Ladner Community Garden

It was a perfect morning for our first food bank harvest. Thanks to our volunteers, the harvesting only took a couple of hours.   It was time to harvest the potatoes. The grade three class had planted a mix of Russian Banana Fingerlings, Sieglinde, Russian Blue and Red Chieftain potatoes. The plants had done very well this year and we were amazed at the yields. Once the potatoes were done it was over to the carrot patch. I had planted a few different kinds of carrots.  They all did pretty good and had lots of healthy greens and great looking carrots. This is one funky potato. Not sure what causes this as most of the others were round with no bumps. Now if only there was a weird and wacky vegetable contest. It could be a winner. The carrots were grouped into bunches of ten. Yes, that's a lot of carrots, about 280 altogether. Next they were washed and banded to keep them together.  The potatoes were given a light wash and left to dry....

I am pretty excited to see how well the food bank garden has grown. Our Three Sisters Garden is growing gangbusters and it's all I can do to control the squash from jumping over the neighbours garden. I am thinking of pegging down the rambling squash to keep it in bounds. The cabbage is coming along and won't be ready for awhile yet. The onions are huge and we will be harvesting early next week to get them to the South Delta Food Bank in time for the Wednesday sharing for those who need help. We will also harvest some potatoes and carrots. The carrots are getting to a pretty good size now so its time to pull some. This has been a amazing month at the community garden. I have never seen so many peas! What a great group of allotment gardeners we have.

Harvesting time is a busy time for gardeners. All the spring sown vegetables are ready to harvest. I was in the community garden this week and I see lots of peas waiting to be harvested. I have already harvested my peas twice. You can't wait until all the peas are large or you will end up with tough woody tasting peas and thats not a good thing. Pick your pods as they mature but don't leave them too long. Split one open and eat them raw to test them out.  Shell them by splitting the pods open and use your thumb to send the peas into a small bowl. Add the pods to your compost or to the composters at the community garden. Peas can be frozen on cookie sheets and then placed into a freezer bags for longer storage. From my little patch in the children's garden I have already frozen a kilogram of peas. I think I am the only person growing broad beans this year. I would give them a try. They are planted early in March and are so easy to grow. Above is a photo of...

Our community garden is getting a new look. The messiness of the existing composting site was driving me crazy. Not only was it unlevel, often the composters were full to the brim. There is nothing worse than overflowing composters to attract visitors that we don't want to see. We also couldn't maintain the grass around the composters easily enough. That has all changed.  Last month, Jim built a base for the east composters. This base was necessary to ensure that the composters would not be sitting in water this winter. Yes, the drainage is horrid here so he added some fill and built it up.  Now Jim is working on the west side to do the same thing. All we need now is some more fill. He has moved all the existing composters and added three new wooden ones. These new composters have all been built from repurposed fencing. Thanks to those who donated fence boards for our project.  Jim also moved and turned all the compost that was inside the compost...

Wow, how things have grown at the Ladner Community Garden! I was at the garden this morning to get the children's garden watered before it got too warm out and to harvest some peas. The peas were planted back in March by the grade three class. We had lots of snacking of the pods when the class was there. Now the pods are full of peas and ready to be harvested. Standard peas are harvested when the pods have filled out but before the peas become tough and lose sweetness. Be careful not to injure the vines when picking. Just look how well the peas have produced this year! I hope to plant some more peas but they need to go in before July 15 for fall harvesting. I harvested approximately 4 1/2 pounds of peas. Mind you I still have yet to shell them. Fresh peas in their pods will keep in the fridge for 7-10 days. Flavour is best when eaten soon after harvest. So be sure to check your peas in your gardens. Harvest them as they mature. The peas along the bottom of the plant...

Here it is July and our community garden is thriving. The gardens are all growing well with the combination of sun and rain, well,  a little too much rain but then who doesn't need a day off from watering? Last month the volunteers completed the building of two pergolas in the center of the garden. We can't wait to get some gardens around the outside so we can grow plants over the top of the arbor. There is a purpose for all the reclaimed cement sitting at the front of the garden. We like to repurpose old driveways and make them into rock gardens. We even received some larger cement pieces to be used for a floor under the pergolas. Imagine creeping Thyme planted in between the slabs, what a vision! The pergolas are looking pretty bare so we are anxious to pretty them up. So what's happening in July? Check out this photo of an herb spiral that a couple of master gardeners built at Kirkland House. Our plans are to build one of these where we have the wet ar...