Ladner Community Garden

     Carrot harvest   Growing your own food just became even more important than ever. As prices increased this fall we saw lettuce and cauliflower go up in price. Reasons for that are many but the drought we had could be one of the reasons. Overall the transportation costs of everything are up due to the high cost of fuel and that's being passed on to the consumer. Of course, many of us are not earning any more than we did before. I predict that 2023 will see another resurgence of food growing like we did at the beginning of the pandemic. Some of us may be doing it with less space than we had before so that creates more challenges. Just to let you know how popular gardening has become, our community garden has a waitlist of over twenty people. They may not get a spot in the garden for several years. It's probably time for a new community garden to be set up in the community.       To save money in the winter think about growing crops that store w...

Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2020 returns on March 7, 2020. Join us as we enter a new garden season full of hope and promise. After all the rain we've had we need a few flowers and vegetables in our gardens. The event runs from 10:00am-3:00pm at the All Saints Anglican Church at 4755 Arthur drive in Ladner,BC. Our ever popular seed swap returns so bring your seeds to trade for something else. Be sure to package your seeds in paper envelopes and that the seeds are clean before packing. Our vendors are filling the hall quickly and will have an array of plant related goods for sale. From seeds to plants and garden decor there will be something for everyone. Admission is by donation. Please help us continue to grow food for charitable organizations. As all gardeners know, soil and seed comes with a price and this event is our only fundraiser. Over the last few year the Ladner Community Garden has grown and donated vegetables to the All Saints Church monthly community m...

Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo is back. Our annual event will be held on March 2, 2019 at the All Saints Anglican Church located at 4755 Arthur drive in Ladner. Admission is by donation. We are still accepting vendor registrations for our event. If you have plants, seeds or other garden related products leave a comment below or email me at deltagardener at dccnet.com. This event is a fundraiser for the Ladner Community Garden so we can keep growing for local charities. Have you thought about growing a row of vegetables for the hungry? Its a wonderful way to give back to your community. Above is our harvest of turnips being hosed off before dropping them off to a local church. At our event you will be able to learn from garden speakers Amanda Jarrett and Kristin Crouch. Amanda will be planting up vegetables in containers so this will appeal to people who love to garden but have limited space. Kristin Crouch will go over how to grow herbs for your garden. Learn ho...

Yes, it's time for Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2018. Our organizing committee is busy behind the scenes registering new and returning vendors, booking speakers and organizing the seed swap for the event. Are you a vendor wanting to come to Seedy Saturday? We still have a few tables left for lease. I am excited about our two speakers coming this year. Janis Matson is a well known garden speaker and owns Shoreline Landscape Design. Janis is an instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley and also teaches classes at VanDusen Botanical Garden. Janis will be teaching us how to use ornamental grasses in the home garden. Our next speaker is Randal Atkinson. Known as West Coast Garden' s Plant Expert Extraordinaire, Randal is the go to person for design, plant selection, growing and care of plants. Randal is passionate about gardening and loves sharing his knowledge with the public. You can often see him teaching classes at West Coast Garden centre...

Planning is now underway for Ladner Seedy Saturday 2018.  It will be held on March 3, 2018 at the All Saints Anglican Church in Ladner.  We moved the date to March after experiencing a late spring in 2017. We know a later date means more plants will be available from our vendors. It was pretty hard to find plants for sale when there was still snow on the ground. Our seed swap is always the highlight of the event so if you are a seed saver, this is the place to go. Bring your unused seeds from this year to our seed swap. They must be packaged in small envelopes so they can be traded at the event. We can't receive large bagfuls of seed on event day as the volunteers won't have time to sort and package them. It's important to plan ahead and label and pack your seeds before you arrive. Ladner Seedy Saturday is a fundraiser for the Ladner Community Garden which opened in 2011. One of the missions of the community garden is to grow for the local food bank and other ...

Thank you to all our wonderful vendors, speakers and customers for supporting Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo this year. We had a successful event with just under four hundred people attending our event. A good time was had by all. The highlight of the event was the arrival of our first speaker, Brian Minter. I cannot tell you how many people called or emailed to ask when he would be speaking. Brian is the guru of gardening here in British Columbia and his audience numbers attest to his popularity. Shelley Levis presented an interesting talk on how to use edible flowers. Did you know all parts of the sunflower are edible, even the roots? She also taught us how to use nasturtiums not only as a trap plant for aphids but in salads as well. Gary Lewis from Phoenix Perennials arrived with trays and trays of Hellebores and talked about them and their care. The Hellebore Hurrah starts this Friday so be sure to visit Phoenix Perennials to see what the garden center has ...

