Haskaps have been grown successfully in Tasmania, which is where our gardeners obtained their seedlings. It will be interesting to see how well they can handle Canberra's warming summers, but they've been given a spot that gets some summer shade and they'd certainly be enjoying the temperatures this week!

We'll let you know how they go!

30/05/2024

30/05/2024

Thank you Neil, Susan and Peter for showing Adele Sinclair for Ginninderra and I around Canberra Organic Growers Society (COGS) Charnwood today!

18/05/2024

COGS Members — if you have an idea for a significant upgrade or expansion at your garden, now is a great time to let you Convenor know.

Financial support is available to help community gardens grow. Find out how to apply for funding through the Community Garden Grants program.

03/05/2024

Autumn is time for one of my favorite gardening activities — leaf collection! Deciduous leaves are built to break down and make an ideal base for establishing no dig garden beds (aka sheet mulching) or as a source of carbon for the compost heap. I’d wager most of us struggle to find enough ‘browns’ to offset our veggie scraps so it’s worth stocking up while availability is good. Leaves can be stored near the compost isnwhatever container you’ve got, or you can use some chicken wire to make a simple frame for a leaf tower. 🍂🍁Since there aren’t many deciduous trees around my place I take my leaf bags (h/t The Leaf Collective) and a rake wherever I go. Nothing like a bit of gentle exercise (and some puzzled looks from passersby) on a lovely autumn days.

02/05/2024

Check out our planting calendar (🔗 below) for ideas on what to get started this month.

With the onset of colder weather -- though as yet no frost -- the options are getting a bit more limited, but it's prime time for planting garlic as well as onions and other alliums.

Garlic likes full sun and does not enjoy competition from weeds (pictured here 🤣). However, it may be best not to mulch at planting in order to keep the soil warm and encourage germination. Bear in mind that garlic won't be ready for harvest until mid-summer, so don't plant it in a spot you'll need for your summer veg. Our garlic growing guide, also linked below, has lots more tips.

In addition, there's still time to sow winter lettuces, peas and broad beans. The latter two won't crop until spring but the tip shoots make a nice addition to salads and stir fries in the meantime. Advanced seedlings of brassicas and other frost-hardy crops can also still be viable if you've got a sheltered, sunny spot.

21/04/2024

Small farms will play a critical role in building a more local and sustainable food future. If you're a small farmer, this survey is an important opportunity to make your voice heard and contribute to a better understanding of the sector.

🔗 below.