SPEC's Demonstration Gardens

a compost story

2011-11-12T19:27:00.000-08:00

Sept 18 Fall Clean Up Begins

2011-09-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Look at the length of this spaghetti squash vine!! Mildew had taken over the leaves and no more fruit visible - so out it comes

Compost in our three bins has really worked down over the hot weather - this is the second full bin that has been emptied into our beds - lots of eggshells, fruit and veggie peelings mixed with dry leaves saved from last autumn and dry straw .... the best amendment for your garden

Cherry tomatoes are producing well now, although we did lose a good part of our crop to unidentified taste testers, and the red mustard keeps on growing and growing

Almost time to start saving leaves again ......

Sept 11 - Flowers Aplenty - Red Mustard Takes Over

2011-09-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

What spectacular end of summer weather we have been enjoying -

bouquets of flowers from the garden

and the red mustard planted for winter harvest has taken over its bed ... this bed was amended with a whole composter worth of compost just prior to planting seeds; the brussels sprouts transplants are also growing well, although suffering somewhat from pest damage

Sept 4 - No Glut of Squash - Winter Garden Progressing

2011-09-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

We managed to harvest another spaghetti squash - three in total out of the original 15 or more that disappeared

And look at our winter veggies - turnips are growing well

The beans continue to provide a bountiful harvest and the sunflowers are at their best as the end of summer approaches ........

Aug 28 - Purple Beans and Yellow Tomatoes

2011-09-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

The last weekend in August - and the beans and tomatoes are producing ........

Weather has been amazing and the warmth is just what we needed to give the tomatoes their final boost toward ripening

August 21 - First Ripe Tomatoes! and More

2011-09-12T12:56:00.001-07:00

First Ripe Tomatoes - Sungold!!

Dahlias continue to provide colour - look at this split colour

The bean teepee is taking off, the late sown veggies (turnips and Asian greens) are sprouting and the garden is looking good in its summer spender

More to Harvest More to Sow - August 14

2011-08-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Another Sunday at the SPEC Cambie Garden - rather disheartened that five of our spaghetti squash have disappeared - but we did manage a rather fine harvest of potatoes

We are also trying out some seed tape - no need for thinning - hopefully we will have some lovely Little Finger carrots by mid-October

Dahlias are looking lovely and we have baby beans on our purple pole beans

More radish (China Rose) and Chinese Greens (Tah Tsai) were also seeded in hope of a bountiful fall/winter harvest

Harvest at Kitsilano School Garden

2011-08-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning we had a bountiful harvest of garlic at the Kitsilano Secondary garden. Twenty kids from Kicks for Kids Daycamp (ages 6 and 7) came by to pull up the pungent bulbs. There was a brief demonstration on garlic braiding and we discussed the importance of storing our summer crops for use throughout the year. In a couple of weeks when the garlic has cured the kids will bring their own bulbs home for planting, cooking, and amateur vampire hunting.

After the harvest, we reseeded the beds with some hardy vegetables. The kids chose turnips and spinach from the seeds provided. We then watered the garden and spent a bit of time looking at insects.

It's truly inspiring to spend time in the garden with such animated and inquisitive children. Many of whom were excited about the idea of planting their garlic bulbs and watching them grow over the fall, winter, and spring. Thanks again to Kicks for Kids for all your enthusiasm. Hope to see you all gardening again soon!

More to Sow, More to Transplant - July 31

2011-07-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

Still time to sow some fall veggies ... Purple Top White Globe and Tokyo Cross turnips, Toy Choi and Giant Red Mustard

We harvested the garlic bed last week, added a full bin of compost and today transplanted brussels sprouts seedlings into the bed - they should do well with the lime provided by the plethorea of eggshells - if we can keep the slugs at bay!!

We also transplanted purple sprouting broccoli seedlings and did our last planting of pole beans with fingers crossed for a wonderful autumn .....

Summer's Bounty - July 31

2011-07-31T18:17:00.000-07:00

A perfect day for work in the garden ........

Harvested golden beets, arugula, spring onions, kale, chives ...

The spaghetti squash has taken off, the sunflowers are in bloom and the Sungold tomatoes will be showing some colour soon - summer at its finest

Building a Westside Kitchen Table - A Potluck

2011-07-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hey gardeners! Here is something you may want to join in on, especially if you live on the Westside and are concerned about Food Security.

Building a Westside Kitchen Table: A Potluck Conversation about Your Connections with Food and Community

The Westside Food Security Collaborative and Kitsilano Neighbourhood House invite you to a vegetarian potluck (please bring a dish to share if you can) on August 3, 6-8 pm at the Neighbourhood House Hall, 2305 West 7th @ Vine. If you grow it, eat it, sell it, make it, serve it, throw it (or just plain love it) please join us. ...The evening will be an open space; come talk about what’s important to you about food on the west side with others who share your passion as we build a west side “kitchen table”. We will have graphic recording, a children’s table, and opportunities to learn about and get involved with the Westside Food Security Collaborative. All are welcome whether you work, play, study, volunteer, visit, or live in the west side.

Westside Food Security Collaborative: http://www.kitshouse.org/programs/food-security/westside-food-security-collaborative/

Kitsilano Neighbourhood House: http://www.kitshouse.org/

For more information please be in touch with Zsuzsi Fodor, Westside Food Security Collaborative Coordinator at zsuzsi.s.fodor@gmail.com or 778-855-0077

- marnie

More to Harvest More to Sow - July 24

2011-07-24T18:12:00.001-07:00

Summer has finally arrived - and the plants are loving it ...

Our harvest today included lots of garlic, spring onion, potato, golden beets and kale.

The radish seed pods are growing plump and we have both cherry and roma tomatos set -

the sunflowers are amazing - and the dwarf plants should be flowering by next week.

We also discovered something new to us - a garlic bulb setting baby cloves up its stalk -

Also sowed more beets, green beans and a first sowing of watermelon radish - these should all make for a bountiful fall harvest along with our lacinato (dinosaur) kale

A Small Bouquet in Celebration of Summer - July 17

2011-07-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

Summer in the City - July 17

2011-07-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

After one of the longest "springs" in memory - summer has finally decided to make an appearance!! Cucumber, frisee and parsnips have taken off - all trying to keep up with the sunflowers. We harvested some nice sized garlic bulbs and discovered a number of female blossoms on the spaggetti squash.

Summer Colours in the Garden - July 10

2011-07-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

Crocosmia, Pot Marigold (Calendula) and another sunflower update. Calendula petals make a lovely addition to summer salads ....

New Seedlings and Wee Carrots - July 3

2011-07-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

Garlic will soon be ready to harvest, potatoes are taking over their bed and some lovely baby carrots were a taste treat. Parsnips, cucucmbers and golden frisee have sprouted and the sunflowers continue to stretch to the sky.

Blossoms - June 26

2011-07-24T17:18:00.001-07:00

We have tomato blossoms! The cornflowers and larkspur add wonderful colour to the garden. Sunflowers are starting their climb to the sky - and the few summer turnips were harvested. The turnips were delicious and quick to mature - hopefully we can find more seed to sow again for a fall harvest.

Lots of Green - June 19

2011-07-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Been away for a bit from posting - but time to catch up - here is the SPEC Cambie garden on June 19

Potatoes have a most beautiful blue flower, which should give us blue potatoes - and look at the snow pea blossoms ...... things are looking good mid June

Westside Pocket Market - Thursdays 3-7pm

2011-06-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

With the love for food and community, SPEC and Kits Neighborhood House (KNH) are putting together ten Pocket Markets this summer to nurture the growing local food movement and boost the local economy.

Pocket Markets play an important role in supporting the production and distribution of local food. The markets help bridge the gap for local farmers, urban backyard growers and local food eaters by providing an alternative market format that adds to the current make-up of the farmer’s market world.

Join us in celebrating community and the love for local food, starting every Thursday July 7 until Sep 8, from 3 pm to 7 pm at Kits Neighbourhood House (2325 7 Ave West). In addition to tasty food, SPEC will offer workshops on Winter Gardening, Eating Local on a Budget and plenty of other workshops! (We encourage curious people to keep an eye on our website for updates).

Vendors at the July 7th market

* Cherry Lane Farm
* SOLEFood Farm
* Salt Spring Coffee Co.
* Giddy up and Grow
* The World in A Garden

The vendors will vary from market to market. If you want to become a market vendor to sell eggs, fresh produce or baked treats, please contact Sara Blenkhorn at sarablenkhorn@gmail.com.

Workshop offered on July 7
Workshop #1 - Climate Change and Year-Round Gardening.
Time: 5 pm to 6pm.
Is your garden prepared for an unpredictable climate? Explore how climate change can affect the productivity of urban farms and gardens and how certain practices can minimize greenhouse gases in small-scale agriculture. Participants will learn climate-modifying techniques to extend the season, including mulching, greenhouses, coldframes and cloches. (All workshop are free but donations are always appreciated!).

