14 Feb, 16 May, 18 Aug, 14 Nov 2025
| 9.00-10.30am
with Eta Brand |
Visit the gardens on Saturday mornings from 9am-10.30am for a walk and talk in the gardens for an introduction to Permaculture.
14 Feb, 16 May, 18 Aug, 14 Nov
Gold Coin donation
Community Gardens Medicine Walk
| Community Gardens Medicine Walk
Saturday 27th September 9.30-11.30am with Cat Green |
Wander around the gardens with community herbalist Cat Green and learn how to use common garden plants and weeds as food and medicine.
You’ll learn about herbs to manage cold and flu symptoms, for herbal first aid, to manage stress and whatever else we come across.
Come be inspired by the medicine all around us and learn to see the world with fresh eyes.
Cat Green is a community herbalist on a mission to bring herbs back where they belong… to our homes, gardens and communities.
Along with running HerbFest, she also runs regular community herbal medicine workshops, and teaches courses. If you see me in the wild, I’ll either be watching the birds, laughing with friends or complimenting you on your weed patch.
COST for Cat’s workshop as part of YCG’s short Workshop Promotion project
$5.00 financial members of YCG
$10.00 non-members
WORKSHOPS CAPPED AT 25 ATTENDEES.
Saturday 6th September 2025 – Identifying Insects – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
| Identifying Insects – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Saturday 6th September 9-11am with Michelle Gleeson |
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| This workshop will introduce you to the different groups or Orders of insects we commonly find around our homes or gardens. We explore the appearance, behaviour, reproduction, lifecycles and ecology of these different insect groups and sort out the good guys from the not so good.
Participants will use a specially designed dichotomous key to then classify provided insect specimens into these various Orders, giving them the opportunity to work with some unique Australian insects. Combined with cases of preserved insects and arachnids from around the world and live local insects to see up close, this is a fun, hands-on workshop to help you identify insects in your homes and gardens.
Michelle completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in Entomology at the University of Queensland with first class Honours. She always wanted to share her love of insects with people, especially children. In January 2003, together with good friends Anthony & Katie Hiller (Mount Glorious Biological Centre), we developed a range of hands-on insect workshops and thus founded Bugs Ed. In my career so far, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing people, but none more so than the amazing Sir David Attenborough. In December 2009, I got to work side by side with the wildlife guru during his trip down under to film his latest series. We spent the day at Australia Zoo, wrangling rhinoceros beetles alongside D.J., a 2 tonne African Rhinoceros. Best. Day. Ever. In addition to running Bugs Ed. I recently published my first book Miniature Lives – identifying insects in your home and garden, a comprehensive, easy-to-read identification guide to Australian insects. Published by CSIRO Publishing, it has received lots of praise, including a nomination for the prestigious Royal Zoological Society of NSW Whitley Awards. I do some crazy field work as an entomological consultant too, which involves many hours spent up trees, in the bush and traipsing through cow paddocks! Michelle will have her fantastic identification book available for sale on the day. Check it out here: https://bugsed.com |
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| COST for Michelle‘s workshop as part of YCG’s short Workshop Promotion project
$5.00 financial members of YCG $10.00 non-members WORKSHOPS CAPPED AT 25 ATTENDEES. |
Saturday 21st September 2025 – Awakening Your Soil With Life
Saturday 21st Sept 2025
10am-12pm
with Sandra Tuszynska (PhD microbiology)
Sandra will describe the intricacies of the soil ecosystem and how it functions by introducing the microscopic soil superheroes which drive nutrient and water cycles, nourish and defend plants, and thus feed us and all the other creatures. Learn how to support their livelihoods and vital superpowers using simple principles to ensure food security, biodiversity conservation, habitat and climate restoration.
Live soil microbiology show and tell
Soil, and therefore plant and human health, depend on the presence of key soil microbial and microscopic life forms. Using a microscope, a camera and a large screen, we will get close up and personal with the microscopic soil superheroes by magnifying soil, compost and vermicompost samples by a 100-400x. This is a unique opportunity to see what life is present in your soil or compost. Prepare to squeal with delight!
Please note
We will examine the soil and compost samples from the YCG site, but feel free to bring along a sample of your own. Please be mindful that depending on the number of samples everyone brings and the biodiversity in those samples, we might not get enough time to examine all of them, but rest assured you will learn a lot about how to cultivate beneficial microbes in your soil.
Soil Restoration Course – available free of charge on YouTube Click Here
Website soilrestorationcourse.com
Sandra Tuszynska (PhD) is a soil microbiologist and ecologist who feels passionate about soil ecosystem biodiversity and its restoration as the cornerstone of aboveground ecosystem health. As an inspirational science communicator, public speaker and educator, Sandra explains how to cultivate soil biodiversity as the primary step in food production and ecosystem regeneration. In her Soil Restoration Course, she describes the intricate symbiotic relationship between plant roots and their associated microbes, providing practical tools on how to restore our soils with life in order to regenerate the Earth.
COST for Sandra’s workshop
$25.00 financial members of YCG
$35.00 non-members
WORKSHOPS CAPPED AT 25 ATTENDEES.
Book Tickets to reserve your place.
Saturday 5th July, 2025 – Keeping Backyard Chickens
KEEPING BACKYARD CHICKENS
Racheal Pascoe
Saturday 5th July, 2025
9am – 10:30am
Thinking of having chickens at your place and wondering what is involved?
What comes first – the chicken or the egg? Learn about incubating eggs, buying day old chicks or point of lay birds. How much does a chicken cost to buy and what do you feed it?
Learn all about how chickens complement Homesteading.
What are the council rules around keeping chickens? What sort of illnesses can chickens suffer from? How can I manage caring for my birds?
Find all the info you need to get started!
FREE Raffle – 2 chickens and a bag of Barastoc chicken feed (drawn at the end of the workshop)
BIO:
Racheal Pascoe lives a Homesteading lifestyle on the Sunshine Coast. This includes growing fresh foods, raising healthy animals, keeping happy chickens, swapping and bartering produce, troubleshooting issues along the way and connecting with like-minded people! Trading family recipes, swapping life notes and always learning brings much joy.
Homesteading is a wonderfully colourful life. It is often so much more than the smell of fresh bread baking in the kitchen! It can be watching ducklings as they take their first swimming lesson in your laundry sink or being an impromptu vet assistant when a c-section on your favourite ewe was necessary in the paddock!
This lifestyle has seen Racheal and her husband Gavin raise 3 daughters who have all thrived on learning about their food sources and delighting at what Mother Nature can show them.
Racheal is the author of a Homesteading column in the Sunshine Valley Gazette and is also the President of the Nambour Grown Community Garden.
“The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
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