How to diagnose what nutrient deficiency your lemon tree has

My daughter's lemon tree had an obvious problem of nutrient deficiency. But what nutrient was it deficient in? The new Google image search (or look here for a video) is a quick method of diagnosis. Upload the image of your tree. The images it found were not clear immediately so the search facility asks for a hint in words. I added "nutrient deficiency lemon" and got an image from this site which told me the lemon tree was suffering from a deficiency of magnesium.

On another website I also found: "When a magnesium deficiency is present, the young citrus leaves appear green and normal, but older leaves turn yellow and often have an inverted ‘V’ of green at the leaf base. In advanced cases, leaves fall prematurely and cropping declines." This described the leaves on my daughter's lemon tree exactly.

And then of course Peter Cundall came up trumps with a solution. A foliar feed with a solution of Epsom Salts and now I am waiting to see if the tree will look healthier. 

Community Market on Saturday

It is resuming again after the two month winter hiatus: the Endeavour Hills Community Market. We, the Greater South eastern Permaculture Group, have a stall there once a month to let people know about Permaculture and what it can do for them, as well as a fun session of chatting, meeting people, exchanging tips and ideas and learning stuff. It looks like it will be a lovely day.

The market is at 2 - 8 Gleneagles Drive, Endeavour Hills
We would love your help to staff the stall. It is a lot of fun and doesn't need to take up much of your Saturday

The market is on from 9 am to 1.30 pm if you would just like to pop in and say hello.

This was a rainy day but we still had lots of fun. This Saturday will be a lovely day!

The stall is also a way of swapping produce that you have too much of in your garden. Nobody goes home empty handed.

Narre Warren North Community Garden Progress Report

We are doing a permaculture design of the garden, changing the orientation of the beds so that they lie along the contour rather than down the hill. We are doing this so that water and nutrients are not encouraged to flow down the hill during heavy rain but rather are slowed down so that they can stay in the garden to do their work.This will be a slow process as we do not want to dismantle the garden and lose any of what is currently growing. We will need to move some of the perennials to allow for paths and have already started this process.

The current beds are too wide to be able to work on them without standing on the soil so the new beds will be 1.2 m wide so that they can be worked on from either side without standing on the beds.

We are looking for supplies of hay/straw and manure for the compost and sawdust for the paths so if you know of any free supplies please leave a comment.

We had a lovely time on Saturday with about half of our morning in the garden doing the work that needed to be done and half inside planning for the future and chatting over a cuppa. The harvest swap was very successful with most people feeling that they left with more than they came with. We are looking forward to our next session on August 25 from 10 am to 12 noon when we will be having a compost making workshop. It looks as though the Community Garden will be getting its own website and facebook page so stay tuned for more news.

Current orientation of garden beds

New orientation

Some dates of interest

Some dates you might liker to put in your diaries:

Saturday August 4
Narre Warren North Community Garden
Spring Planning Day
Narre Warren North Uniting Church,
corner Tom Jones Court and Main Street, Narre Warren North
for more information ring Jo on 0402 087 017

Sunday August 5
Beginners Guide to Chickens
Facilitated by VEG's Kim Glasgow
More information: see upcoming events on the Permablitz website

Sunday August 6
Awaken the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium
11 am to 5 pm
Balnarring Community Hall
Frankston Flinders Rd
Balnarring

Wednesday August 8
Film night and discussion (monthly meeting of the Greater South Eastern Permaculture Group)
Time: 7.30 pm
Film: The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Venue: Narre Warren South
For more information: ring Jo on 0402 087 017

Wednesday August 8
South Melbourne Commons, 217 Montague St (corner Bank St)
Time: 7 pm
An inspiring documentary of how the Fukuoka approach to farming has been taking root in India and supporting the local farmers.
For more information: South Melbourne Film Fundraiser

Saturday August 11
10 am to 4 pm
Permablitz in Preston including workshops on the wicking bed, the hugelkulture bed and the rainwater system
For more information see upcoming events on the Permablitz website (Permablitz 128)

Saturday August 11
3.00 pm to 6.00 pm
EmPOWering drinks with Permaculture Out West
2 Devonshire Rd,
Sunshine

Thursday August 16
Mountain District Permaculture Group Meeting
Wedy Bell will present aspects of her recent trip to Findhorn in Scotland and the "Damanur Temples of Humankind" in Italy.
For more information contact Silvia Allen on 0407 775 883.

