And finally in case you missed it, September has been busy with National Clean Up Week, Te Wiki o te reo Māori, and Mental Health Awareness Week – check out our facebook page for the ways we have been celebrating, learning and connecting over these weeks.

What’s happening at The Pantry:
Spring into a refreshed home and lush garden this season!
Discover the joy of natural, cost effective, and eco–friendly spring cleaning and gardening. Revitalize your space while taking care of your health, the environment and your wallet with these tips:

• Epsom salt: Pour 1-2 tablespoons of Epsom salt directly into the seed hole before planting as magnesium is an important mineral for seed germination. Also add to magnesium deficient soil.
• Sodium percarbonate cleans up concrete, bricks, patio and wooden decks. Use 1 cup/ 4L of warm water.
• Washing soda crystals can be used for cleaning your washing machine and softening water. To clean the washing machine just add 500g of WSC in the detergent dispenser and run a hot cycle. Also degreases hobs and extractors (200g of WSC to 1/2L of hot water).
• Baking Soda: The mother of all cleaning! It also has uses in the garden. Dilute 1 teaspoon to ¼ cup of warm, soapy water and spray on your roses’ leaves. The baking soda will treat and prevent diseases like black spot, while the soap helps it stick, and is also mildly effective at smothering many insects’ pests.
• Coffee ground: Great as an exfoliant for your face, it is also vital in the garden, mostly used as a soil enhancer, sprinkle a thin layer of coffee grounds around your plants before rain is due, that way the water will seep down and take the nitrogen from the coffee grounds into the soil.

Find all these ingredients and many others at The Pantry, don’t be afraid to ask our friendly team for more tips.

Also, join the fun at our village market on the 14^th of October, we still have table spots available at our community market. Be part of the excitement, share your unique products, and connect with your neighbours. Reserve your spot today and let’s make this market a vibrant hub of local talent and community spirit.
 

The work that South Alive achieves for its South Invercargill community had an unexpected but very welcome boost from further afield this month.
A wonderful selection of educational toys and resources have been generously donated by Raewyn Overton-Stuart who owns PAUA (Preschoolers At-Home Uniquely Achieving) Early Childhood Home Based Care Service started in Whanganui in 2003 and has now grown to provide care in many regions of New Zealand. 
Through our South Alive Pay It Forward programme assisting families in need and liaising with New River Primary School these interactive games are being distributed.
Many thanks to PAUA for this generous donation and we endorse their philosophy of Ngā tamariki o tātou mo āpōpō / Children are our treasures for tomorrow.
 

We have our own radio show on Radio Southland 86.4 FM, called Stories From The South. This is recorded and released every 2nd Saturday.  The show shares what has been happening, what is coming up and chats with special guests. Have a listen to the podcasts by clicking below.

Plant carrots and radishes together so you can see where carrots are as they take longer to germinate.

If you dont have a garden you can plant in a bucket ! Get planting things like lettuce, spring onions a couple of strawberries, spinach, potato etc.

Don’t plant frost tender plants until after Labour Weekend – they will soon catch up. Tomatoes, cucumber and peppers etc.

Place pea straw in the potato furrows – keeps the spuds warm and aids sprouting.

From the Beautification Team