WestWyck News

Recently we reported on the WestWyck apple harvest (see below). But there's so much more to the WestWykck garden.

The WestWyck shared garden has just been through its Autumn crop rotation and Garden Queen Fiona (pictured) has helped us maintain ‘fastidious records’ of produce and has calculated the commercial value of the 2011 garden harvest to this point.

From 11 Dec to 2 April:

All produce: 83 kg, worth more than $600

Fi used prices from the local supermarket, so it is well under what the actual value of produce would be if she had used the price for organic veggies!

REPORT - 11 Dec 2010 to 2 April 2011
	kg	number
Apples	2.1	14
basil	0.4715
beans	3.714
beetroot	1.81	9
bell peppers	0.082	9
cabbage	6.1	12
carrots	6.744	132
carrots + tops	2.037	34
cauliflower	0.196	1
climbing spinach	0.286	0
cucumber	4.128	32
eggplant	1.763	7
fig	2.608	23
garlic	0.034	2
herbs	0.055	0
leaves - beetroot	0.117	0
lettuce	1.255	2
mint	0.063	0
oregano	0.128	0
parsley	1.0285	0
rhubarb	2.032	26
rocket	0.339	0
rosemary	0	0
silverbeet	15.521
spring onion	0.189	11
tomato	18.35
zucchini	11.792	59

Andy Ingham was a WestWyck resident, Brunswick activist and Councillor.

Sometimes our efforts indeed go rewarded! Andy Ingham lived at WestWyck until his death in 2001 at which time he was a Moreland Councillor. Andy was a passionate cyclist and occasional car hater who always supported the advancement of cycling. Here, nearly ten years after his death, one of his projects is coming to fruition thanks to the perseverance of Moreland City Council Transport Co-ordinator, Nicholas Elliot.

Here is Nicholas’ story:

"Mike, today we installed bike parking hoops (four) in one car parking space. You can see it if you take your bike down to Rays Café, 332 Victoria St Brunswick. When Andy was alive and Rays opened as the newest and grooviest coffee shop in Moreland, it attracted cyclists from the very start and we put bike parking on the footpath for them. Andy got all excited and suggested that we take over a car parking spot for bike parking. At the time I fobbed him off. I guess I lacked his daring but I never forgot his request and his enthusiasm for it. We’re now at a point where we want to trial car park to bike park conversions and when we were surveying sites, this was the first place I had in mind. It’s temporary for now, but all being well, we should be able to make it permanent.

He was a man ahead of time.

Anyway, if you do go down there, park your bike, have a coffee and toast his memory. I did! "

Rose Read from the Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action visited Christie Walk last month. She was asked whether she had heard of WestWyck! Rose made the following comparisons and comments and sent through a photograph of a very well vegetated Christie Walk.

‘Similar and yet different; both great practical demonstrations of liveable environments ‘Dare I say I was so impressed by the place and what has been achieved? We were fortunate to have a brief tour and overview from someone who has been living there for some years now. She paid tribute to the vision and enormous commitment of the pioneers. It was interesting to note that while designed for environmental sustainability it was the social connections which have been a powerful unintended consequence, to the point where they've been asked by Adelaide Council to assist a new housing project just up the road, on ways to get people working together.’