Friday August 17 (also 18 and 19 August and 24, 25 and 26 August)
Permaculture Teacher Training Workshop swith Rosemary Morrow.
For more information:  contact Very Edible Gardens

Saturday August 18
Endeavour Hills Community Market
9.00 am to 1.30 pm
8 Gleneagles Drive, Endeavour Hills
Join us at our Permaculture information stall, harvest swap and seedling giveaway
for more information ring Jo on 0402 087 017

Tuesday August 21
6.30 to 9.00 pm
Van Raay Centre, Ceres
An evening with Rosemary Morrow
More information: contact Very Edible Gardens

Saturday August 25
Narre Warren North Community Garden
Compost making workshop
10 am to 12 noon
corner of Tom Jones Court and Main Street, Narre Warren North
for more information: contact Jo on 0402 087 017

Saturday September 8
10 am to 12 noon
Beginners Guide to Chickens
Heathmont
for more information: see upcoming events on the Permablitz site

Saturday September 8
Narre Warren North Community Garden
Vegie planting and harvesting
10 am to 12 noon
corner of Tom Jones Court and Main Street, Narre Warren North
for more information: contact Jo on 0402 087 017

Saturday September 15
Endeavour Hills Community Market
9.00 am to 1.30 pm
8 Gleneagles Drive, Endeavour Hills
Join us at our Permaculture information stall, harvest swap and seedling giveaway
for more information ring Jo on 0402 087 017

Saturday September 22
10 am to 4 pm
Introduction to Organic Vegie Growing
For more information: see upcoming events on the Permablitz site

Saturday September 22
Narre Warren North Community Garden
Harvest swap and gardening event
10 am to 12 noon
corner of Tom Jones Court and Main Street, Narre Warren North
for more information: contact Jo on 0402 087 017

Thursday October 11
10 am to 12 noon
Endevour Hills Neighbourhood House
Permaculture: working with nature, learning from nature
for more information: contact Jo on 0402 087 017

Saturday October 13
Narre Warren North Community Garden
Harvest swap and gardening event
10 am to 12 noon
corner of Tom Jones Court and Main Street, Narre Warren North
for more information: contact Jo on 0402 087 017

Saturday October 20
Endeavour Hills Community Market
9.00 am to 1.30 pm
8 Gleneagles Drive, Endeavour Hills
Join us at our Permaculture information stall, harvest swap and seedling giveaway
for more information ring Jo on 0402 087 017

Saturday/Sunday October 27/28
Morning or afternoon sessions available on either of these days
See Joel Salatin at Taranaki Farm
Bookings essential
For more information: Taranaki Farm

National Food Plan Consultation

YesterdayI went to to the first National food plan consultation in Berwick. As the website states: "The aim of the national food plan is to foster a sustainable, globally competitive, resilient food supply that supports access to nutritious and affordable food." It was an interesting experience. People from local councils, local primary producers, representatives from the DPI and from a local permaculture group (us) and members of the Frankston Food Access Network as well as regular citizens concerned about the issue spoke up. It was a very interesting and there was predictably a variety of viewpoints expressed. These were expressed in a respectful manner and I learnt a lot from listening to these.  (Things to follow up on: AgChatOz and Food Security group on Yahoo). I did get a chance to speak up, but if I had had 18 minutes to speak I might have expressed a few of these thoughts as well (Roger Doiron is founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a network of people taking a hands-on approach to re-localising the global food supply.)  His video "A Subversive Plot: How to Grow a Revolution in Your Own Backyard" (below) is so inspiring.
Try and get to a meeting if you can, or submit a written submission by September 30, 2012. Follow the progress of the Food plan development on the blog or through twitter.

Vandana Shiva talk

Just recently a group of us from Greater South Eastern Permaculture went to Montsalvat to hear Vandana Shiva speak. This talk is now on YouTube.

Dr Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya International, radical scientist, ecofeminist, author and environmental leader, was in conversation with Dr Susan Hawthorne of Spinifex Press for this special event at Montsalvat. Dr Shiva has been an active campaigner against the corporate-led globalisation of food production and genetic engineering, and a passionate advocate for organic farming and community-led social movements.
This event was an opportunity to hear one of the world’s major environmental advocates discuss the wars waged against the planet, wars about land, water, climate, forest and biodiversity. Importantly, she helped us envision a future in which human rights and the earth’s rights are aligned.
What did I learn? In answer to a question about the 8 millennium development goals – she stated that all of them can be achieved with becoming food self reliant.

She spoke about a common plant growing wild that her mother used to feed her family with. It was rich in Vitamin A and iron. It is now sprayed with herbicides as a weed. What a waste. After the talk I went straight to my library catalogue and looked up her book Soil not Oil: Environmental Justice in an age of climate crisis and I am looking forward to reading it.

What I wanted to say