Ladner Community Garden

I want to thank all the wonderful volunteers, vendors and the community of Delta for supporting the Ladner Community Garden at its first Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo event. A special thanks goes to the Ladner Baptist church for letting us use their facility to host this event. The church also served coffee and muffins which we all loved. The event ran smoothly and there was a fabulous assortment of products for all gardeners. We were up before dawn and ready to set up by 7am yesterday morning. Displays like this one supporting USC Canada were easy to put up. I loved the world food map. We had lots of other displays which I will post about this week. So much to say about all the good things that went on yesterday,the new partnerships made,new friendships and the conversation. Our vendors rolled in almost as soon as we had the tables set up. They quickly went to work setting up their tables. The seed swap was a bit hit. I had one lady bring in heirloom seeds from the

Its only a couple of days until Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo! I am pretty excited to announce that we have filled all our tables. From seeds to plants to garden accessories and services, there is something for everyone. Our speakers are bringing some amazing presentations so I have listed their times below. We hope to see you there. Here is the program for the day: 10:00- Doors open to the public 10:00-10:30- Seed Swap drop off in Main Gym 10:00-2:00-Vendors in Main Gym 10:30-1:00- Seed Swap in Main Gym 10:15- Don Bruchet- An Introduction to Seeds & Soil- Fireside Room 11:15- Tatiana Kouchnareva- Growing Tomatoes in Containers-Fireside Room 12:15- Bill Bischoff- Hardy Cyclamen-Fireside Room 1:15-Brian Campbell- Bees & Seeds-Fireside Room 1:45- Draw for Door Prizes 2:00- Close of events

Ladner Seedy Saturday is pleased to have Bill Bischoff speaking about Hardy Cyclamens this weekend. Please join us in welcoming him. Bill wrote the following about his presentation. He will be speaking at 12:15 pm at Ladner Baptist Church in the Fireside Room, 5624 Ladner Trunk Road in Ladner.  "With this presentation we aim to entice more gardeners to the pleasures of growing “Hardy Cyclamen”, in their gardens.  Our talk is based on some 22 years of “hands-on” experiences in our garden in Surrey, BC. The genus of Cyclamen contains some 22 species, including many sub-species, varieties, and cultivars. The individual species bloom at a specific time of the year. By careful selection, one can have Cyclamen flowers at every month of the year. Most growers however, cultivate these Garden-Jewels for their almost endless varieties of leaf-forms and patterns. The species of Cyclamen hederifolium, as an example, has so many different and enticing leaf forms and patterns, that I

This month is flying by way too fast.In one way that's a good thing because it means spring is just around the corner.I love spring and this year its being made even more exciting with the upcoming Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo in Ladner. I cant wait to share my seeds with like minded gardeners. My seeds are all ready to go for the seed swap.They are packaged so you aren't overwhlemed with 1000 onion seeds which are impossible to use up fast enough. The thought of just being able to get ten seeds of my favourite vegetable such as pumpkins or tomatoes suits me fine. I am excited to say we have pretty much filled the gym at Ladner Baptist Church with all sorts of plants, seeds, garden accessories and services. The Ladner Community Garden is excited to share this event with the community. There is lots of parking and the site is wheelchair accessible. So mark your calendars. We hope you have fun at this new community event for Delta.

We are happy to announce that Tatiana from Tatiana's Tomatobase will be speaking at the Ladner Seedy Saturday. Tatiana's passion is in the preservation of heritage vegetable varieties with a special focus on tomatoes. I don't know what fruit is loved more than tomatoes. Tatiana will doing a presentation at Ladner Seedy Saturday on how to grow tomatoes in containers. With our heavy rainfall, we often find our tomatoes susceptible to blight. By growing tomatoes in containers you can move them around or grow them in a sheltered location to prevent blight from taking hold. At this presentation we will learn about heritage varieties of tomatoes and which are the best to grow in our climate. So join us on Saturday,January 28 at Ladner Baptist Church from 10-2 for this fun filled day of activity. Tatiana will be speaking at 11:15 am in the Fireside Room of the church.

I cant believe its only two more weeks until Ladner Seedy Saturday! As I sit here finalizing our program I thought I would share a bit about what you can expect at this event. We have some wonderful vendors coming. One of our local vendors is Robyn Leake of Wild Ginger Designs. I have known Robyn for many years and she is a wonderful garden designer. Robyn used to work at Sanderson's Nursery before it closed and also at David Hunter garden center. She has lectured all over and given hands on instruction on creating your own container plantings and arrangements. You can usually find Robyn at the Ladner Village Market during the summer. She will be selling her beautiful planters as well some funky rustic bird stakes for the garden. We also have Derry coming from Derry's Orchard and Nursery. Derry sells apple trees, blueberry bushes and lingon berries. I cant wait to see what she will be bringing to our Seedy Saturday. I have bought all my blueberry and raspberry plants from

I was out for a walk yesterday and came across this wonderful display in a local shop. Sharon, who manages at Bryan's Bookstore in Ladner has made a display to advertise our upcoming Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo. Sharon is known for her great window displays. She likes to get creative for all the community events in Delta. If you haven't walked by to take a look, now is the time. The window is full of colour reminding us that spring is not far away. I couldn't help but notice all the flowers and veggies on display along with seed packages. You know me and seeds, we wont go there. I am so addicted. Here's a better shot of our poster for Seedy Saturday. Its on Saturday, January 28,2012. There are still a few vendor tables left but don't wait long. The event will be held at Ladner Baptist Church at 5624 Ladner Trunk road from 10am-2pm. We hope to see you there.

We have a wonderful line up of speakers for Seedy Saturday on January 28,2012. Our first speaker will be Don Bruchet. He will giving us an introduction to seeds and how to start them, nurture them and finally pot them up in to our gardens. For any beginner gardener this will be a wonderful talk. Trust me , once you have success with seeds there is no going back. Don brings with him his great knowledge of vegetable gardening. He worked as retail manager at West Coast Seeds and has gardened extensively for many years. He gives garden lectures for various clubs. He is also a founding member of the Ladner Community Garden. We have learned so much from him. Don taught our allotment holders how to thin their vegetables, something we all just assume everyone knows. Never assume. He also helped the gardeners become successful this year despite our cool spring. Some still have lettuce in their gardens even in December! At Seedy Saturday Don will be talking about how to get your soil ready for

Do you ever plant seeds in the spring and have so many leftover, you don't know what to do with them? Well, why not bring them to our Seedy Saturday seed swap? Bring seed in between 10am-1030am so they can be sorted alphabetically. Swap time will be from 1030am-1pm. What is a seed swap? A seed swap is when many people meet to trade seeds. They may have too many or don’t need the seeds they have and want to trade for seed that they are looking for. Seed swaps are also social events and full of fun. One gets to meet other gardeners, learn about seeds and perhaps try a seed they didn’t know about. So to get started, check out your seed inventory. Bring in what you will not be using or have too much of. Once you find these seeds, you must package them with the following on the front of the package. Using small envelopes for this works great. Common name Number of seeds Annual, perennial or biennial? Were they bought or collected? Hybrid or open pollinated? Latin name if possible Check