The Pocket Market Voucher Program
Eating local is unfortunately not always the most affordable option for your pocket. At the Westside Pocket Market we want ALL community members to be able to enjoy healthy food, this is why we are launching the Pocket Market Voucher Program. The vouchers program will help low income families and individuals to access nutritious food by taking the financial edge off eating local. For more information on how to access the Pocket Market Vouchers, please contact Kits Neighborhood House at 604-736-3588.

Key to Successful Organic Gardens

2011-06-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

Compost!!

The Beds are Almost Full

2011-06-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

Today we harvested lettuce thinnings, chives, arugula and mesclun.

The beds are almost at capacity now - empty spaces were seeded with cucumbers, dill, parsnips, mesclun, mixed lettuce and frisee.

Fruit and Flowers Too

2011-06-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

Looks like we will have a good crop of raspberries for July munching. The Lupins are also now at their peak - good for bringing pollinators into the garden.

Time to Plant Summer Veggies

2011-06-08T13:46:00.001-07:00

Important to keep records of what we've planted, including date sown, germination time and general progression of the crop. The June 5th planting included beans, beets, parsnips, basil, hot pepper transplants and more tomato transplants - you can never have too many tomatoes...........

More Progress in the Garden

2011-06-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

And a few more pictures - have a look at the potatoes - amazing growth - and the strawberries are loving the company of garlic and the newly added tomato transplants

First Harvest June 5

2011-06-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

Time to harvest! And what a great morning we had for the event .....

We cleared out the radish beds to makes way for planting summer veggies, and the spicy mesclun mix and toy choi were also shared by all

Summer's Fast Approaching June 3

2011-06-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

And a few more pictures of progress to June 3. Notice how healthy the leaves of the Oriental greens are with no flea beetle or slug damage. The toy choi needs to be harvested - flower buds just starting.

Due to the number of days with rainfall during May the garden did well with a once or twice weekly watering - with the weather so far in June we will have to keep an eye on our newly seeded beds.

And on to May 28

2011-06-06T16:41:00.000-07:00

Looking good, and a new seeding of arugula in bed 1 has now sprouted - arugula can be seeded from March through September - and harvested at almost any size before it goes to seed. The toy choi is best suited to spring and fall plantings.

Fast Forward To May 19

2011-06-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well May's weather was not much better than April's but that didn't stop our crops from growing. Here are a few pictures of the garden's progress on May 19. Spicy mesclun mix, toy choi seeded in bed 1 on April 26th. The bed also contains larkspur and strawflower transplants. I'm sure the leafy greens' progress can be attributed to the alfalfa meal added prior to seeding.

Also, we have overwintered garlic and potatoes starting to take off in two of the garden's other beds.

April and things are happening in the City Square Communal Garden

2011-04-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

We've had every kind of weather this April but our cold hardy seeds planted in late March have grown into their first leaves. Things like radishes, arugula, spinach, peas and kale can all be planted outside early.

The garlic we planted last fall is going strong. Last week we nestled some strawberries in the garlic bed.

We've also made sure to plant flowers to attract pollinators to our garden.

Come join us at the garden! we are meeting every 2nd Sunday at 11am, next one is May 1st

Soils

2011-02-02T15:11:00.001-08:00

It's official, spring is on its way. As you flip through seed catalogues or take stock of your own seed collection and plan this year's garden don't forget the first step in gardening - assuring healthy soil.

Here is a site with a good list of different soil tests you can do to see if your garden is ready Dave's Garden

Ways to improve soil included adding leaf litter (hopefully you did this last fall, and your leaves are all molding and breaking down nicely) - shredding leaves with a lawn mover is also great. Sea weed collected and rinsed to remove salt can add valuable nutrients back into your soil. Again, shredding would be useful. You can add well-rotted compost and/or organic fertilizer before you plant your seedlings out in March (too early and the nutrients will leach out with rain). The jury is still out on Dolomite Lime, with local master gardeners suggesting only adding the amendment if a soil test shows low pH.

Happy preparations!

- marnie

School Garden Start-up Guide

2011-01-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

Are you interested in starting a school garden but don't know where to start?

SPEC has recently released our introductory guide to starting a school garden: SPEC's School Gardens Start-up Guide

We are also working on more resources so visit www.spec.bc.ca regularly for updates.

- marnie

Planting Garlic & Quote About Eating

2010-10-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Take a look at this article on garlic (It's time to plant!)

And here's a nice quote, fitting for the weekend ahead:

“Eating is the taking into our beings the offerings of those who have worked to bring it to us and the offering of the Divine, whose creation it and we are. Eating is not an act to be taken lightly. All that is involved demands respect and attention – mindfulness. Grace before meals is appropriate, no matter what our religious convictions, as a centering process. Eating is a rite, especially eating together. A lot has happened to make this eating possible. “A lot has been sacrificed,” as the pig said to the chicken after the bacon and egg breakfast. At least let us revere this with our attention and conscious enjoyment. People will eat less and enjoy more if they always sit down to eat, take a moment to say grace or focus on what they are doing, smell, look, appreciate, eat slowly with small bites and much chewing.”

Sylvia Mangalam,
Founding member of the Food Action Committee, Ecology Action Centre

- marnie

September Harvest and Fall Planting SPEC Rooftop

2010-09-23T18:35:00.001-07:00

Summer seems to have ended but our rooftop garden is now ready for winter.

We harvested lots of onions and carrots.

As well as many red and green tomatoes.

Tomatoes need to be harvested, even if still green. If left on the plant during cool temperatures and rain they will develop blight and turn black instead of red. Wrap your green tomatoes in newspaper and store them in a cool dark place until they ripen.

Tomato plants were then removed and put in our yard waste bins for composting (blight may spread in a cold composter, but in Vancouver yard waste is mechanically composted using heat).

We also planted some more fall crops (many winter crops should be planted in July or August, but due to extreme heat on our roof in these months not many seedlings were started successfully)

We planted overwintering broccoli starts, kale seeds and garlic after amending the soil with compost from our worm bin composter.

Garlic is grown by separating the cloves of the garlic bulb and planting pointy-end up roughly 4 inches deep in the soil. Each clove will form a new bulb. We simply bought local organic Red Russian garlic from a nearby grocer.

Happy autumn!

- marnie

Summer's End

2010-09-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

As the summer winds down:

We dry and collect seeds to use again next year or for winter crops (some seeds are very easy to save and others take a bit of effort but you can replant most things from your garden for free if you save your own seed).

Compost plant debris left over from the growing season

And plant winter crops that will continue to grow for the cold season to produce food early in the spring, like broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts.

Tomato Harvest Time

2010-09-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

The beginning of September means lots of tomatoes are ready for eating. We have so many beautiful ones. Tiger tomatoes, and Sun Drop cherry tomatoes are the ones we have mostly harvested so far.

We've also harvested more Tromboncino zucchinis.

A pile for each gardener to take home.

Mushroom Patch Experiment

2010-09-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

This week we tried planting a mushroom patch from 'mushroom spawn'.

It comes in a bag and needs to be layered with straw or hardwood chips and covered with cardboard in a moist cool place in the garden.

First we dug a space 10 inches deep to grow them in.

Laid newspaper down in the space.

Then layered the mushroom spawn with layers of straw and hardwood pieces.

Watered it, and covered it all with sheets of cardboard.

In a few weeks, once we can see the mycorrizae, we will add 2 inches of soil on top. It will be next spring before we have any mushrooms.

This type of mushroom creates a mycorrizal network of roots underground that feed beneficial nutriets to nearby plants. Plus they are edible and apparently delicious. So we hope they grow.

Birds and Bees

2010-08-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

Both birds and bees are important to your garden. They pollinate crops and flowers, as well as prey on detrimental pests.

More Tromboncino Zucchini

2010-08-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

It's still amazing us, such an interesting looking plant.

Saving Seeds

2010-08-26T16:40:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of seeds you can easily save yourself to plant next year. At the end of summer you can see the seeds forming and drying, soon to fall to the ground. At our garden we have already saved some radishes, broccoli, kale, peas, and beans, and stored them in a dry place in paper bags or envelopes to plant when we need them again.

After the petals fall we will collect seeds from flowers as well, like Calendula which is a beneficial companion plant for repelling insects, and is a versatile herb commonly used as a remedy for skin problems. Calendula is an annual so it needs to be re-planted each year. This is what our Calendula looks like in 3 stages from flower to drying seeds.

What a Zucchini! Plus Purple Potatoes

2010-08-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we couldn't believe the size of our Tromboncino zucchinis. We found this climbing zucchini plant at West Coast seeds and it seems to be the answer to growing zuchini in small spaces, and just look at how neat they look!

