The August field day will be at the Dagun Railway Station, Sunday 31 August
Permanent vegetable production beds in steep country at Wurraglen, Dagun
Steve Burgess will explain the irrigation system that he and Elaine Bradley use on their permanent vegetable beds in their newest market garden at their Wurraglen property by bringing all the bits and pieces and setting up a hands-on demonstration in the grounds at Dagun Station. They rely on a limited water supply and have been able to maintain production year-round, (particularly through the recent dry seasons) by using an efficient gravity fed drip tape/low-pressure wobbler/mulch system based on relatively inexpensive components.
Steve will also talk about some of the seemingly more mundane (but economically essential) aspects of the design and layout of the vegetable bed system that he and Elaine have refined over a number of years that works for them in the fairly steep topography of their farm, at the small scale of operation that they have chosen as the most suitable for them. The emphasis of this field demonstration is to encourage people to deliberately design a system that works for them, taking into account all the aspects of their site, and most particularly, the efficiency of water use, pumping, labor, post-harvest handling and transport. Hopefully, people can short-circuit many years of personal trial and error by adapting useful ideas from other growers to build into their own production systems at the start.
As with all the co-op farm walks, the afternoon starts at 2 pm, and visitors are asked to bring along some food to share for afterwards, and a gold coin donation for the farmer giving up their time to share their information.
Please confirm your attendance by email to maryvalleycountryharvest@gmail.com, or by contacting Elaine on 0459 225 399. (It helps us stay in touch if their are any last-minute changes of plan)
Laying out trickle tape and walkways for a fixed bed system
