Bedford Park Community Garden

02/05/2026

Our first crop of Choko (or chayote) has set. A beautiful plant, excited to see our first harvest.
Who knows how to cook this vegetable?

22/04/2026

22/04/2026

You don't need to kill the pest. You need to feed the thing that kills the pest.

The difference between a garden full of aphids and a garden that cleans itself is whether the right flowers are blooming when the right predators are hungry.

Most of the insects doing pest control in your garden are tiny — some smaller than a grain of rice. Parasitic wasps, hoverflies, lacewings, and ladybugs all eat or reproduce on pest insects. But their adult stages need nectar to fuel the work. If the flowers aren't there, the predators move on and the aphids stay.

The flowers that recruit them are specific. Small, open, shallow blooms with easy-to-reach nectar — because many of these beneficial insects have short mouthparts that can't reach into deep tubular flowers.

The irony is that the plants supplying this nectar are often the ones gardeners pull out.

🌿 flowers that recruit your garden's pest control crew:

- Cilantro, dill, or fennel allowed to bolt — the flat-topped flower clusters are among the strongest attractors for tiny beneficial wasps and hoverflies. That cilantro you were about to pull because it stopped producing leaves becomes the most useful plant in the bed the moment it blooms

- Yarrow at the end of a bed — flat flower heads that feed the same beneficial insects and come back every year without replanting. One plant covers a surprising radius

- Sweet alyssum between rows — tiny continuous flowers from spring through hard frost. Feeds multiple groups of predatory and parasitic insects across the full growing season

- Calendula near pest-prone crops — attracts lacewings and ladybugs while the sticky stems catch small flying pests on contact

- Cosmos along a garden border — continuous daisy-like blooms that attract predatory beetles and beneficial wasps all season

Let the bolted herbs bloom. Leave the yarrow standing. The flowers doing the most important work in a garden are rarely the ones you planted on purpose 🌱

22/04/2026

22/04/2026

No Mow May is a movement encouraging people to delay mowing their lawns in May to support pollinators and increase biodiversity. Learn more by clicking the link in the comments below.

31/03/2026

Green tomatoes abound.

One of our amazing Garden Club members cooked us up the most amazing green tomato cake. Fine the recipe below.

https://sophiespatch.com.au/green-tomato-cake/

27/03/2026

Straw bales for your garden anyone?

$15 a bale or 2 for $20, pick up at the Garden.

Only a few left. PM if you want some

24/03/2026

Ok my fellow plant lovers, who knows what this plant is?

Does anyone have recipes for using this plant? We'd love to help people know different ways to use this delicious plant.

24/03/2026

We had another wonderful day in the garden today. The tomatoes are finishing off and leafy greens and brassicas are going in.

It's unbelievable how many lady birds we came across, and a lovely young visitor delighted in spotting them, and later helped plant some of the seedlings too.

On my way out, I happened across a little hidden treasure. I don't remember planting a Makrut Lime here, so, to whom ever it was that gifted us this tree, thank you!

For those concerned...I'll be back for that kikuya on Saturday don't you worry. 😉

23/03/2026

I love that we can share the laugh together. We all have to start from zero knowledge and build on it right. Humility can be hilarious.

Anyone else havs a funny story of a moment when they realized they'd been doing it wrong for years?