Strawberry Tea - What's happening?

We are in the midst of the yearly pollinator week, the best week of the year in my opinion. Why not bring your friends and family to our strawberry themed afternoon tea party? We have prepared interactive activities for the whole family, from scavenger hunts to compost games to seed paper making. We also will be giving out pollinator-friendly plants and seeds so you can grow your own butterflyway. Many knowledgeable gardeners will be there to answer any questions.

Hopefully, we all get to see a swallowtail butterfly if they decide to stop by for an appearance! But if not, you can find them in our newly released “Follow the Swallowtail” video. Linked here.

Any who, remember to save the date (Sunday, June 26th)! No reservations needed!

Wenwen

Guided Work Party - June 19th

Today we tackled the aphid problem using the power of water! Both apricot trees and the broad beans received a nice spray down and by the end of the work party, no more aphids can be seen. Scary to think where they all went…

Emily weighing the harvest

An interesting conversation was generated around the nitrogen content of compost. It is important to get your compost tested because we learnt today that a percentage higher than 2% would mean that the nitrogen gets released the year the compost is applied. Remember that nitrogen promotes vegetative/green growth, so if you want anything like fruits or flowers out of a plant, high nitrogen might not be the best idea. 

Jan teaching about pollination

Volunteers worked together to hill the growing potatoes to prevent any green toxic potatoes from forming. A few lucky volunteers got to try the young fava beans. Unfortunately, they were not yet ready for harvest. Last but not least, two varieties of tumbler cherry tomatoes were planted in the vertical garden. 

Wenwen

Guided Work Party - June 15th

Perfect gardening weather, cloudy but dry.  We had a good team today who enthusiastically waged war on the weeds in the orchard, herb bed, strawberry/blueberry patch and the leeks and onion bed.  A new recruit was given charge of sifting some compost to enable us to pot up half a dozen gifted heritage raspberries (reputed to come from a 100 year old orchard) and giving the compost a stir, after which Bin 1 was completely filled up with fresh annual weeds and some comfrey, which should give it a boost. A small team trimmed the vegetative growth from the espaliered fruit trees in the orchard, this will encourage the tree to concentrate on growing fruit instead of leaves. Wenwen removed the plastic ties from the branches now that the trees have got used to their shape. We also managed to find and fix a couple of leaks in the irrigation system, hooray!

Angela

Full compost bin!!

Neat espaliered orchard

Bad aphid infestations were found on two apricot trees!

Potting up the raspberries

Guided Work Party - June 12th

Last of the heat loving summer veggies were planted today (basil, hot peppers, and eggplant).

Mini cucumbers (green apple, west India burr gherkin and cucamelon) were planted up the vertical garden on the side of the shed.

Garlic scapes on our porcelain garlic were ready to harvest today and a few early spring garlic bulbs were harvested for a sneak peak. They are still small, but should be ready in another 2 weeks.

Selina

Mini cucumbers planted along vertical garden. Dad’s shovelling compost, mum’s weeding, daughter planted 10 cucumber seedlings

Making teepees for runner beans and pole beans.

Huge harvest of greens - romaine lettuce, kale, arugula, spinach, radicchio, nozawana (Japanese turnip green), cilantro, radishes, mustard greens; salads for everyone!

Happy gardeners leaving with fresh spring garlic

Composting Conversations - Master Gardener Workshop

And that’s a wrap!

Master Composter Angela Hoy led two very informative and fun composting workshop this past week for fellow master gardeners from all over the Greater Vancouver Area. Angela prepared a wonderful talk on how everyone can getting started with composting and provided tips to improve existing composters. Even the crows above were listening attentively.

Gardeners were keen to try their hands at turning the compost bins and were able to observe the different stages of the compost material. Participants also categorized tricky green waste items which generated more interesting discussions around Keurig cups, tea bags, paper towels and dog poop!

- Wenwen

Gardeners participating in the composting game.

Many gardeners showing up to the workshop!