We Harvested a bunch of purple potatoes too, so beautiful, they're almost irridescent!

The next thing we'll be harvesting lots of will be tomatoes, just lookj at the plants in bed#10, and this is just one plot.

And soon it will be time to do a bunch of seed collecting so we have seeds saved for next years garden.

Reaching for The Sun

2010-08-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

The squash and beans have really taken off at The Cambie Square Garden. The squash have grown all over the hedge lining the garden and we keep finding the fruits hiding in little pockets here and there and the beans are getting so tall that some have grown up the lamp post to the point that we cannot reach them any longer We also have a sunflower that is trying to reach up to the sun.

We did a little cleanup of the garden as well, removing the old pea plants that have finished for the year so we can plant more winter crops. We found a few aphids and removed them to prevent them from spreading to other crops.

Holy Corn and Potatoes Batman

2010-08-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the first rain we've had in Vancouver in weeks but we still had a great turnout at The Cambie Square Garden on Sunday. Noone even minded the rain and worked away together to harvest quite the bounty. We harvested lots of potatoes and corn and some really beautiful carrots too.

July 18@ Cambie Square Garden

2010-07-19T11:33:00.001-07:00

The corn was even taller this week the cobs are starting to form and the beautiful corn silk is showing. Lettuce is still going strong but with the heat and wind the peas did not fare so well this week. There was also a lot of nibbles on the beets; we are assuming from a rat. We harvested many radish pod for both eating and seed saving for next year. The garlic was also ready, we harvested ½; some will be eaten and some saved to plant this fall.

July 4th @ Cambie Square Garden

2010-07-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

Everything is growing well at Cambie Square garden the corn was over 2 feet tall and the tomatoes had many flowers. The lettuce and peas are plentiful with even a few beets and very colourful dragon carrots. The radishes have also started going to seed, we picked a few because they taste so good on salads.

Summer is finally here and we'll have corn soon

2010-07-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

The sun is finally shining in July and the corn is huge, the beets are delicious, and the sunflowers are blooming next to the new garden sign. Soon we'll have lots of tomatoes and squash too as we've got lots of flowers now.

We've found that the tomatoes shaded by trees have done better than those in full sun and that radish seed pods taste delicious. We've also found that beans and corn grow really well together, the climbing beans just grow right up the corn as it gets taller, they were made for each other!

SPEC Rooftop in June

2010-06-28T20:06:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos of what's happening on our rooftop garden at SPEC.

Strawberries!

Nasturtiums - both the flower and leaves are edible

this broccoli has a great start

these tomatoes are loving the heat on our rooftop

garlic in the vertical planter - the scapes will soon be snipped and sauteed

lettuce starts to replace those that will soon come out.

It's not all problem free - aphids looove fava beans

a chemical free way of dealing with the problem is to spray them off with a strong stream of water

this gives our beans a fighting chance, so that hopefully we can harvest them in the next weeks

happy food growing!

- marnie

Car Free Day - Commercial Drive

2010-06-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday June 20th SPEC hosted a booth on Commercial Drive to tell more people about our organization's work. We chatted with many many folks about organic urban agriculture, renewable energy and waste reduction. SPEC shared our booth with Earth Heart - a new endeavor by Gareth Ward who builds cedar container boxes among other food garden services.

It was a very busy and very inspiring day. Thank you to all who stopped by to say hello!

- marnie

Upcoming Volunteer Times

2010-06-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

Yey for summer!

Here are our upcoming volunteer times:

Wednesday June 23rd 530pm-615pm - Cambie Square Communal Garden (West side of Cambie between 10th and 12th, up the stairs)

Friday June 25th 93oam-11am - SPEC Rooftop Container Garden (2150 Maple Street)

Sunday June 28th 11am-12 - Cambie Square Communal Garden

Wednesday June 30th 530-615pm - Cambie Square Communal Garden

We hope to see you!

- marnie

Backyard chickens with Vicky our amazing volunteer

2010-06-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

June 1st Gardens Update

2010-06-01T19:16:00.000-07:00

Spring is in full force and all the hard work and planning from the previous months is truly paying off.

School Gardens

Students from a nearby school recently brought seedlings they started in their classroom to plant on our rooftop container garden.

Rooftop Garden

Fava beans are flowering on the roof!

Lettuce is harvestable!

Tomato seedlings are in! (Started in Carole's backyard greenhouse)

Cambie Square Communal Garden

New lovely signage care of Jodi Mayne!

We've got bees! Mason bees have moved in to our mason condo (thanks EYA!) you can see they've filled the holes with mud.

- marnie

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

Hello Foodie Friends. There has been so much going on that I don't know were to start.

SPEC's summer workshop series is going great (www.spec.roundtablelive.org/events).

Marnie and I did our 'Introduction to Food Production' workshop at SPEC in March.

And, again at the Evergreen Earth Day Festival in April.

The SPEC table at Jericho Park.

Our schools project continues to flourish, as do the spuds in tubs.

Seed session.

Catriona and the teachers.

We were really excited to see the new raised beds.

As for the SPEC rooftop garden, things are really coming up.

Roof workers.

Lettuce succession planting in protected culture.

Betsy is patiently waiting for the strawberries.

Happy Mother's Day to the mom's out there!
Cheers,
Tara

SPEC School Gardens Project in VSB news

2010-04-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

Read all about our School Gardens Project this year (truly exciting!) in the Vancouver School Board's district news.

Click here to read "Creating a Buzz about School Gardens"

- marnie

Upcoming Gardening Workshops at SPEC

2010-04-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

Want to learn more about gardening in small spaces? Please join us this month at one of our workshops. SPEC is co-hosting or facilitating a workshop every Saturday in April!

Saturday April 10th from 2-4pm learn Concepts in Year Round Gardening from Robin Wheeler

Saturday April 17th from 2-4pm learn about Bees, Birds and Biodiversity from Alicia Embree and Mandy Desautels

Saturday April 24th from 9-12pm explore Soil and Plant Health Management from Grant Watson

Suggested donations vary. Attendance is limited so please view more details and register on our events page here

All workshops to be held at SPEC - 2150 Maple Street, Vancouver

- Marnie

SPEC in April

2010-04-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful yet chilly Friday in April. With the sun shinning brightly it's a great day to take a few photos of our Rooftop Container Garden to share.

We will be starting regular bi-monthly Rooftop work days starting this Friday from 9 to 11am. Come start seedlings with us!

Peas are growing! (Will be transplanted to a larger container)

Anise Hyssop and a Calendula flower

Colourful flowers attract pollinators

Carole brought us these lovely broccoli starts!

- Marnie

March 28th Cambie Planting Day

2010-03-29T17:51:00.001-07:00

Jodi and Tina bringing trellises and signs

Mandy and Vicky assessing

The brussel Sprouts and doing just fine

Garlic!

New signs! Thanks Jodi!

Planting potatoes - yukon golds (an early variety)

New raspberry plants

- marnie

March Update

2010-03-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hello! Here's what's new:

School Gardens Project

Spring is in full swing! Our new school gardens are ready for planting and Catriona and I are busy helping these schools embark on their new adventure while continuing to support our school gardens from last year.

I had a lovely time this morning in a Kindergarten/grade 1 classroom at l'Ecole Bilingue facilitating a soils and compost lesson with Mandy, a dedicated volunteer. We looked at rocks, algae, sand, bark and other soil components and then set up an in-class worm composter. Pictures on their way soon!

Cambie Communal Garden

We're bringing more soil over this Friday and planting our cool weather crops this Sunday March 18th at 11am. Come join us for this planting work party and see all our new additions to the garden. Here's a picture of our new Mason Bee home!

Rooftop Demonstration Garden

We will be doing some work and planting of the roof containers this Friday at 10:30am. Join us at SPEC to lend a hand. Some planting was done on March 15th by students of the neighbouring Fraser Academy. Potatoes, oriental greens, broad beans and radishes amoung others should be sprouting out of our rooftop containers before long.

Workshops

We held an intro to organic container gardening workshop on March 20th at SPEC. Our next workshop is entitled Bees, Birds and Biodiversity and will be held April 17th from 2-4pm at SPEC. Cost is $10 per participant. Register here

Advocacy

Check out this link www.cban.ca/Take-Action/Support-Bill-C-474 and send an important email by March 29th to protect our seeds!

- marnie

School Gardens Update February

2010-02-10T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

Ah, Spring! While my grammar teachers have taught me that the season shouldn't be capitalized I think it deserves the honour. While yes, of course I realize that it's only February, and Spring doesn't officially begin until March 21st, you've got to admit it feels like Spring has reached Vancouver (and I'm banking on "it's here to stay"). Regardless, we're forging ahead with our School Gardens to make sure they're ready for seeding before too long.

