Rebecca Free will manage the Program part time from our office at Mathers Place, 108 Bathurst Street.

Please make Beck feel welcome next time you see her at our office or at one of our get-togethers.

We need to be smart about striking the right balance between getting enough sunshine for vitamin D production, and avoiding skin damage.

Sunshine includes a component of ultraviolet, or “UV” radiation. UV radiation is responsible for skin damage, which can lead to ageing of the skin and skin cancers. The intensity of UV radiation is measured on a scale from 0 through 20.

Once the UV index is at or above 3, exposure to sunshine will cause skin damage. Visible signs of skin damage include sun tan and sun burn.

Balanced against our need to avoid skin damage, is our need to produce adequate vitamin D. Vitamin D is produced by our bodies in response to sun exposure and having adequate vitamin D is very important to staying healthy.

In the Winter and Spring, most Tasmanians are deficient in vitamin D. Even during the Summer and “Autumn” months, when we enjoy more sun exposure, one third of Tasmanians still don’t have enough vitamin D in their bodies.

So how do we strike the balance between avoiding skin damage, but making enough vitamin D?

In Tasmania, the UV index tends to stay below 3 even at noon for the mid-April to mid-September period. During this period we generally don’t need sun protection whilst outside.

For the rest of the year, exposure to the sun will cause skin damage. From mid-September to mid-April we should aim for regular, short exposures to the sun, 1 or 2 times a day for 10 to 15 minutes. Use adequate sun protection the rest of the time and always avoid sunburn.

If you want to learn more, or check up on predicted UV levels for the day, here are some web sites to go to:

The Cancer Council Tasmania’s web site then follow the link for “Vitamin D”. The Cancer Council web site also displays the UV alert period (times when the UV index is predicted to be over 3) for any day.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s web site. You can look at the Hobart forecast to see the UV alert period (when the UV index is predicted to go over 3) for any day, or you can look at a graphical display of predicted UV for the day in Hobart.

The Hobart “tip” will offer free entry for domestic quantities of general mixed waste on 10 to 11 November 2012, 19 to 20 January and 29 to 30 June 2013.

You can drop off green waste on 23 to 24 February 2013. The council will also collect green waste from your kerb on your regular rubbish night from 19 to 23 November 2012.

For full details please go to the Hobart City Council web site. Please note that this offer applies to Hobart residents only.

Up to 30 June 2012 Still Gardening was funded by the joint Australian Government and State and Territory HACC program whose client group were frail aged and younger people with a disability and their carers.

From 1 July 2012 the State Government will have funding responsibility for programs for people with disabilities and the Commonwealth Government will have funding responsibility for programs for older people.

As Still Gardening’s client group were almost entirely older people, its funding source is now the Commonwealth HACC program. Still Gardening will continue to work with its current clients with disabilities, however in line with with our new funding agreement, the program’s target group will be people aged 65 years and over, or 50 years and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their carers.

Still Gardening is currently working on a Start-Up kit for other areas or community organisations who would like to develop a Garden Mates program based on the Still Gardening model. Contact our office if you would like more information.

A big thank you to Garden mate Val who recently donated four titles from eminent Australian gardening writer Kevin Handreck: Food for plants; Organic matter and soils; Soils; What’s wrong with my soil?

"New" books for the Still gardening Library

We undertook volunteer induction and training at Hobart City Council’s beautiful Regional Nursery in Mornington last week, followed by a tour of the nursery and the amazing collection of “potted colour”, street trees and indoor plants that it maintains.

The eight new Garden Mates are a great boost for the clients on our ever-growing waiting list. We look forward to matching clients and new volunteers over the coming weeks. As one existing client told us:

    “Garden was worrying me a lot.  Now it gives me a lot of pleasure to come out in the garden.  Having the Mate helps maintain interest.  Nice talking about it with someone else.  I made a friend.”

We trust that these new volunteers will do a wonderful job of helping our clients to keep active in their gardens and reap the great health benefits and joy that come out of tending a patch.

Letetia explained that healthy soil is teeming with billions of microbes – tiny organisms – that live in the film of water which coats every grain of soil. These microbes make nutrients available to plants, as well as helping plants to fight off pests and diseases.

We can do a lot to help these microbes and help our plants in turn.

Microbes need organic matter to eat, which we can provide for them in the form of compost, spread on the soil surface.

They need moisture and we can keep the soil moist all the way to the surface by mulching in a 10cm or 4in thick layer with lucerne, straw, pine needles or well-aged woodchips or bark. Good mulches let rain and air through, but protect the soil surface from wind and sun.

