Next meeting: Thursday 8 April 2021 CANCELLED ROGI News ROGI meetings are held on the 2nd Inside this edition Page Thursday night of the month, with doors opening at 6.15pm. Members President’s Message 2 can visit the plant table, seed bank, library and stalls or just have a chat Coming Events. Membership 3 before the meeting. Please be seated April Meeting CANCELLED 3 by 7pm ready for the proceedings. March Meeting—Russell Zabel 4-6 Plant Clinic 7 Bayside Community Church Banana Weevil. Fruit Piercing Moth 8,9 Cnr McDonald Rd & Macarthur St Plant of the Month—Dragon Fruit 10-12 ALEXANDRA HILLS Recipes. Plant Identification 12 Don’t forget: Seed Savers News. Biodynamics SG 13 • Pay your membership dues (only ROGI Garden Visits & Field Trips 14 fully paid members may attend) Upcoming Garden Events 14 • Observe social distancing Oaklands St Bed Prep Workshop 15 • BYO mug if you want tea/coffee How I Make Compost 16,17 • There will be no supper Leafcutter Bee. Used Pots Needed 17 • Swap and share has resumed Seed Sowing Guide 18 • ROGI Rewards has resumed • Bring a basket/box/bag for your ROGI Committee and Office Bearers 19 purchases Punnets Needed. Deadline 19 Native bees (Tetragonula carbonaria species) were • Return washed seedling pots enjoying nectar from this nasturtium. To learn more • Any questions for Plant Clinic about these amazing creatures, read the report on our March speaker Russell Zabel on p. 4-6. leftovers instead of throwing them away. At the very least give the spoiled leftovers to the compost bin, worm farm, Bokashi or Jill’s Jottings chooks. If you have a glut, you can bring it along to a ROGI meeting or Garden Visit and sell it or swap it with other members. n Wednesday afternoon we made the decision to cancel Once you have grown food yourself, you do not want it to be O our April meeting because of the then-current COVID lock- thrown away. It’s not just the waste of the food, it’s the water down and the uncertainty of when it would end. Was it the right and nutrients and time and effort that went into the growing of it. decision? Only time will tell. Make it a policy to not allow anything food-like to leave the property! You could even take this one step further and ask your I am so heartened by the increasing numbers of people keen to non-gardening neighbours to contribute their food waste to your grow their own food, judging by our influx of new members. All of compost, worms and chooks. We do. us, as organic growers, can do our small bit to help mitigate cli- mate change. The mere fact of being gardeners makes us Did you know that the ‘typical’ food basket contains food that is aware of the weather, the seasons and the effect of the chang- very well-travelled? Over 20,000 kilometres actually, according to ing climate. Many of us have talked about these issues. So what estimates done by Ceres in Melbourne. Choose food in season, can we do, apart from talking about it? and locally-grown if possible: it will be better quality, more nutri- tious, fresher and cheaper. Visit your local organic farmer, or buy Just growing our own food is a start. You can walk outside, have from the local farmer’s market. If you want cherries, wait until a tour of your garden, decide what to have for dinner and then early summer. Grapes? If they’re available in winter, then they’re harvest what you need. This reduces your food miles (should that not even from Australia, much less local. Here’s another policy: think about the frequent flyer credentials of food before you buy. be food ‘kays’ – for kilometres?) to food metres! Even growing a range of culinary herbs is a start until you can sort out your vege- ROGI offers you lots of information and opportunities to learn table patch and plant the fruit trees you need to provide the more about organic gardening, so take advantage of this and other main foods you eat. turn up at everything you can. Also, please let us know if you can think of other ways we can help you to grow as much of your If you have minimal space to grow much food, then grow those own food as possible, organically. plants that you like and will eat and perhaps those that are usu- ally heavily sprayed, such as strawberries, spinach and kale, ay your garden flourish and your harvest dreams come to which really should be grown organically. (For a list, see https:// M fruition. www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php) Reducing chemical use is a good thing. Read The Myths of Safe Pesticides by Andre Leu, Jill Nixon, ROGI President available in the ROGI library. To reduce