Most recently students from one of our participating schools made the trip to their neighbouring highschool's woodshop to construct their wooden planter beds. Made of untreated red cedar these beds will last without leaching harmful chemicals into the garden soil.

Here they are. A great beginning to the garden adventure.

- Marnie

Holiday Reading

2009-12-26T18:11:00.001-08:00

This break is turning out to be a great time to catch up on some reading and gather up more inspiration for being a part of Vancouver's urban agriculture movement.

Here are a few good sites for those interested:

1) The Tyee's summer series on urban agriculture in BC - here

2) City Farmer's new News Blog for more international stories - here

Have a safe and happy end to 2009. We hope you have a lovely time welcoming in the New Year and that it is filled with great new resolutions, like growing local.

- Marnie

Happy Holidays

2009-12-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

As you wind down for the upcoming holiday season the idea of building an organic food garden might be far from your thoughts. Not here at SPEC!

Our School Gardens Coordinator, Catriona Gordon and our School Gardens Facilitator, Marnie Newell, have been busy attending meetings, doing research and gathering resources to help 4 Vancouver Elementary Schools start their gardens in the spring.

It’s amazing what can go into the process when you’re trying to do things right!

We’ve been discussing garden plans/dreams with incredible teams of passionate people at all of our participating schools. But our goal is to start building the physical infrastructure for our garden as soon as the ground has thawed. This means deciding on the design and materials for garden boxes and raised beds, which are the best options for school gardens (the little guys don’t compact the soil by walking on the beds).

Our teams are learning more and more about what needs to go into a garden to make it successful. Perhaps the most important words here are “teamwork” and “staying power”. Many gardens have been built on school grounds only to be torn down soon after because they fell apart or their creators left them and no one kept them up. This is what we’re working to avoid right now. Schools interested in building a garden should establish a Garden Committee with teachers, parents, students, administrators and the community involved. The more individuals who are ready to commit to the garden’s continued success the better. When the project is a whole school and even a whole community initiative more people become invested in its success and ready to offer their expertise or even supplies to help it thrive and grow.

What has been absolutely inspiring in our experience so far is how many people believe in this work and are ready to donate their time and skills to make it the best it can be. The wealth of resources provided by the internet and other agriculture-related organizations is also astounding.

Keep an eye on this blog to learn more about this work. Updates, insights on school garden design and links to resources are on their way shortly.

posted by Marnie

Winter greetings from City Square!

2009-12-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some images from our last meeting of the year, Dec. 7th.

Our beautiful new sign, created by SPEC volunteers Marcie and Carmen. Thanks so much for your contribution!

Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts still going strong, we look forward to harvesting these in the next couple months!

mmm, already looking delicious...

These were the oats we had planted in September, the most successful of the cover crops we planted. Once turned in, they will help to build the complexity of the soil.

Our gardener Beng, with a celery - harvested in December! Only in Vancouver....

Also parsnips! Although dirty, they are beautiful (and tasty!) A highly recommended crop for winter gardening.

This is one of the many marigolds we planted as a companion to tomatoes and other crops. Now that they have finished their life cycle we can harvest the seeds from the pods for next year.

Just open the dried pods, remove the seeds, and put in an envelope for future use. No need to spend $ on expensive bedding plants.

Our next meeting is Sunday, January 17th at 10am.

Seed catalogues are in, which means soon we will begin planning for next season. Let the fun begin!

news from City Square

2009-10-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

We have managed to put most of our garden to bed for the winter! here are a few photo updates with some of the joys and lessons of this season

This is damage caused by white flies. The black spots are sooty mold, and seem to have had an effect, not on productivity, but on taste. The tomatoes and beans got hit especially hard, and they moved on to chard and celery later in season. In fact, they're still there.... Prevention and early action are key!

We have planted cover crops to build the soil, this is baby rye coming up. We also planted oats and clover in some of the beds, so we can compare which is more effective.

Ed, helping with clean up - thanks a bunch!

This is proof that pruninig your tomatoes encourages them to grow vertically - this one was 12 feet high! Also, we saw that none of the tomato roots had the root disease that we saw last season. Our tecnique of lasagna gardening really paid off!

Cheesmani tomatoes....productive right to the very end! We removed all the plants and saved the green tomatoes to ripen on windowsills.

In September we planted lettuce, spinach, beets, and radishes. Although they've sprouted, there hasn't been very much growth....

The parsnips are looking great, and can be harvested now. This past week we planted garlic in the other half of this bed, in a shadier spot, and also in a sunnier spot to see the difference. It will be hard to wait until they are next July or August, but we look forward to the scapes!

The beds with no cover cropped have been mulched with dry leaves in order to protect them for winter. The flowers were still too lovely to pull out.....

Although there's not much activity in the garden, we will still meet every second week until close to Christmas, with the next meeting being November 8th.

Harvest Time!

2009-10-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy during the last week with our rooftop crops, harvesting, weighing and recording data. Thanks to the volunteers who have helped us out (Erin, Daryl, Laura, Megan, Frank, Ana, Tim and Jon) we have successfully harvested all of our radishes and obtained a lot of data.

The methods we used were as follows: (Each pot had 3 radishes in it)

- Remove the soil from the pot and using a bucket of water, separated each radish (attempting to keep the roots intact).

- Photograph the radishes with I.D tag
- Number radishes/leaves from each pot 1, 2, or 3
- Measure root length, bulb (height and width), and leaf (height and width)
- Weigh radish bulb
- Weigh radish leaves
- Dry the radish/leaves and weigh again

After labeling each radish and it's leaves with a number 1-3 we put them into a paper bag labeled with their I.D (an I.D. for example might read R-GG-1 meaning 'radish-Gaia Green- replicate 1'). We weighed them immediately after harvest as well as 5 or 6 days later after they had dried out. This is to account for any variation in mass due to water retention.

Now the fun part... analyzing all the numbers!

While we are doing that we will soon be starting to harvest the next crop... kale.

We noticed visually that there were increases in size of radish between the control (no amendment) and the ones grown with amendments. Not surprisingly the Miracle Grow radishes were quite a bit larger but we noticed that radishes grown in Gaia Green also did very well and seemed to have healthier, larger foliage.

We will look at the trends that the data tells us to get a better idea and know for sure what the differences are.. stay tuned!

The rooftop is getting greener...

2009-09-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

It has been three weeks since we planted the kale, lettuce, peas and radishes on the rooftop and we have seen some good progress so far and some interesting things as well.

All of the crops have sprouted to some degree.

Our lettuce (C.V darkness) was the slowest to germinate. Around the two week mark there were tiny red leaflets showing and since then progress has been minimal. A few of the pots are definitely growing but many of the lettuces are still very small seedlings.

The radish (C.V altaglobe) has certainly flourished. The bright green stalks are a few inches high already and most of the seeds in each pot seem to have germinated (around 5-12 per pot).
Both the kale (C.V red russian) and the peas (C.V little marvel) are growing well. However, something has been eating most of our peas! We think it could be the crows that often hang around the roof top. The peas on the south end of the roof received the most damage; there are still a number of healthy looking peas that escaped being eaten... so far!

We thinned the plants on Sunday to densities more suitable to the size of the pot. We thinned the radishes to three per pot, the kale and the pea to two per pot each, and for now we left the lettuce as is.

Now we wait!
Each week we will document our observations of growth to check for observable treatment effects

featured blog

2009-09-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

our blog was featured on Garden Planters - a site listing over 30,000 gardening blogs from around the world - check it out!

!Yes I can!

2009-09-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Caitlin and I gave our first Yes I Can! workshop yesterday at False Creek Community Center. I think it turned out well. Definitely a learning process for everyone. We used plums from Osoyoos, BC (399 km distance) to make Plum Jam.

Betsy and I biked around town picking up the supplies.
The stroller serves as a great 'workshop on wheels'.

There were 8 participants all with different levels of experience.
Some definitely more eperienced than me.

Plum-preppers.

We used No-Sugar Pectin for our Jam. We did three separate batches using low (1/2 cup), medium (1 cup) and high (2 cups) levels of sugar. After some taste tests, most people preferred the medium-sugar jam over the high-sugar jam.

Looking for the 'rolling boil'.

I learned a great trick from reading Diane's blog (http://communitykitchens.wordpress.com/category/canning-diary/).
Wrap warm jars in newspaper after they are done. That way they are easy to trasport.

That's all for now!
Cheers,
Tara

saving tomato seeds

2009-08-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some basic instructions for those wanting to save their own tomato seeds - it's not as hard as you might think!

1. Start with your best fruit - nothing diseased or with blemishes. Encourage the traits you desire (early ripening, sweet taste, etc.)

