Ladner Community Garden

Its just six days until Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo and I can't wait! You know what's going to happen. We will have our impending snowfall and it's all going to wash away so the spring bulbs can bloom. The end of winter is so close now. We gardeners are optimistic and we are always looking for the beauty in each season. For me spring is my favourite with the signs of new life emerging from the soil.  What a better way to jumpstart a new gardening season by coming to Ladner Seedy Saturday.  Have you got seeds to share? Our seed swap is back again this year and we just received a large donation of seeds for everyone to look through. Bring your seeds in their original packages as we can see the description of the plant on the package. If you have collected your own seeds, please package them like the ones above or use glassine envelopes. Mark the name of the plant, if it is open pollinated or hybrid, how many seeds are in the package, the year the seed ...

I want to thank all the wonderful volunteers, vendors and the community of Delta for supporting the Ladner Community Garden at its first Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo event. A special thanks goes to the Ladner Baptist church for letting us use their facility to host this event. The church also served coffee and muffins which we all loved. The event ran smoothly and there was a fabulous assortment of products for all gardeners. We were up before dawn and ready to set up by 7am yesterday morning. Displays like this one supporting USC Canada were easy to put up. I loved the world food map. We had lots of other displays which I will post about this week. So much to say about all the good things that went on yesterday,the new partnerships made,new friendships and the conversation. Our vendors rolled in almost as soon as we had the tables set up. They quickly went to work setting up their tables. The seed swap was a bit hit. I had one lady bring in heirloom seeds from the...

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.

We have a wonderful line up of speakers for Seedy Saturday on January 28,2012. Our first speaker will be Don Bruchet. He will giving us an introduction to seeds and how to start them, nurture them and finally pot them up in to our gardens. For any beginner gardener this will be a wonderful talk. Trust me , once you have success with seeds there is no going back. Don brings with him his great knowledge of vegetable gardening. He worked as retail manager at West Coast Seeds and has gardened extensively for many years. He gives garden lectures for various clubs. He is also a founding member of the Ladner Community Garden. We have learned so much from him. Don taught our allotment holders how to thin their vegetables, something we all just assume everyone knows. Never assume. He also helped the gardeners become successful this year despite our cool spring. Some still have lettuce in their gardens even in December! At Seedy Saturday Don will be talking about how to get your soil ready for ...

Do you ever plant seeds in the spring and have so many leftover, you don't know what to do with them? Well, why not bring them to our Seedy Saturday seed swap? Bring seed in between 10am-1030am so they can be sorted alphabetically. Swap time will be from 1030am-1pm. What is a seed swap? A seed swap is when many people meet to trade seeds. They may have too many or don’t need the seeds they have and want to trade for seed that they are looking for. Seed swaps are also social events and full of fun. One gets to meet other gardeners, learn about seeds and perhaps try a seed they didn’t know about. So to get started, check out your seed inventory. Bring in what you will not be using or have too much of. Once you find these seeds, you must package them with the following on the front of the package. Using small envelopes for this works great. Common name Number of seeds Annual, perennial or biennial? Were they bought or collected? Hybrid or open pollinated? Latin name if possible Check ...

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 ...