food waste, learn how to store your fresh food, and how to preserve a surplus (whether you take advantage of a glut in the store or in your own backyard) and how to make use of 2 Coming Events April Meeting CANCELLED APRIL Thursday 8 ROGI Meeting CANCELLED Sunday 11 Oaklands St Workshop (see p. 15) Nailed it … and Failed it Sunday 18 Field Trip (see p. 14) Tuesday 20 Seed Savers Meeting (see p. 13) We all have successes and failures Friday 23 Field Trip (see p. 14) when growing our organic gardens. MAY Thursday 13 ROGI Meeting Several ROGI members will tell us Sunday 16 Field Trip (see p. 14) about their favourite plants -those they’ve had success with and why. Membership Information Perhaps more interestingly, we’ll hear about the failures—those they 1. Team App (preferred method of payment) might not be very happy to admit Please click here: https://www.teamapp.com/user_session/new?_detail=v1 to! 2. Direct Deposit to BSB 633 000, Account Number 136 137 296 Bendigo Community Bank Victoria Point Do they give up? Do they persist? Bendigo Community Bank Wynnum-Manly What are their secrets? N.B. Reference: Please include deposit ID: YOUR NAME MEMB There’s sure to be something you Failed it! 3. Cheques made payable to Redland Organic Growers Inc. can relate to and learn from! Pay at meeting or by post to: Redland Organic Growers Incorporated PO Box 1257, Cleveland. Qld. 4163. At our meetings, you’re welcome to bring your gardening problems to the Plant Clinic and we’ll see if someone can Member Members New member/s joining in... help (see page 16 for more details). Renewing Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct 21-Dec 22 Category For 2021 The usual attractions will be there—the well-stocked library, Single $30 $30 $22.50 $15 $37.50 the seed bank and seedlings (at bargain prices) - plus for sale are local honey, organic gardening inputs and more. Family* $50 $50 $37.50 $25 $62.50 Pensioner Single** $20 $20 $15 $10 $25 To ensure that we comply with COVID-19 regulations and Pensioner Couple** $30 $30 $22.50 $15 $37.50 our COVID-safe plan, only ROGI members may attend. No Family - two (2) adults residing at the same address and their visitors until further notice. To find out how to join ROGI, go children under eighteen (18) years of age. to the MEMBERSHIP tab on our website, www.rogi.com.au. ** Please provide evidence of pensioner status to claim discount 3 March Meeting—Russell Zabel Australian Stingless Native Bees Russell and Janine Zabel keep Australian native stingless bees and Native bee European honey bees. They have about 1000 hives of native and 200 hives of honey, employ two men, and their livelihood revolves around bees. Stingless bee distribution in There are social bees and solitary bees—stingless bees are social, Honey bee Australia and there are 11 named species in Australia. There are about 1600 solitary bee species in Australia - these include blue-banded, Why are native bees scarce these days? teddy bear, leafcutter to name a few. All solitary bees can sting, but they will not die like the European honey bee does when it Native bees are found in the hollows of dead or damaged trees. stings. There are several reasons for their reducing population: • Land owners generally do not leave trees to grow old and die, The three main species of native bees in Australia are: therefore hollow trees are scarce. Austroplebeia Australis—found in Southern and Western Qld. They • Dead trees are considered a danger to livestock breeders are very scarce and are difficult to locate, as their activity is lim- and are therefore removed. ited to warmer days. They are very timid in character. • There is a possibility that poisons used for rural applications are Tetragonula Carbonaria—found in coastal Qld and as far south as killing out these delicate little insects. Bega in NSW. They are relatively common in most locations, being • Land developers are using the technique called "selective able to adapt to a wide variety of nest trees. These little bees are clearing" to improve the sale potential of their allotments. very active during all seasons and are excellent for crop pollina- Consequently, we see the trees containing native bees dozed tion. This species is available in reasonable quantities. into a heap and just burnt. Tetragonula Hockingsi—found in Northern Qld. These are the most powerful of all. They are very difficult to keep in cooler regions. Why keep native stingless bees in your back yard? For pollination, especially of fruit trees. Hobby farmers keep them to pollinate their small crops.