Sunday, May 25, 2008

SPEC Open House

We had the SPEC open house yesterday and what a day it was! There was a great turnout of SPEC members, volunteers and community members. The weather was perfect for showing off the rooftop garden and our solar panels. The goal of the open house was to officially launch 'Growing Gardens - A Resource package on How to Start Your Own Community Garden'. This handbook was developed by UBC Geography students working in conjunction with SPEC.

The brains behind the 'Growing Gardens' manual.

Katherine Richardson, professor of Geography 447, presenting the manual.


All of the work done on the rooftop garden paid off. It looked great! Many, many thanks to our volunteers!

Solar panels and veggies make great companions. The veggies help to keep the panels a little cooler which makes them run better.


We have so many tomatoes! Perhaps we should use the solar cooker to make some tomato sauce when our harvest comes in.

Jess, a SPEC director, cooling off in the shade with Betsy Mae.

Rob, a SPEC director, giving a tour of our solar panels.

Another group for the rooftop tour.


Thanks to everyone for helping out with the open house. It was filled with wonderful people and great fun. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Cheers, Tara

Sunday, May 18, 2008

sunny sunday


What a great day! Thanks to a donation of tools, hoses and other materials from the Home Depot on Cambie Street, we were able to plant our tomatoes and set up more trellises and water the whole length of our long garden.








Many thanks to our little helpers - you did great!

The seeds from our first planting with the daycare have sprouted, and we look forward to seeing more green in the coming weeks. If anyone is able tomorrow MONDAY MAY 19, we will be meeting in the afternoon to prepare the bean teepes and finish our next square foot plot. We look forward to we will plant some peppers, basil, cucumber, and beans, On Friday with our other little friends from the daycare!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Food Gardens for Small Spaces Workshop

We hosted our workshop on Saturday on Food Gardens for Small Spaces. We had 12 participants and everyone walked away with their own container of food. People could choose to grow three different combinations of plants (1) tomato and basil, (2) eggplant and parsley, or (3) lettuce and onions. It was lots of fun. We are going to do another workshop but have not decided when just yet. We will keep you posted.

Tara and Carole planning for the workshop.














Everyone from the 1st session ready to take their containers home.














Learning to grow.












Participants from the 2nd session

Friday, May 9, 2008

plotting and planning


The City Square garden is in great shape, and we are looking forward to putting our tomato plants (now huge!) into the ground. When we were there last week, we saw the first shoots of radish coming up
aren't they cute??

our greens are also doing well, some can be harvested now and some are just beginning - perfect for a season full of salad!


We will be at the garden on Sunday, but just to have a quick look and see what's shakin'. NEXT SUNDAY, the 18th, we will be hosting a WORK PARTY in order to build the bean teepees, and collect all the materials we need for the square foot garden and planting on the 23rd with the children from the daycare.
If you'd like to get involved, contact Vicky at bakervicky@shaw.ca