We can avoid killing these organisms by not using pesticides in the garden and by using only very small applications of fertilisers and soil conditioners – never more than 10g/m² at once. We can also avoid killing these organisms by not disturbing or compacting the soil.

If we encourage healthy microbes in our soil our plants will grow better – it’s as simple as that!

More about the microbes…

We can split soil microbes into two big groups. The “grazers” are bacteria and fungi. They convert organic matter and minerals into nutrients that are available to other living organisms in the soil. There are also important associations between soil bacteria, fungi and plant roots that help plants search much more widely for nutrients. 

The “predators” are protozoa and nematodes. They eat the “grazers”. Their waste, or “poop”, if you like, is the main source of nutrients for plants growing in healthy soils.

 How can we use this knowledge in our gardens?

When bacteria dominate the soil, conditions tend to become alkaline. These conditions favour grasses, weeds and vegetables. In contrast, when fungi dominate the soil, conditions tend to become acidic, which suits canes, shrubs and trees better.

We can push the soil microbes in one direction or the other according to what we feed them. Bacteria like green foods, high in nitrogen. If we make composts using lots of green materials, and if we mulch the soil using green materials too, this will encourage bacteria.  

If we make composts incorporating more woody material and straw, as well as mulching with these materials, then we can encourage fungi.

An important message then, is that different plants need the soil around them to be managed differently according to whether we want to favour bacteria or fungi. Perhaps it is a good idea to keep most annuals and perennials in different spots when we lay out our gardens, so that we can manage the soil underneath them accordingly.

 Questions, questions, questions…

This new knowledge about soil microbes throws up a lot of questions:

• How do soil microbes help plants to fight disease?

 

Plants growing in healthy soils are covered in microbes on their every surface, from the tips of their roots to the tips of their shoots. These microbes form a protective barrier against pathogens, or disease-causing microbes.

• Aren’t microbes diseases themselves?

Yes, some microbes are diseases. But by encouraging healthy soil microbes we can grow stronger, better-fed plants which are not only coated in a protective layer of healthy microbes, but have the strength to fight off diseases.

• Doesn’t the soil get cold under all that mulch?

Not necessarily. If the soil is healthy, with a lot of microbial activity, then it can actually be warmer under all that mulch. Large, healthy populations of microbes generate heat, and mulch holds that heat in. Letetia told us that typically she finds that healthy soils under mulch are 3^oC warmer than unmulched soils!

• How can over-use of fertilisers damage the soil microbes?

It’s all about water. Letetia explained that large applications of fertiliser change the way that water moves between microbes and the soil. Some microbes can’t compete with the fertilisers for water, and die by dehydration. Others “explode” by excessively taking up fertilisers and water from the soil.

• How can pesticides damage the soil microbes?

Letetia explained that regardless of whether a pesticide targets an insect or a plant, most pesticides contain solvents and wetters. These might be toxic to microbes, or they might interfere with microbes’ ability to hold on to water.

• Why is soil disturbance bad?

Soil disturbance particularly hurts fungi. Fungi grow as long threads in the soil, and when we disturb the soil (such as turning a sod), we tear these fungal threads apart. This kills them. Disturbing the soil usually leads to at least some of the soil drying out too. Remember that these soil microbes are all aquatic, or freshwater organisms. When they dry out they either die or go dormant.

• Why is compaction bad?

Healthy microbes can’t survive in compacted soil.

• Is all this true for all plants?

No. Brassicas, or coles are the exception. They thrive without soil fungi. Bare soil gardens with higher nitrogen, or “green” inputs encourage brassicas.

• In this system, how do we drill fine-seeded row plants like carrots or onions?

 

Push the mulch well aside where you want to make a drill. Some soil disturbance is going to be inevitable, but keep it to a bare minimum. Keep the moisture up to the bared soil too, so that the damage you do to the microbes when you make the drill is kept to a bare minimum, and can be repaired quickly.

• How do I find out what’s living in my soil?

If you’re one of our clients, Mates or Peer Educators, sample a spoonful of soil from at least 10cm or 4in under the surface, as close as you can to a living plant’s roots. Bring it in to the Still Gardening office and one of us can look at it under the microscope with you and point out the different soil microbes.

Still Gardening is now calling for new volunteer Garden Mates to work with us. Garden Mates are matched with elderly clients. Volunteer and client spend regular time together in the client’s garden.   The time committment of the role is very flexible, to suit the (often busy!) lives of our volunteers, and volunteers and clients both reap many benefits from the shared garden experience. You don’t need to be a garden expert! To find out more about being a Garden Mate and to help someone in your community, contact Still Gardening on 62369349 or email stillgardening@hobartcity.com.au