2. Cut the fruits and scoop the seeds into a bowl.

3. Let stand for a few days at room temperature.

4. It will then be a moldy mixture, but this is good, as the process removes the gelatinous covering on the seeds.

5. Use a fine mesh strainer to rinse, leaving only the seeds.

6. Leave to dry on wax paper (they will stick to paper towel), and remember to label if you're doing several varieties!

7. Store in a paper envelope for use next year.

This process will help develop plants that are specially suited to your garden conditions, resulting in healthier, happier plants!

bounty!

2009-08-31T07:06:00.000-07:00

last week's harvest - potato time!! these are russian red and standard white. Also some yellow zucchini, radishes, and lots more cherry tomatoes

they're baaaaack!!! yes, those pesky aphids have returned and are attacking the broccoli that's supposed to be for next year. a bottle of soap solution has been put in the toolshed with hopes that regular spraying will hold them off (in addition to squishing as many as possible!)

it's good that we have more planted! on the right is the latest batch of broccoli, it's the purple sprouting variety which is specially adapted for our winter climate. on the left are brussel sprouts.

not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the tomatoes have been greatly cleaned up, old yellow leaves removed so the plant can put all it's energy into ripening

and now, a look at the tomato varieties we've grown (mostly from Salt Spring seeds)

this variety is called ciudad victoria. they look nice but the taste wasn't the greatest. not sure if we'll plant again.

cheesmani - VERY productive, nice and sweet. will definitely grow again.

yellow plum, seeds saved from last year. the skin is a bit thick, but has good taste and looks great in a salad.

tasmanian yellow. my favourite of this season for it's sweet taste.

russian rose - big, beautiful, although we did have some issues with blossom end rot.

we're still waiting for the green zebra and orange tomatoes to ripen. a rainbow of tomatoes!!

New Research Project at SPEC!!

2009-08-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

There are new things happening at SPEC!

Four UBC students (L-R):Tara Moreau, Emma Holmes, Kate Menzies (myself), and Melissa Iverson, have come together to explore better ways to grow food in small spaces. We are collaborating with SPEC and West Coast Seeds on a research project we will be working on over the next few months. Our research will investigate the effects of soil amendments
on crop yields.

We have recently set up our experiment on SPEC's rooftop and I will be documenting our experience on this blog! We invite you to follow our progress and learn with us along the way.

Our experiment is designed like this: using a common potting soil (approx. 70% peat and 30% perlite) as our medium we have chosen three different soil amendments to grow our crops. This gives us four soil treatments in total.
#1: potting soil
#2: potting soil + Gaia Green 4-4-4
#3: potting soil + Sea Soil
#4: potting soil + Miracle Grow 24-8-16

We have planted the following four crops individually into each of the four soil treatments.
#1: Lettuce ( C.V Darkeness)
#2: Radish (C.V Altaglobe)
#3: Kale (C.V Red Russian)
#4: Pea (C.V Little Marvel).

Because we have 4 soil types and 4 crops we are provided with 16 soil/crop combinations. We are replicating each combination 15 times so we have a total of 240 containers on the roof!

We will document crop growth and measure the yields after harvest to determine what effect soil amendment choice has on yields.

Our hope is to obtain some interesting results that we can share with growers and improve the success of urban agriculture right here in our backyards (or rooftops for that matter!). Feel free to stop by SPEC and check out the garden or to post questions or comments for us to answer!

Happy Growing... Kate

Growing, inside and out...

2009-08-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

A long awaited project began taking shape this weekend at the SPEC building, as our artistic volunteers Naomi and Jodi took to the brush and began transforming our previously colourless stairwell into the site of a gorgeous, garden-themed mural.

Frank, hard at work getting the space ready for the mural - many thanks!

Jodi painting in the city-skyline silhouette

Detail of one of the (huge) moths

Before vs. After: an incredible transformation, only just begun!

Huge thank you to Jodi and Naomi for what they've accomplished so far. Both are going to continue working on a mural over the next couple of weeks, so feel free to stop in and check out their work as it progresses. If you're interested, you can also take a look at Naomi'sportfolio to see more of her amazing work: http://naomicairnsart.com/

Up in the garden, there has also been some new growth. Chard, onions, lettuce, carrots, beets, and other crops we planted at the last rooftop workparty are starting to germinate - promising an abundant winter harvest this year!

tiny swiss chard

tiny onions

Tomato Troubles...

2009-08-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Some new challenges have presented themselves over the past few days on the rooftop garden. Our heritage tomatoes are starting to ripen, and from above, seem to look great...

A closer look, however, reveals some problems...

Some of our rooftop tomatoes seem to be suffering from blossom end rot, a problem caused by calcium deficiency in the fruit. Sources I found explain that the deficiency is not always the result of low calcium levels in the soil, but more likely linked to erratic watering. Fluctuations in soil moisture levels reportedly reduce uptake and movement of calcium into the plant, resulting in tissue breakdown that leaves the dry, sunken lesions that you see in the tomatoes pictured above. Although we do our best to water regularly and thoroughly on the rooftop, it was especially difficult to maintain sufficient moisture levels in the containers during the heat wave we've just been through, leading me to believe that calcium uptake, rather than level of available calcium is a likely causal factor for the problems we're now seeing.

That said, however, it would be interesting to know what the calcium levels are looking like in the tomato pots, so I would like to do some soil testing at our next rooftop workparty and will report back with my results. pH could also be a contributing factor to the problem - tomatoes are able to absorb the most calcium at a soil pH of 6.5 - so we will look into this as well.

There is a lot to be learned from this experience! In an effory to improve our record keeping, we've created a new "Rooftop Garden Log Book" and labelled every pot on the roof wih a number. We hope to use this to build a document that tracks the successes and failures in our rooftop experiment, so that we can continue to improve our understanding of best practices for growing food in small spaces.

And, lucky for us foodies, these lesions are only skin deep. After cutting away the blemish, these are really a beautiful (and delicious) garden harvest!

Yum!

For more information on blossom end rot, try some of these sites:

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/horticulture/blossom-rot.html

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_BlossRt.htm

http://www.westcoastseeds.com/how-to-grow/Vegetable-Seeds/Tomatoes/

fun rainy day at city square

2009-08-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

yellow zucchinis on the way! this time we'll stay on top of the powdery mildew by spraying with milk

Teomi trimming the hedge - a big job!

Kiana cutting the alyssum which has gone to seed. We will dry it a little more then put it in paper envelopes for next time

many plants, including this blueberry, have leafs that are turning brown, indicating a possible nutrient deficiency

the pumpkin continues to grow!

our broccoli (right), is doing much better than the brussel sprouts

the little cabbages that we transplanted last week, the 4 that survived haven't grown at all. it's a variety called January King, a hint as to when we hope to harvest

the good and the bad

2009-08-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

the lushness of summer....

beans! it's that time of year again to just sit back, relax, and chow down! these are purple peacock variety

the wildflowers not only look beautiful, but also aid in attracting our beneficial pollinators to the garden

unfortunately the zucchinis have succumbed to the powdery mildew...we were a bit negligent because the plants can often tolerate some level of mildew, but it was too much for these ones...

we got one ear of corn on each plant, which was amazing! too bad some one or some thing got to half of it before we did!

however we still managed to reap in a pretty good harvest! Mesclun, zucchini, corn, beans, beets, and little red and white strawberries!

not sure if you can tell by the video, but we are also dealing with an infestation of white flies. These too are mostly a problem in the greenhouse, but extreme infestations such as this can have effects on the plant, including irregular ripening of fruit. We will be monitoring the fruit closely as it ripens.

July News

2009-07-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

Lots of garden-related activity at SPEC this month, so it's time for another update...

As some of you may know, SPEC worked with Kitsilano High School and Bayview elementary

over the winter and spring to establish two school gardens. Catriona Gordon worked with the students to learn about organic gardening, plant, maintain, and celebrate the gardens.

Over the summer, while the students are on holidays, we have partnered with two summer programs for youth to continue with garden maintenance and urban agriculture education.

So far, the kids have enjoyed harvesting peas, radishes, kale, lettuce and (huge!) zucchini from the gardens so far, and we're looking forward to the cherry tomatoes, corn, beans, carrots, potatoes, sunflower seeds, beets, and more that will be ready for harvesting later in the season.

