Ladner Community Garden

In the original plans for the Ladner Community Garden we had designed a fruit garden. We knew we couldn't grow plants such as blueberries and raspberries in our 4'x10' foot beds without losing valuable vegetable growing space so this was the solution. We had to remove three existing allotment beds in order to repair a very boggy area in the garden. Yes, we need some fill to fix this area so we can replace the three beds and get back to business. The three empty beds were moved to the fruit garden space where Jim leveled and measured to get them just right.  My mouth just waters thinking about all the fruit we can harvest for our community meals this summer. We have five blueberry plants, some strawberries and a thornless blackberry plant waiting to call this home. By the end of the day, this bed was planted up with British Sovereign strawberries. One of the neighbours kindly donated plants that he had been growing for fifty years. I just researched this straw

If you haven't planted already here are some ideas for your garden plot. Its time to plant carrots, beets, Swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, celery transplants, onion and leek transplants, parsnip, kale and head lettuce. Phew, that's enough to get you going for now. If you want some growing information on any of these vegetables, check it out here . Enter a vegetable in my search box and you should find out all the growing information you need. If its not there, let me know. The city has turned the water on so we are good to go. Not that we need it yet. With rain every other day it will be enough to get your seeds going. If you are planting transplants, try to plant them on a cooler or overcast day. Transplanting on a sunny day can be tricky. The new transplants will need to be watered carefully. This year you will need to add some soil to top off your garden beds. A lot of beds have settled and adding new soil will help. I see lots of activity with insects and eart

Here it is April and its finally starting to warm up. Plants are really growing quickly at the community garden. The Narcissus are in full bloom and the Tulips won't be far behind. Signs of spring means weeds are growing as well. I know, you didn't want to hear about those. We have been taking time to really dig out those awful quack grass weeds from around the allotment beds. Once that is done and a layer of fresh mulch is down, we will be all set for spring planting. If you haven't already planted, its time to plant lettuce, spinach, cabbage, radishes, onion sets, shallots, turnips and kohlrabi. Check out our new Pansies in the rock garden bed. I love these dainty little spring flowers! Thanks to Bonnie for generously donating some Swiss chard to our food bank garden. Yesterday the grade three class planted vegetable seeds in this area and we hope to see them germinate soon with all this lovely sunshine. You have to take a peek at the West Coast Seeds tr