Ladner Community Garden

Are you wondering about how to help your vegetables and flowers grow in the community garden? It is really crucial in the early stages of growth for your new plants and seeds to get enough water. Once established they will no longer need daily watering. I like to water every other day once the plants are established. With the often windy conditions at our garden, the soil can dry out quickly. The minuscule amount of rain we have had has not helped a bit. Last week I brought my jug of fish fertilizer over to use on the food bank garden. I use this extensively on my vegetable plants at home. Today I have a five gallon pail of moo poo tea brewing by the food bank garden. My friend, Annie Haven, makes Authentic Haven Brand teas for the garden. All I had to do was place one of the large tea bags in a five gallon pail of water. I will leave it for a couple of days and then water it in to the garden. It has a lid on it to keep flies away. The manure tea will condition the soil and allow the...

On Monday, June 20, we had our first general meeting in the garden. Twenty four members signed in and we introduced ourselves. Many of us had not met each other so this was a good opportunity to get to know each other. We started out our evening introducing our board member, Don Bruchet, who gave a talk on winter crops and how to use remay cloth in the garden to ward off pests such as cabbage moth and carrot rust fly. He brought a sample for all to see. He also showed members how to use a seeding tool so that you don't waste seed when planting. We walked over to one of the allotment gardens and Don gave us tips on how to thin our vegetables. He gently scooped a section of carrots out and showed us how to separate the plants. Yes, each tiny seedling is one carrot much to the disbelief of some of our members. Looks like we should have a thinning party and I don't mean weight loss. After our speaker, we proceeded with a quick business meeting.Future plans for the garden include ...

What an exciting day we all had yesterday! The Ladner Community Garden was officially opened by Her Worship, Mayor Lois Jackson. I have to thank the staff of Parks,Recreation and Culture for all the hard work that went in to setting up for this event. They were at the site at 8am making coffee,blowing up balloons and putting tents up to keep us all dry. Yes, Mother Nature decided it was time for a bit of rain but it didn't dampen our spirits. Councillor Robert Campbell also made a short speech about the garden.It sure is wonderful to be partners with the Corporation of Delta. I got up to say a few words. Needless to say I was a bit emotional. The volunteers have done so much in such a short time. They are so wonderful. Over the last month, one family has exemplified the word community and volunteerism. I had to thank them for all their help. Bonnie and her father, Don, have gone the extra mile. They have cut the grass, loaned us a generator when we needed power and even brought us ...

I am pretty excited! Mayor Lois Jackson is going to formally open our new Ladner Community Garden this weekend, Saturday, June 18. I hope you can all make it to the festivities. Our program will run from 10am until 1pm with lots of activities going on. The Corporation of Delta will be doing a ribbon cutting and we will have some cake and coffee. Our board member, Sharon, has a fun activity for the children who attend. She will be painting ladybug rocks with any child who would like to participate. I will be the one at the pumpkin planting table getting my hands dirty. Would you like to plant a pumpkin seed to take home? Come and see me. There will also be some lovely music by Ladner Guitar so bring a lawn chair, have a coffee and soak up some sunshine. Yes, I ordered sun and Mother Nature will not disappoint us.

I am so happy to announce that our children's garden is built! It wouldn't have been possible without Jayson and his crew of volunteers from Ladner Baptist . It turns out some of our local churches were looking to help out in the community on June 11. Jayson, the youth pastor, approached me a few weeks ago and wondered if there was some way they could help us. Thats how the children's garden was born. Now these volunteers didn't just build our garden, some held a car wash, some did street cleanups and some did yard work for others. There are lots of ways to extend a helping hand in our community. Isn't that what community is all about? I greeted the lumber arrival and thought I could take a shot of it rolling off the truck. Oh no, it went way too fast for my little point and shoot camera. Jayson and his volunteers wearing their 'Love South Delta" T-shirts quickly got to work cutting the boards for the raised beds. They even brought all the tools needed for ...

I had to post today as I wanted all the allotment owners to know that a city employee came to visit the garden today and she was amazed! She couldn't believe that everyone had plants growing already. Its been just three weeks tomorrow that we built this garden and I am so proud of all the hard work that has gone in to its creation. I am pretty excited that the children's garden is going in tomorrow. Someone asked why it was important to put this garden in now when classes don't start to come until September. They even wondered what we would grow in September. It takes time to grow a garden as all of you know but many non gardeners don't quite get it. In my greenhouse are a flat of pumpkins and squash just waiting for a new home. If I plant these seedlings in the middle of June they will be ready for the children to harvest in October. The children will use their math in the garden by counting pumpkin seeds or measuring and weighing the pumpkins. They will also be able ...

The chips are here and this weekend we will start covering our pathways in between our beds. On Saturday, June 11, we have a work party scheduled. We want to lay some cardboard down in the pathways before the chips go down. This way, we hope to minimize the weeding we all have to do over the summer. I know we have shoveled a lot over the last two weeks but at least this stuff is light work.It will certainly give the first phase of the garden a finished look. We also have a group of volunteers who have offered to come and build our children's garden this Saturday. I met with Jason,the youth pastor at Ladner Baptist one day and he said the churches were all coming together to do a project and was there something we had in mind? I immediately thought of the children's garden. I am excited about getting the children's garden in so I can plant some pumpkins. I mean, wouldn't all the kids love to have a pumpkin growing contest? I know I am pretty excited! I don't know abo...

Our community garden is really growing! Everyone has seeds sprouting and it looks like the combination of compost and manure is working well. Today I thought I would share with you what your gardens are going to look like. These photos were taken yesterday at the grade one children's garden at Kirkland House in Ladner. The grade one students come every two weeks to do a class in the garden. This is the radish I harvested yesterday. Its is pretty big and there are lots of them. These are broad beans. The children planted seeds in early March and the plants are just coming in to bloom. They are a bit behind due to our cool spring weather. In the above photo, from left to right, are radishes, spinach and green onions. All the fixings for salad which the children will make on their picnic day in two weeks.Yes, the children not only harvest, but wash the salad greens and spin them in a spinner. They love the spinning! This is the same salad bed where you can see carrots, red romaine le...

Our food bank garden is finally planted! Thanks to a few of our volunteers this garden will produce a crop this year. On May 14, we had a few helpers plant seeds of many different types of vegetables. The trays of seeds spent two weeks in my greenhouse on a heating mat and thrived in the warmth. In the garden we planted squash, beans turnips and carrots. There is also lettuce, spinach, beets and potatoes planted on this side of the garden.. Last night brought us some rain which is just what this garden needed. There is about four feet of garden still to be planted. We will plant a succession of beans, beets and carrots. As plants finish its important to plan for winter crops. Did you know you can sow broad beans in October? Carrots can be sown again in August. Check out West Coast Seeds Winter Gardening Guide and Planting Chart for more great garden options.