Lots going on at the SPEC building on our rooftop garden as well, and thanks to our dedicated rooftop waterers, our plants are surviving the intense heat we've been having over the past week! Take a look at what's new on the roof...

some beautiful kid-friendly signs (Big thanks to Julia and Lynette for creating these for us!) :

a mini greenhouse for our peppers:

Unlike most of our other plants in the rooftop garden, which are heirloom varieties, these peppers are a commercial hothouse cultivar. We're "training" them to climb up and around a string, like so:

Some more signage to provide information about some of the uniquie features of our garden, including our self-watering planter and our solar cooker (plus more to come!):

Unfortunately, we seem to have developed a bit of a whitefly problem on our potatoes and tomatoes! We've put out some yellow sticky traps to deal with the problem:

We have been harvesting lots of summer vegetables from our rooftop garden - peas, lettuce, kale, radishes - and now some of our containers are starting to look a little sparse. This means we are nearing the transition into winter planting, which we hope to start early next week. Hope you can join us for some fun up on the roof!

update for City Square

2009-07-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

it's been a couple weeks, and we've seen a lot of growth in the garden, thanks to our wonderful sunshine and ed's regular (and much appreciated!) watering. Here's what's new in the garden -

after all that trouble to move the compost and lay down wire mesh under the composter, it took the rats all of TWO DAYS to chew a hole right through the composter. I've heard plastic is like candy to rats. We lined part of the inside of the composter with wire mesh, and have no issues since. (touch wood). We are still looking for old CDs to use for rodent deterrents, please let us know if you have any to donate!

our luscious tomatoes, which despite being staked still seem to become a jungle. almost all are producing fruit!

this is our 'two sisters' mix (most of the beans were shaded out by the pumpkin)

Corn! Above are the male flowers with their anthers dangling in the wind, in search of the female flower (or silk). When the silk (see below) is pollinated, each will produce on kernel on the cob.

our potatos have (also) grown into a jungle, spilling out over the beds and partially shading the eggplant down the centre (although the eggplants don't seem to be suffering)

hmmm...purple potatoes - purple flowers, and white potatos - white flowers. cool.

instead of just drying up, our potato flowers are producing fruit! You'll see they resemble little tomatoes (and indeed are the same family), but these fruits are toxic and cannot be eaten.

our zucchinis are phenomenal! on this plant alone, six zucchins are currently growing. We've been enjoying the harvest for a couple weeks now.

our harvest from this week - lettuce, chard, a turnip, zucchini, and some cilantro

we were lucky to get a visit from our old friends Emily and Cap who helped out in the garden last year. Zorka gave them the tour, naming all the plants and techniques we were using.

beautiful carrots from our square foot plot. I'd love to rave about how great they taste, but unfortunately someone took them all! Another unpleasant reality of urban farming.

here is lindsay working hard to put new soil on top of the bed that wasn't working. We planted yellow zucchini, leeks, celery, beets, carrots and radishes, which have mostly sprouted now.

We'll be in the garden at 10 am again on Sunday, beginning to plant for winter gardening. Come join us!

'Yes I Can' - People Preserving Food

2009-06-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

In the advent of the 100 mile diet, more and more people are taking to their hot water baths for some steamy home preserves. Interested in promoting SAFE canning techniques, a few hungry individuals came together last August and formed the People Preserving Food. At the end of May, we finished our first 'train the teacher' canning workshop. The experienced and inspiring experts, Diane Collis and Ellen Wickberg, walked the students (and soon to be teachers) through both a theory and practice session. The goal of the project is to have canning instructors in local organizations around Vancouver all working together to promote safe canning techniques.

People Preserving Food (PPF) includes the following people and organizations:

Ellen Wickberg - Kiwassa Neighbourhood House Canning Community Kitchen
Diane Collis - Fresh Choice Kitchens, Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society (http://www.communitykitchens.ca/main/)
Jill Dalton - Eastside Family Place
Diana Day - Vancouver Coastal Health (http://www.vch.ca/)
Debra Elliot - Circle of Eagles Lodge
Roberta LaQuagua - Your Local Farmers Market Society (www.eatlocal.org)
Melody Kurt - Hastings Community Centre
Ian Marcuse - Grandview Woodlands Food Connection
Tara Moreau - Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (http://www.spec.bc.ca)
Rihanna Nagel - Environmental Youth Alliance (http://www.eya.ca/)
Liz Perkins - Fruit Tree Project (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/fruit/)

The makings for fun and delicious rhubarb stew include:

Great teachers - Ellen and Diane.

Rhubarb.

Safe, clean and organized work stations.

Mixing.

Measuring.

Closing.

Submerging.

Boiling,

Befriending.

and,
cooling.

I wanted to say a special thanks to Lynn Leong who was instrumental in getting this project up and running. Thanks so much Lynn - we will miss you:)
cheers,
tara

2009-06-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

A taste of Wendell Berry for you.....

The Man Born to Farming

The grower of trees, the gardener, the man born to farming,
whose hands reach into the ground and sprout,
to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down
in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.
His thought passes along the row ends like a mole.
What miraculous seed has he swallowed that the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water descending in the dark?

Do you ever feel like this when working in the garden? Blissful...

our good friend kamran on a field trip to the garden - he really enjoyed his gardening experience!

remeber the picture of the cute zucchini and celery a couple of posts ago? look at this - do you see any celery? us neither... (mental note - zucchini takes up LOTS of space!)

but I must say, the flowers are beautiful indeed...and delicious too!

we have already begun the process of saving seeds for next year. this is teomi and zlatko tying mesh bags to catch the seeds on the flowering greens.

we finally have some labels on the vegetables! we've planted 7 different kinds of tomatoes in total, so it will be important to know which is which!

but not all is peaches and cream in the garden....
just as we suspected, rats had been crawling under our composter (an unfortunate reality of urban gardening).

so many thanks to beng's hard work installing this 1/2 " wire mesh beneath (thanks again our neighbourhood Canadian Tire for donating this!) and we moved the compost bin and set up another bin for leaf storage (thanks to our friends in Engineering).

also, the composted horse manure that seems so promising in the beginning, has seemed to stall the efforts of these little plants to fulfill their destiny. i'm afraid lois might be right - we may need to just cover this and begin again...the good news is, not only have we learned something new, our winter seeds have arrived and now we have somewhere to plant them!

NEXT SUNDAY'S MEETING WILL BEGIN ONE HOUR EARLIER, AT 9 AM.

2009-06-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

After much activity lately, there is not much to update on, we continue to enjoy harvesting radishes, spinach, mesclun, lettuce, and basil from our garden, and are (already!) thinking about what to plant for the winter garden, blessed as we are here in Vancouver....

this is the new bed we created, which was inspired by a backyard garden I saw over the weekend. The wooden posts were scavenged from a back alley and cut down. In it, we planted some green zebra and orange tomatoes (seeds collected from last year's plants), and will plant marigolds next week to keep them company.

Our square foot garden, now beginning succession. We have harvested all the radishes from one of the squares, and have planted bush beans in its place.

We will be in the garden again next Sunday, as always, all gardeners are welcome, regardless of age or experience.

good times at city square

2009-05-23T20:29:00.001-07:00

it's always great fun planting with little ones, playing 'name that plant' and feeling their enthusiam and curiosity about gardening, plants, and food in general. We planted most of what was planned, and it was a lot of fun...

here are a few pics from our planting with the kids from the City Hall Childcare Society -

celery with our zucchini

the kids with their radishes (which they promised me they'd try...)

planting corn! we have faith it will work....

this is a picture I found that Teomi took of our bean teepee...impressive....

there was still lots to do on Sunday -

check it out - white picket fences!

Lois doing some much needed maintenance to the kids bench

the sunny spot in the garden, the envy of all the plants...

our new gardeners, cherry and amir planting cucumbers

mmmmm, yet another delicious harvest!

it looks like it will be another beautiful week, we'll be in the garden next Sunday morning at 10, come join the fun!

sunny sunday

2009-05-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

last Sunday was a quiet day in the garden, nothing planted just general maintenance, observation, and a little more delicious harvest

here are some photo updates -

our square foot plot - may 17
a teepee just waiting for beans!

the north half of the garden

our duke blueberry is blooming!

amish deer tongue lettuce, samich spinach, and mesclun
yummmmm

anneke and zlatko comparing radishes

we look forward to planting with the kids from the City Hall Childcare Society next Friday!
We hope to plant corn, pole beans, bush beans, green zebra tomatoes, orange tomatoes, eggplants, marigolds, celery, natursium, cucumbers, green onions

be careful what you wish for....

2009-05-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

... because it might come true!!

In our search for soil to fill the beds, we had asked the City for a donation of compost. In the meantime, some of the beds had been filled with soil from the Canadian Tire donation, so when the truck came last week and dumped over four cubic metres (i.e. a HUGE pile) of compost for us, we were filling almost every nook and cranny in the garden! Lots of work, but the garden looks GREAT!

our square foot plot - May 10

If you look closely, you can see the circle of radishes sprouting. inside that one is a ring of beets, then a ring of carrots, and a bunch of alyssum in the middle. who ever said you have to garden in rows??

this is Beng, tending to the tomatoes. note the trellis made of salvaged chain link fence in the background

Another bed of tomatoes - we've planted basil and cilantro in this as companions

this is anneke planting a pumpkin - hard to believe such a small creature will soon grow so big! (that goes for both kid and plant :)

Teomi showing off our first radish harvest! (We also harvested our first batch of mesclun, enough for about 6 gardeners to make a meal)

some had already been nibbled on before we even took them out! must look for the culprit...

and yes, even teomi tried one! she didn't like it (despite it's relatively mild flavour), but hey, it's a start!

