The Cape Community Garden Is In Full Swing

One of the first community working bees at The Cape with some of our residents

​The Cape community garden has burst into life this Summer, with a wide range of organic produce ripening before our eyes. Currently our residents are producing garlic, spring onions, basil, over 7 different varieties of tomatoes, zucchinis, pumpkins, beans, coriander, spinach, lettuce, corn and much more. The garden has enough space for 30 gardeners, and last year produced over $20,000 of fresh produce for residents and local charities.

The garden has exploded with produce this Summer

​We are very happy to see some of our highly skilled greenthumb residents starting to come into the garden to take it to its full potential, and look forward to an increase in productivity and variety of food coming from the garden in future. The innovative garden features advanced self watering wicking beds, which water from the bottom up, with the water reaching the plants via capillary action. Wicking bed enthusiasts and clever gardeners love this advanced design because it is super water efficient and reduces weeding by up to 90%. This is because the garden does not use sprinklers, and this maintains a dry top layer of soil which reduces the ability for weeds to grow.  This is evident at The Cape community garden where you will be very hard pressed to find a weed!  The garden beds only require watering weekly during summer and once every few weeks during cooler periods. By eliminating the need for constant watering and weeding, gardening becomes highly efficient and productive, and fun for our residents. Our garden design can turn the most amateurish gardener into a champion food grower!!

The Cape garden design makes food production super easy with minimal watering and weeding

​We are looking forward to building the second stage the garden which will come soon after the completion of Stage 2 of the estate. This will double the size of the garden to feature a hothouse, pizza oven, tool sheds, seating and covered spaces for lunch and morning tea. When fully complete, the Cape community farm will include an orchard, beekeeping, poultry and enough space for 100 gardeners. 

The Cape urban farm when complete will feature an orchard, poultry, beekeeping and space for 100 gardeners

​The Cape is working closely in developing our community farm with award winning urban farming company Biofilta, and in 2018 we look forward to introducing Biofilta’s innovative, soon to be released modular home farm system, as pictured below. This advanced system will allow our residents to produce a huge amount of food at home, using captured rainwater as well as composted food waste. 

The Cape will introduce a new super efficient home farm designed by Biofilta for our residents in 2018

The Cape community garden has been attracting attention from around Australia, featuring on Better Homes and Gardens and in Sanctuary magazine.

The Cape garden is open to the public every Saturday and Sunday between 12 noon and 4 PM, and will be open for the annual passata making day to be held on Sunday March 11th this year between 10 AM and 4 PM, with passata making, gardening tours, live music, wine tasting and the official launch of some new sustainable homes at the Cape. Please mark this in your diaries!!
 
Happy gardening!!
 
Best regards,
The Cape team

Dont miss our annual passata day and inaugural harvest festival at The Cape on Sunday 11th March