“Our pizza and music evening celebrates the start to summer gardening and the Christmas garden diary,” Peter ‘Lewie’ Lewis, president of CRCGA, told News Of The Area.

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“We’ll fire up the wood fired pizza oven and encourage people with musical passion to perform and eat and chat in the beautiful Combine Street Community Garden reserve.

“There’s plenty of room to run around for the kids and undercover space if it’s raining.”

Following this on Sunday 3 December is a bee-focused day in the garden with two talks.

Starting at 10am, lasting for just under two hours, the first talk is all about honeybees.

The talk will be presented by bee experts from Coffs Beekeeping Supplies in Woolgoolga.

“This educational event is for people wanting to get into keeping European bees, i.e. bees that sting but give honey.

“People are invited to attend this introductory workshop that goes into what the physical and legal requirements are for keeping bees.”

In particular the content will cover managing Varroa mite and other pests and diseases now common in honey bee hives such as hive beetles.

“We’ll be looking at how to get started and how to keep your hive healthy and productive.”

The second talk starts at 1.30pm when Peter will talk about pollination and about keeping native stingless bees.

“I’ll be talking about how to keep these bees healthy and ways to get small amounts of sugar-bag honey and how to split a hive.”

Peter will outline some of the unique differences between native stingless bees and European honeybees.

He’ll also discuss ways to track a native beehive and ways to ‘bud’ a new hive from a log or an existing hive.

Entry to both bee workshops is by donation, with attendees requested to bring a snack to share.

By Andrea FERRARI