In all, this week we planted: zucchini, marigolds, tomatoes (cheesmani, ciudad victoria, and russian rose), pumpkin (orange and ghost), broccoli, chard (thanks SPEC!), potatos (russian blue and regular), basil, wildflowers, coriander, parsnips, and yet more kale.

We look forward to doing some planting with the children from the daycare next week, let's hope the weather cooperates!!

see you next Sunday in the garden!

now we're happenin'

2009-05-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

We've been on a quest for soil to fill our beds and have had success at different places. This is another lasagna bed that was created last week -

First newspaper to provide some barrier against weeds (and hopefully nematodes!)

Here is some straw mixed with fresh horse manure and chicken manure. Fresh manure can burn roots, so we put a thin layer on the bottom so that by the time the roots reach it, they should be OK.

Then we added a layer of leaves that are partially decomposed because they've been protecting our beds since last fall.

Then we covered with a layer of 1 yr old composted horse manure mixed with sand and woodchips. We removed big pieces of bark because it would steal nitrogen from our plants to use in its decomposition.

Then covered with a thin layer of worm castings we had left over from last year....

and look what we found - two worms making a coccoon!! The bands line up and they knot up and slime up (for lack of propoer terminology) and a little coccoon is produced that between 4 and 20 worms will come out of.

We planted aylssum, carrots, radishes, kale, baby bok choy and kale in this bed. Most things were already coming up this week!

We are still waiting for the City to deliver compost to fill the remaining beds, but in the meantime,

A BIG THANK YOU TO NATHAN AND CANADIAN TIRE FOR DONATING SOIL, MANURE AND TOOLS!!

Thanks to this we were able to fill 3 more beds and start planting our tomatoes. It's nice to have good neighbours....

In other news....

....our strawberries are blooming.....finally!

mmmm.....mesclun, we will harvest this next week and plant tomatoes in its place.

a special visit to our garden today!

Tomato planting - this is yellow plum and we also planted tasmanian yellow tomatoes and a few yellow mini peppers (can you guess the colour of the day?)

We had some very flexible vines that we were able to weave in our teepee to give more support for the beans we will eventually plant.

square foot bed - April 26

square foot bed - May 2 (isn't it INCREDIBLE?? - what a great week we had last week...)

For next week, we hope to arrange the compost delivery (wed), and fill more beds to plant! We will also try to arrange a planting day with the daycare to get them involved.

come join us, next Sunday, 10am !

Stepping into Spring

2009-04-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, there is just so much going on with regards to growing food, saving farms and creating new gardens. Its been a while since I posted some of my photos. Here is a brief look at what's been going on this Spring.

Carole and I giving our 'Introduction to Food Production' workshop to the BCGEU.

Ilse and I gave a workshop on 'Square Foot Food Gardens' at the Fraser Basin Youth Congress.

Betsy Mae and I felt very fortunate to participate in the UBC Farm Trek.
It was such an amazing event!

Meet Catriona - she is our School's Project coordinator.

Here are some of her containers in preparation for the students to arrive.

Betsy Mae worked hard to help us prepare the pots for planting.

Renovations to improve the safety of the SPEC roof deck are almost done.
Carole and I were pretty happy that we manged to put together our new shed.

The SPEC building in Spring.

Happy planting:)
Cheers,
Tara

It's a start

2009-04-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of our first beautiful day in the garden -

We dug holes to plant 2 small blueberry bushes. 2 varieties - Dixi and Duke - planted togehter increase yields.

Our lasagna gardens will hopefully prevent the root nematode problem

In each of the 3 beds we planted today we mixed 3 bags of topsoil, 1 bag of mushroom manure, and 1 bag of organic 'soil energizer' from david hunters with the leaves that had been there as mulch from last fall.

In these 2 beds we planted mesclun, alyssum, carrots, radishes, and spinach.

Reused plastic from the soil and manure lines the beds...maybe they'll last a little longer....

A teepee for the beans - make sure they're pole beans!!

Taking a break....

square foot plot number one -
so far has peas, carrots, lettuce, radish, spinach and alyssum
(plastic tray to protect little seedlings)

The strawberries survived the winter!

We won't have a regular meeting but if you'd like to swing by and check it out, we'll be in the garden around 2pm on Sunday the 12th. In the meantime we're trying to secure a donation of city compost to fill the rest of the beds, as adding all that soil can really add up!

Happy Easter everyone!

link to workshop presentation

2009-04-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

I think I've finally figured out how to share the presentation from the Plan-A-Garden workshop.....follow this link -

http://picasaweb.google.ca/specgardens/Specworkshop?feat=directlink

We will be meeting at the garden tomorrow at 10am to prepare the beds and begin planting!

workshop update

2009-03-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone to came to our workshop last Sunday, it was so nice to see so many folks who would like to grow their own food! We look forward to seeing you at the gardens over the season!

corine in action

interactive garden planning

the square foot plan

As soon as I can figure out how to upload the presentation, I will so that it's available!

We will be meeting at the garden next Sunday at 10am to begin putting some seeds into the ground, and to plan the rest of the beds that we didn't make it to during the workshop. Come join us!

Plan-A-Garden Workshop

2009-03-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

City Square Communal Garden
Plan-A-Garden Workshop

When: 1 pm – 4 pm, Sunday, March 29, 2009
Where: SPEC Building, 2150 Maple Street

This workshop will give participants the tools they need to successfully plan a food-producing garden. We will learn about

· companion planting,
· vertical gardening,
· square foot gardening and
· crop rotation,

and incorporate this knowledge directly to plan the City Square Communal Garden!

All are welcome, please register by contacting bakervicky@shaw.ca!

city square - back in action

2009-03-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

It's spring and we are very excited about the beginning of a new season! We met the other day to check on the garden after a long hiatus. Our new volunteers Erica and Lawrence helped to weed and straighten out the trellises. erica and zlatko weeding

lawrence happy in the garden

the workshop on organic food gardening at CityFarmer has provided much food for thought ha ha ha (seriously, though - very worth taking!)

cob shed at City Farmer mmmm....cob....

we have updated our work list / wish list for this year:

line raised beds with plastic to help prevent rot-lawrence thinks he has some plastic hanging around
fill beds with soil and compost - lawrence is checking with his uncle to try to get some from his organic acerage
organize a cob-building workshop for a tool shed- vicky is connecting with mudgirls for this.
buy compost aerator - $10 from City Farmer
find someone who can help us make mosaic stepping stones
find a barrel to make a 'vat-o-spuds'
make sustainable, waterproof signs and labels
construct small wooden blocks to protect sprinklers in beds
find material for metal trellises (nylon mesh?)

If you know where to get resources or have any ideas that would help us out, contact bakervicky@shaw.ca

SPEC AGM and Holiday Party

2008-12-13T17:08:00.001-08:00

SPEC recently hosted its 2008 annual general meeting and its holiday party. We had a great time meeting with our members, enjoying local food made by board members and celebrating our volunteers.

Here is Vicky Baker who won our 'volunteer of the year' award.
Thanks for all your hard work and dedication Vicky!
Teomi and Betsy Mae enjoying the party.

Joanna, Saskia, Dan, Jay and Betsy Mae eating food and watching the slide show.

AGM meeting

Karen and Gerry getting down to business.

A full house.

The board members were responsible for bringing the food and beverages. Our goal was to make our spread as local (within BC) as possible. It was a great success.

I enjoyed the challenge and made Spelt-Stuffed Sweet Peppers. The peppers were grown at the UBC greenhouse and the spelt, mushrooms and onions were all BC grown. The only ingredient that was not local was the olive oil. Although, I felt it was allowed because I purchased it in Italy from the grower and physically carried it with me home.

Sweet pepper plants growing at the UBC greenhouse.

Spelt-Stuffed Sweet Peppers

Here in Vancouver this morning we awoke to our first snow fall. Its a winter wonderland!
We may just have a white holiday season after all.
Happy Holidays,
Tara

Veggie containers under snow.

coming together

2008-11-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

After a couple hiccups with equipment and weather, we now have eight of our ten beds assembled. This is an example of our mini lasagna beds: Step 1: level the bed and soil

Step 2: add a thick layer of newspaper (cardboard works too). This is to prevent weeds and other nasties from coming up

Step 3: fill with leaves (and other organic material as you can get your hands on)

For this one we have also installed a floating cover, which we hope to plant overwintering crops in. Nice view!

