Ladner Community Garden

As we enjoy the holidays with family and friends, the board of directors would like to wish everyone who has been involved with the Ladner Community Garden, a heartfelt happy holidays and Merry Christmas. Without out dedicated volunteers our garden wouldn't have accomplished what it did this year. Even in winter the rock garden looks fabulous with its seed heads feeding the birds and hopefully reseeding for us at the same time. It is now the end of the garden season, this is the time to decide whether you would like to come back in 2013 for another great season, we would love to have you. Thank you to the allotment owners who have dropped off their cheque or cash. Application forms are available at Bryan's Bookstore in Ladner, through director,Sharon Hagel or we can email it to you. Please read over the new garden rules for 2013 before sending in your registration, payment is due January 1, 2013. Application forms & cash/cheques can be dropped off at Krist...

Its almost the end of 2012 and with it we close on what I think has been a very successful growing season. Even though we started with a cool spring, the summer came quick and stayed hot and dry, something we aren't used to here on the lower mainland of British Columbia. I don't ever recall watering in the month of September but our dry weather continued until the end of October. We began 2012 with our first Ladner Seedy Saturday. It was a huge success and brought like minded gardeners all under one roof. We shopped and traded seeds, bought plants, listened to great speakers and enjoyed the camaraderie that gardeners evoke when all get together. I can't wait until our second Seedy Saturday on February 9, 2013! The first classes came from Southpointe Academy in March and we started to get the ground ready for planting.   The food bank garden grew very well and we were able to donate almost 300 pounds of food to the local food bank. We had our first plant s...

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, tha...

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.

Here it is the end of 2011 and a new year is about to begin. We had a great year in the new Ladner Community Garden. In January of 2011 my friend, Michelle and I talked about the need for a community garden in Ladner. All you had to do was get two passionate gardeners together and the vision appeared. We knew what we wanted so we started talking about it with other gardeners. Then we had to find the land for a community garden. After lots of driving around looking at potential sites, we approached the Corporation of Delta. We met with them and they seemed very excited about the garden We were ecstatic to say the least. They offered us two parks to choose from and we couldn't contain our excitement. So in May of 2011 after much paperwork we built the garden. We couldn't have done it without all the volunteers who came out in full force to lend a hand wherever they could. It was a fun time and a new community within a community was built. Friendships were made and we all learned ...