After the rains....

Wow, we have just finished a long week of rain here in Vancouver. It feels more like April than June but hopefully the weather is turning around.

Ilse, our wonderful SPEC employee, that keeps things running in the office.

Tomatoes are starting to form...

Our vertical food container.

We moved the tomatoes in order to give them more room to breath and better access to sun.

Insect mimicry....this fly looks like a bee.

Alyssum flowers have a rich honey perfume. They are a great living mulch and also attract beneficial insects to your garden.

Topsy Turvy - the upside-down tomato planter. This is our first year of using this technique. So far so good.

Our snow peas taste wonderful!

soggy spring

After a hopeful planting a couple weeks ago, we have had one of the coldest springs in recent memory, but still the noble plants have held on -

above - our 2nd square foot plot after May 23 planting

below - 2 weeks later

In this plot - (along the back) cucumber, tomatillos
Marigold, Fennel, Onions, Onions
Eggplant, Cauliflower, Cauliflower, Eggplant
Beets, Pepper, Pepper, Radishes
Poppies, Pepper, Pepper, Nastursiums

We also planted nine varieties of tomatos, lots of basil, some winter squash and summer squash, and two kinds of beans, which have sprouted, and will soon be off and growing for the bean teepes.

Teomi beside the fava beans planted last fall - aren't they gorgeous?!


Over the next two Sundays we will harvest the lettuce (some greens are going to seed!), do some weeding that's overdue, and try to squeeze in a few more seeds.

Join us!

Lettuce us be lovers....

American Gothic

Kitsilano Gothic


The rooftop greens harvest....ummmm freshness.

Lettuce

Arugula

Mizuna

Kale

Nasturtiums

Its been very wet and rainy here with some sun in between. Things on the roof are growing well. We didn't make it to the roof last Thursday due to rain but we will definitely be there this Thursday rain or shine.

Cheers,
Tara

SPEC Open House

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

The brains behind the 'Growing Gardens' manual.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another group for the rooftop tour.

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

sunny sunday

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

Many thanks to our little helpers - you did great!

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

Food Gardens for Small Spaces Workshop

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

Tara and Carole planning for the workshop.

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














Learning to grow.












Participants from the 2nd session

plotting and planning

The City Square garden is in great shape, and we are looking forward to putting our tomato plants (now huge!) into the ground. When we were there last week, we saw the first shoots of radish coming up

aren't they cute??

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

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

If you'd like to get involved, contact Vicky at bakervicky@shaw.ca

city square update

Last week we planted our first square foot plot with the children at the daycare,
peas, lettuce, spinach, beets, radishes, kale, 2 kinds of orange carrots and one variety of purple carrots. PURPLE CARROTS?!?!? Yeah, that's what the kids said too. I can't wait to see their faces when they try them!


It was really fun to see them each taking turns, with eager hands and trying very hard to only grab one tiny carrot seed, and reach waaaaaaay over (about a 1'), to the little hole that it belongd in. Many had gardens at their homes, and everyone seemed really excited to garden.

Here is the finished result

Then, on Saturday, we had a delivery of worm castings, compost, and a soil mixture from Jacob at Transform Compost, which will help greatly to provide yummy nutrients for our plants. (in the future we will use our own compost too, made on site)

We mixed this in today, on areas that were not yet planted, digging in the leaves and weeding as we went. Here's Liz in action, working those gardener biceps!

There is a lot of space, now ready to go, waiting for the soil to warm up. Our tomatoes and tomatillos are big already in the greehouse, but they will have to wait -

We still had some baby greens to plant though - thanks Carole!

<-- Corine sending good vibes to our little friends

The garden is looking great, the ground is spongy, and ready.





Depending on the weather, we can plant hopefully plant the warm stuff in a few weeks. For now, we will gather again next Sunday, 10am in the garden!

City Square SUNDAY APRIL 27

The compost has arrived! Join us for a 'spreading party' TOMORROW (April 27) at 10:00 am at City Square. Bring your tools and we can mix, rake, and smooth all the organic matter into the garden, and do some weeding too!

Notes from last Sunday at City Square

A few musings through recent observations -


The City has been in to repair the sprinklers, and the lettuce seems to have survived without too much damage! Now if only we could figure out when they go off.....


Something (or someone?) has been eating the garlic tops! Squirrels? Raccoons? A mystery to be solved!


Most of the peas seem to have survived this crazy weather, but haven't grown much. The fava beans planted last fall, although sparse, have grown to about 8"! Also, some lost kale and romaine we must have planted last fall have also begun to grow.


The 'storage area' behind the bench has been cleaned, and after all season with that organic matter on it, looks to have arguably some of the best soil in the garden!


And lastly, the soil was prepared and a 4'x4' square foot frame laid out in preparation for planting with the daycare this Wednesday, April 23! We will have some kids planting and others weeding, while exploring the natural cycle of food. If you would like to volunteer, contact me at bakervicky@shaw.ca

We also look forward to the delivery of about 150 lbs of worm castings, which will help immensly to help build the soil!

April Showers Bring SNOW?

Spring is acting pretty crazy here in Vancouver. Thursday we were busy at the rooftop getting our seedlings into containers. Than it snowed on Friday night! I checked the seedlings on Saturday and they seemed to have survived the snow and cold weather.

Baby Betsy Mae having a nap while the adults worked.

Ndonodji helping to clear sitting water off the roof.
Remember - sitting water becomes home to mosquitoes so be sure to clear out what you can!

Ilse taking a turn with Betsy Mae.

$1. 99 for a bunch of organic dandelion greens. Just another reason to love your local weeds!

Have a great week!

meeting tomorrow

YES, we will be meeting tomorrow to plan and regroup in preparation for the upcoming planting!

see you at 10:00am, at city square!

We're planting the Roof Top Garden!

April 14, 2008
Tara is watering the newly planted seedlings at the SPEC Roof Top GardenWe rescued the little guys just in the nick of time before they dried out in this delicious but unseasonably sunny and warm weather. We have plenty more to do and need volunteer help on Thursday morning (17th) at 10:00 am. We also got ourselves ready to do our first container gardening workshop on Wednesday for a local preschool. It will be good practice for the bigger challenge of planting the City Square Garden with the nearby Day Care Centre which is coming up soon. Vicky will post that date on the blog in a few days. Get ready to come and help us move 200 pounds of worm castings at the City Square Garden on April 26th. Exact time will be posted closer to the date.

Summer is in the air...

You can definitely smell summer in the air. I was on the SPEC rooftop today and it was great to see that insects were in abundance and the veggie transplants were doing okay. They REALLY need to be potted up. A must for this week!

Ilse and Carole tasting the veggie transplants.

South-facing view from SPEC rooftop at the corner of Maple and 6th street.

Vancouver is just bursting with spring flowers of all types.

On Thursday 13 April we potted up the tomato seeds that were started on 12 March and also sowed some other plants including :
alyssum
anise
arugula
basil
eggplants
lettuce
nasturtiums
poppies

We are busy planning a Square Foot Gardening workshop for 10 May. More info on this will be posted soon!

Vicky and Carole sowing seeds.

Enjoy the weather!
tara