One setback, which we'll have to see how serious is next season, is this root disease that we found on both our tomatoes and beans. Any suggestions for prevention or treatment welcome!

a view from above! That's us, by the benches, the green field is city square, and Cambie Street is behind it although the garden is NOT visible from the street

a view from the south

We have disbanded our regular Sunday meetings, but there will still be chances to get involved! Write to SPEC or to bakervicky@shaw.ca to find out how!

City Square happenings

2008-10-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time and we've been busy in the garden. We've harvested green beans, tomatoes (mostly cherry), a few tomatillos, a few beets, a cabbage, a couple (small) carrots, squash, and more lettuce. We also planted strawberries, and are wathing to see if some of our other late plantings will produce anything.

zorka and the mighty cabbage
beautiful squash
yes, they (whoever they are) finally painted the benches! (although I think we could have done better....)
teomi and a perfect tomatillo, which has filled it's papery covering
mmmm, cabbage. notice how the one on the right split - irregular watering?
cam and the clippers, making more light for the garden!
corn, which never got fertilized, but gives us hope that it may actually work!
liz and the fruits of our labours - THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!
our garden grows more than food.....

SAVE THIS DATE!! NEXT SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19TH, at 10am, we will be meeting to close down the garden and install raised beds in preparation for next season. Come join the fun and become part of our community of gardeners!

Sorrento in September

2008-09-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Nancy, Laura and I spent three great days in Sorrento, BC participating in the BC Food Systems Network. The theme for this years conference was Food without Fossil Fuels: Re-establishing Local Cooperation and Interdependence. Laura and I presented our work from the demonstration gardens and the pesticides safe disposal project. There were many interesting and inspiring talks that examined food issues and amazing food projects from a local and global perspective. It seems there is much work to do to improve our food system and it was wonderful to meet people who devote their lives to this cause.

The gathering's youngest participant.

In addition to attending some great talks, there was also time to enjoy the beauty and land of the Secwepemc territory. The nearby Neskonlith reserve was home to Grand Chief George Manuel who was a leader in bringing aboriginal rights into the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The site and staff at the Sorrento Centre were very welcoming.

Laura enjoying a swim in the lake.

Nancy getting her apple supply for apple pie.

Laura picking apples.

The gathering was a wonderful way to refuel the soul and to get geared for fall.
Thanks to SPEC for the opportunity to attend.
Cheers,
Tara

Turning in the tomatoes for roof reno's

2008-09-06T21:16:00.001-07:00

Its time to clear the roof in preparation for some roof renovations. We are getting ready to put in a new deck - so exciting! It means we have to close the shop down early for the season.

Volunteers are needed for Wednesday September 10 at 10am on the roof to help prepare. Please join us.

Carole picking the last of the tomatoes. Even though the poor plants were sickly with what we think is a potato blight they did manage to produce some lovely fruits.

Carrots did great growing in a container. We planted the seeds in mid July and harvested some lovely carrots in early September.

Members of the food committee enjoying fresh carrots.

Laura, our summer intern, has returned back to university for the fall. We celebrated all her hard work with a 'Laura Lunch'. We enjoyed the most delicious Indian food.

Ladies dining for Laura Lunch.

Our rainbow lunch at Akbar's Own. It was fabulous.

Its amazing that September is already here. We will keep you posted on how the rooftop renovations go.

Happy Harvesting!
Tara

let the rains begin

2008-08-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

goodbye, summer...it has certainly been a busy one...

Karen, a SPEC director, and volunteers at Burnaby Discovery Day Festival in July

participants from the Sustainable Food Youth Dialogue, hosted by SPEC and the Fraser Basin Council

Our new brochure on the Safe Disposal of Pesticides is now available for free in over 20 garden centers around Vancouver! Find out about Vancouver's pesticide by-law and what this means for you, as well as how to dispose of unused pesticides and empty pesticide containers. Plus, find useful tips on enhancing your lawn and garden eco-system.

Safe Disposal of Pesticides Brochure Display

And finally, more on the rooftop garden.
The wet weather combined with a heavier watering schedule has led to a few more harvests.

The tomatoes seem to have recovered slightly,
but the cabbages have gone to the critters. We might need to look into some critter-proofing methods for the fall.

Time to kick back and enjoy the last of summer-I've had a great time at SPEC, it's been a blast. Have a great long weekend everyone!

-Laura, SPEC summer student

Hot fun in the summer time...

2008-08-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

August is turning out to be a scorcher! I love it.....but it sure does make things here in Vancouver pretty dry,

Our carrots are doing well in their containers.

Laura, our summer intern and Christina from the Fraser Basin Council did a great job of moderating a Sustainable Food Youth Dialogue on Thursday night.

People dialoguing at Thusday's meeting.

This weeks cru of rooftop volunteers.

The view of Maple Street Community Gardens from our roof.

A critter in our cabbage? A little something (perhaps a mouse) has been nibbling on our cabbage and some other things.

Its amazing that we are more than half way through August. How can that be?
Over and out,
Tara

What's growing on the roof

2008-08-12T15:13:00.001-07:00

On our roof the flowers are in bloom; plenty of chrysanthemums and alyssum to keep beneficial insects coming back again and again!

Echinacea

The peppers are doing quite nicely,

and so are the cucumbers...

...the eggplant is trying its best to keep up!

Let's hope we get many more harvests like this one!
basil, nasturtiums, tomatoes, lettuce, parsley

There have been some recent signs of critters munching on our veggies, for now we will just watch and wait to see if they keep coming back.

Watering the plants continues to be an issue since it can get very hot on the roof and dry out quickly. We are going to try giving them more water at a time to make sure the water reaches all the way down to the deepest roots (and doesn't just evaporate from the top of the soil). I'll let you know how this goes!

-Laura, SPEC Summer Student Intern

City Square Update

2008-07-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

The big news of the week is the purchase of a toolshed and more tools for kids!

We also harvested our first batch of green beans -yum!

Our tomatoes, however, are not faring too well. One theory is irregular watering, an issue which we're working on.

a lovely tranquil spot for the kids to relax

although some tomatoes are not faring well, these were mighty tasty!

one lone calendula escapee from the garden. Giving unexpected brightness in an otherwise gray space.

We look forward to redesigning the garden over the coming months, stay tuned for changes!

Here comes the fruit!

2008-07-24T16:31:00.001-07:00

young strawberry

Here on the rooftop our veggies are growing....

cucumber

...and fruit is ripening!

little tomatoes

more tomatoes

Despite worries about our tomato plants (some curled leaves and spots), they are still producing fruit. Hope the sun stays out next week!

-Laura, SPEC Summer Student Intern

ups and downs

2008-07-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Last week, we were able to harvest enough lettuce to share with both the Mount Pleasant and the Little Mountain Neighbourhood Houses!

Teomi and Kiana with Karen from LMNH

and then this week, bad news - the fava beans that we had planted last year and were growing so big and beautifully got infested with APHIDS and unfortunately didn't survive (sniff!). We did manage to salvage a bag full of beans, not insignificant, but definitely anticlimactic! I wish I had my camera that day, but the beans had big black spots on them and were starting to rot...

on the bright side, now we have a big new area to plant in! planting planting planting!

2008-07-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

We've had a relatively relaxing few weeks at City Square. Mostly everything is in the ground, and we've planted more lettuce, carrots, and spinach in the few spaces we had. We've harvested parsley and peas, as well as

radishes

lettuce

and

calendula

to make yummy

salad!!!

And as always, weeding and watering

little boy, big (fava) beans

We're looking forward to doing some long-term planning for the garden, if you would like to contribute ideas or just come help in the garden, email bakervicky@shaw.ca

The tomatoes are coming!

2008-07-04T21:52:00.001-07:00

The vegetables and flowers are absolutely loving the sunshine and hot weather we have been having here in Vancouver. Sometimes a little too much so. The heat can get a bit extreme on the roof. That reminds me....we should get a thermometer to record what's going on.

Jennifer, Laura and I pruning, staking and securing the tomatoes. The wind blew over a whole bunch the night before.

Laura is our new summer intern. She will be working with SPEC's Food Safety and Security Committee on a number of projects. Welcome aboard Laura!

One of our many varieties of tomatoes.

Marigolds and other flowers have been placed between the rows of tomatoes to attract pollinating insects to the tomatoes.
Our nasturtiums grow like crazy. We had to do a massive trimming because they were growing so much that they were starting to block the solar panels.

I will forever think of my cabbage patch kid - Ken George when I see cabbage plants.

Jennifer and Laura are hanging out with the solar cooker.

The tomato growing upside down (to the left of Jennifer) in the topsy turvy is doing okay. It does not seem as large as the other ones but there are a few small tomatoes coming in.
Time will tell.

These are pictures from Karen's garden on Bowen Island. The pea trellis is made from bamboo that was invading the community garden site.

Hoop house over raised beds.

Container gardening for your boat!