Ladner Community Garden

Its been a while since I posted but watering took way more time than I would have liked this year. It was a great year for growing vegetables with everyone having huge harvests of crops such as cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and herbs. They loved our warm temperatures. Now that our community garden beds have been put to bed, its time to plan for next year. Its time to cozy up with a few seed catalogues and a cup of tea and plan our gardens. While it rains outside we can only hope the rain is fuelling the trees and shrubs that had a hard time this past summer. So what is new at the community garden? We had a lot of new gardeners this year and everyone had a great time meeting each other over a meal during our garden potluck. With our busy lives it was nice to slow down and share a meal. Our last meeting was last month when we shared a harvest dinner together. Its interesting how food brings people together. Whether it be in a garden trading gardening secrets or over a meal, its a

The Ladner Community Garden has been busy planting a second crop this month. With hopes of yet another long summer going into the fall months we can add a new crop of cool season vegetables. Its definitely been a struggle to keep things watered. You may see our team of volunteers out twice a week to give everything a drink. Its no small task with this size of a garden. Unfortunately I think we have lost several shrubs to the drought.  Lets take a walk and see what's growing. This allotment holder has Asian vegetables and beets well on the way. If you planted some winter vegetables last month they will fill your tables with lovely home grown flavour in the depths of winter. What has done well this season? By the looks of it, cucumbers and zucchini loved the heat we have had. Its been months without any significant rain so heat loving crops like basil, peppers and cucumbers are providing abundant harvests. The cucumber above is showing no signs of the dreaded mildew. This

I bet you thought we disappeared off the face of the earth. My apologies for not posting sooner. Life is busy with new grandchildren and new projects. But let's take a look at whats been happening at the Ladner Community Garden. This spring we had a huge interest in food gardening once again. We now have a wait list of eleven people and that's the longest its ever been. The directors are now brainstorming ways to shorten the list so be patient. The volunteers got together on two Monday mornings and helped weed and spread bark mulch. They also built a support system for the blackberries and weeded out the blueberry patch. We still have work to do but its hard with so few volunteers. The next project will be getting mulch on to the blueberry beds and planting under the pergola. I have plants to go in and they will look great. We just need a small work party to get the job done. Everyone has lots growing at the garden and most of the beds are planted for the season. Al

Laughing Swan Farm Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2015 was an outstanding success! Thanks goes to all our  customers, vendors, volunteers, speakers and sponsors. Without you this event would not have become the magical day that it did. A big thanks goes to our partner the Corporation of Delta and the parks department for helping us with all the logistics and trusting us to bring the community the very best of Seedy Saturdays Y-Grip Tools  From seeds to plants and garden tools, we had vendors selling everything for your garden. I was amazed that we fit everyone into the Harris barn but it worked out perfectly.We noticed areas we will be improving on next year. We certainly did not expect to have almost 900 people come through the doors so parking wasn't easy. We have already come up with a solution for next year. The Harris barn was definitely a wonderful venue. The weather was bright and sunny but cool but that didn't stop the eager gardeners from coming.

Just two days to go until Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2015! We are excited to be bringing this event to the gardening community. Here is a list of the vendors you will meet at our event this weekend. Join us on both Saturday and Sunday for some garden fun. For directions to our event just click here . Our event runs from 10-3 on both days. There is lots of parking and food trucks will be on site for lunch and coffee. Thanks again to our sponsors who have been a huge part of bringing this event to Delta. The Corporation of Delta, Windset Farms, Vancity and West Coast Seeds have allowed us to make this event the best ever. Cottage Pantry Gourmet Edibles The Kelpman  Woodchips Sand Dollar Design Evergreen Garden Club Photos by Kurtis Urban Bee Supplies Ladner Community Garden Tatiana’s Tomatobase Bartlett Tree Experts BC Eco Seed Coop Seeds of Diversity J & J Enterprises Y-Grip Tool Bee Conscious Simply Neglectable VanDusen Master Gardeners Westham Is

Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo is just three weeks away and we are working hard to bring you the best event ever. Today I want to encourage you to bring your seeds to swap. We will have a couple of tables set up for trading. Try to bring in your seeds between 10-10:30am so we can place them alphabetically and make sure they are packaged up properly. The seed swap starts at 10:30 and runs until 2pm.  This is how I like to package my seeds. I use two inch coin envelopes and write the name of plant, number of seeds, year the seed was bought or collected and if the seed is hybrid or open pollinated. Most people who trade seeds will only take open pollinated seeds so check your seeds closely. Open pollinated seeds will come true from collected seed. Hybrid seeds that are bought seed are okay as they will come true but their collected seeds will not.  Hybrid seeds come from two parents and like our families, our children are not identical to their parents.    This is wha

We are getting down to crunch time with Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2015. The vendor spaces have filled up nicely and we are working on making this the best event ever. The event is just a month away and we are excited to be kicking off the garden season with so many great presentations. Lets take a look at our speakers on Sunday. The ladies from Botanus are coming to speak about summer bulbs for your garden. Bulbs are worth every cent. They come back for years on end and provide so much colour to the garden. Elke Wehinger is the  co-f ounder and c o -owner of Botanus Inc. She was b orn in the heart of the Blackforest in Rheinfelden , Germany. Elke has a Master’s Degree in floral design and owned a very successful flower shop in Munich. She immigrated to Canada in 1996 and soon thereafter co-founded Botanus . Elke is very passionate about the business and along with her many hands-on skills and marketing genius, she is responsible for most of our wonderful plant p

Its January and the team behind Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2015 is busy organizing everything from volunteers to seed swaps. It's time to gather your old seeds that you don't want and package them up for the seed swap. If you bring in a sealed and labelled package of seeds you will be able to exchange it for something different. Perhaps you didn't like the beans you grew last year. Try something different this year. I like to use paper coin envelopes as they are recyclable. Be sure to label your package of seeds with the name of your plant, number of seeds, year saved and if they are open pollinated or hybrid. Most seed packages you buy let you know if the seeds are hybrids. Somewhere it should say F1 or hybrid on the package. If not, a little internet sleuthing will have the answer. Open pollinated seeds will have the symbol OP on the package. Whats the difference? Open pollinated seeds can be collected and most of them will grow true from collected seed.