SPEC Cambie garden- October 14

Well, that's it for our fabulous fall weather, and now the garden clean up begins, including unplugging a clogged drain!!

Plenty of green still in the garden, including calabrese sprouting broccoli, radishes and corn salad

Garlic was planted, Susan Delafield is a beauty

Last of the fall harvest, including Painted Lady runner beans and tomatillos

"The Crew" braving the weather

So that just about wraps up our garden report for 2012, with perhaps a few more visits to check on our fall planted crops

Cambie Garden - Sept. 23

One more week til the harvest moon and the bounty continues

 

A beautiful and tasty truss of Medovaya Kaplya tomatoes

Our white icicle radishes are up, and time to save arugula seed

the fall flowers are putting on a show

and we continue with our fall seeding - corn salad, lettuce and more spinach under the hoop house

Cambie Garden - Sept. 16

Unbelievable weather for mid September - temperatures have been reaching mid 20s with sunny skies - and the tomatoes are loving it - Green Zebra Cherry is finally starting to ripen and we even harvested fall raspberries - yum!!

Time to move the finished compost to garden bed 1 - lots of worm cocoons ......

After adding compost we broadcast spicy and mild mesclun mix, microgreens, Tah Tsai and Toy Choi in bed 1 - the sprinkler system is now operating, so hopefully we will get good germination and lots of fall cut and come again greens.  We also planted a row of Samish spinach in the hoop house, harvested a handful of late-planted purple climbing beans and one lovely Diva cucumber.

Medovya Kaplya - such a productive and tasty cherry tomato - time to save some seed!!

Cambie Garden - Sept. 9

Late summer and the weather of late has more than made up for the slow start this spring ...

Lots of tomatoes are now ripening - Sungold, Galina, Medovaya Kaplya, not Gurnsey Blush and Kimberley.  Arugula, Red Russia Kale, nasturtium flowers, basil, sprouting brocolli and Poona Keera cucumbers are also providing a colourful harvest ......

Green Zebra Cherry tomatoes are the last of the cherries to ripen and the first to show signs of powdery mildew ...... and the last of our dahlias - removed from garden due to powdery mildew

 the first of our Calabrese sprouting broccoli is looking good

We planted a new bed of fall veggies - three rows of radishes - including Watermelon radish and two rows of corn salad -

Fingers crossed these Brussels Sprouts will be ready for Thanksgiving dinner ........

Cambie Garden - August 26

Well, the last Sunday in August - hard to believe summer is on its way out ....... but we did get a good harvest of Galina and Kimberley cherry tomatoes at the garden, along with a nice bunch of yellow beans ........

Cambie Garden - August 18

Quite the busy time at the garden today - we watered, trimmed and harvested and then watered again - this has been the hottest week of the summer and the garden was very dry ........ but all that sun has provided the beans and cherry tomatoes with the boost they needed to begin ripening.  Unfortunately all the heat has prevented our lettuce, frisee and onions from sprouting - just not enough water

first ripe tomatoes - Galina (yellow), Kimberley (red) Rose Quartz (pink) and Golden Child beans (planted June 24!!) - very prolific; and the basil is loving the hoop house

  have a look at the wonderful shape of the Medovaya Kaplya tomatoes (still green on the vine)

and more beans - this one is a runner bean - Painted Lady - a very old variety - we'll keep these for fresh seed

and a big thank you to Itzia for keeping our hedge trimmed to provide more light for our Brussels Sprouts

the dahlias are blooming and more greens (chives, kale, sorrel and chard) are ready for picking - late summer is on the horizon ........... next week we hope to sow more seeds for our fall/winter crops

Cambie garden - Aug 12

 painted lady beans...what gorgeous flowers! and oh yeah, don't forget to clean up after your pooch!

 discussing the potato harvest

 one word - YUM!!

 the fava beans seem to be coming down with something...

flower and some beans are rotting, and leaves have black areas. the most affected parts were removed, but not much info to be found on the web. too much moisture perhaps?

Cambie Garden - Aug 5

A little late posting this week, but the garden continues to provide us with lots of colour, nasturtiums beautiful as always - although we did have to remove our first planting due to aphid infestation; and the sunflower - it's all about summer

Our late planted beans are starting to flower, the tomatoes are setting fruit and the brussels sprouts are looking healthy

And two ideas for deterring garden pests - one with proven results ...

Harvest Update from SPEC|YWCA Rooftop Garden

Another great harvest this week -- we donated 176.2 lbs of produce to Crabtree Corner yesterday!

 'Soleil' - these squashes are growing like
crazy, we harvested 65 lbs!

harvest breakdown!

an assortment of cukes, leeks, garlic, rhubarb, and
the very first tomatoes (one Brandywine and a
few Celebrity)

Natasha and Arinn staking Stupice tomatoes

 heirloom tomatoes getting heavy on the vine