Stepping into Spring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!