Its less than a week until the Ladner Community Garden Society and the Ladner United Church opens the doors for Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2017. We are still getting requests from vendors and I am working on different layouts to fit everyone in. It looks like we have the Kelpman and Mike and Sandy's Berry farm coming again this year. We have a wonderful lineup of speakers including Brian Minter, Gary Lewis, Shelley Levis and Mike Nugent. The presentations will be in the Ladner United Church's sanctuary and the vendors will be in the celebration hall. Entrance to the event is through the main doors at the front of the church. Parking is always a struggle to find in our small town as its free. Yes, free parking, imagine that. So if you can walk to the event that's great or if you are driving try to use the public parking lots located at the corner of Elliot street and Chisholm street, along the Ladner Memorial Park on 47 avenue and along 47A avenue. Pa...

Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2017 is only 18 days away. We are finalizing tables and seating with the Ladner United Church, our host this year. Wait until you see our new venue, its stunning inside with room for everyone. There will be lots of seating for our speakers so no rush to get in early. I look forward to meeting some of our new vendors. Below is a list of the vendors we have coming this year. Wild Ginger Designs Salt Spring Seeds West Coast Seeds Tropic to Tropic South Delta Garden Club Kurtis's Photo Cards J & J Enterprises-More plants! Succulent Avenue Bartlett Tree Experts Corporation of Delta Engineering Vancouver Master Gardeners Westham Island Herb Farm Local Kiwi by D Y-Grip Tools Linda's Garden Collectibles Don't forget the seed swap. It will be located in the main hall with the vendors. Bring your seeds to trade. Be sure to mark the seed packages with name of plant, when the seed was harvested, colour, height, num...

Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo is less than a month away. I love attending this event as its the start of the garden season. Its at this time that I will think about which seeds to buy and grow in my garden. This year we have Salt Spring Seeds and West Coast Seeds coming with their wonderful selection of seeds. Its time to go through their catalogues to get an idea of what you may want to pick up. February means you can think about planting pac choi in the garden, maybe some salad greens if you are growing in a greenhouse or hoop house. March is the official start in the vegetable garden with potatoes, onions and broad beans being planted. Yes, you don't have to wait until May to get started. You want to get your cool season crops started. Living in the lower mainland of BC we can plant earlier than many other areas. We also have Tropic to Tropic Plants coming with his array of interesting tropical plants. Last year Ray had avocado, paw paw and lemon shrubs. I c...

Its official, our speakers are booked and we are in the last of the planning stages for Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2017. Now to get our vendors organized and iron out a few more details. There are always a few last minute items to deal with. Be sure to package up your unwanted seeds for our annual seed swap. I will be bring some heirloom tomato seeds to trade. Our poster is ready for printing so you will see it around the community. We have four wonderful speakers once again. I must give a shout out to Jennifer's Graphics for the great poster she created for us again this year. Brian Minter will start the day with a talk on "Whats New and Funky in Food Gardening" at 10:00am. I am sure Brian needs no introduction as he is a well known speaker. Brian is famous for his passion in gardening which is so evident in his talks. Brian will be bringing plants to sell at the event. For those of you who haven't heard Brian Minter speak, he is the owner of Min...

Its been ages since I have posted, bad me but life gets busy when you are farming in the great weather that we had this year. As 2016 comes to a close, I want to thank all of you who have supported the Ladner Community Garden over the years. In the spring we had such a wait list that we released six more raised beds for eager gardeners. Going into 2017 we have a new list so we will be looking at finding space once again.   I have been working on Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2017 which is scheduled for Saturday, February 18, 2017 at the Ladner United Church. Please note that our venue has changed this year. I think the acoustics in the church will be awesome. I have a great lineup of speakers for the event. Brian Minter will open the show at 10:00am with a lively and entertaining talk about whats new and funky in food gardening. Our vendors will be back with all sorts of garden goodies for you. Tropic to Tropic is back with their array of plants. Can you say avo...

June has brought a mix of sun and rain this month and the weather is so different than last year. The rain has crops looking fantastic this month. Just walking the garden makes me hungry. You can't say that about a flower garden, now can you? Kale is now available in so many varieties. Being a biennial  vegetable you get two seasons from this crop if you leave it all winter. The second year it will flower and produce its seed pods. Be sure to taste the new flower buds as they are delicious.   I am so jealous of these salad greens. Look at the size of them! The peas in this allotment garden are the most interesting vegetable I have seen. Both the flowers  and pods are a deep purple making it a striking colour in the garden. This one is called Purple Mist peas and its a shelling pea but young pods can be used for eating while still tender.  Below the peas this allotment gardener has Swiss chard, red lettuce and a new crop on the go. Its importa...