We had a ball opening up our garden recently for the West Hobart Environment Network people. On a perfectly sunny Sunday morning, about 15-20 people traipsed down the driveway and through to the backyard where we talked about fruit trees, vegies, chooks, rabbits, compost, worms, ground covers in orchards and more. We had done a bit of prep over previous weekends – taking a load of greenwaste to the tip which had been hanging around for a while, and also did some general tidy up. Both sets of grandparents came and lent a hand too – couldn’t have done it without you!! The garden is still displaying the benefits of the attention.

 Prep for an Open Garden

• Put some balloons on the open gate with a sign so passers-by can join in if they want
• Get a list of fruit tree varieties and keep it outside for referring to, including how old various tree are. Tony, if you’re reading, our second quince is a De Vrajna
• Dig out some comfrey roots to give away
• Also have the name of the chicken waterer suppliers  – Bellsouth in Victoria if anyone is interested
• Pick some lemons for people to take away
• Have the Council regs about sheds etc available as many people were interested in that. Our chook shed is very carefully just under the max roof size on purpose.
• Dig up more of the dahlia tubers to give away. I swear the more I dig them up, the more there are.
• Gather together some ‘before’ and ‘in progress’ photos from earlier iterations of the garden
• Take some photos of people in the garden on the day too!

I would try and set up a demo of the soil blocking tools and materials.

One day we’ll get the front garden in order and can include that in the tour.