Ladner Community Garden

Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2014 presents a wonderful lineup of speakers this year. Have you marked your calendars yet? Ladner Seedy Saturday is just a few weeks away and look at our west coast weather. I bet you are itching to get out in the garden. I know I am. Seedy Saturdays are a great way to kick start the garden season. You can come and browse the displays of seeds and garden supplies and listen to some great presentations. Today let's look at who is speaking at Ladner Seedy Saturday.  This is our poster which you will see all over the lower mainland. Spread the word as this is going to be our best event yet. Its our third year and each year it's so much fun.  Starting off our day is Brian Minter. He hardly needs any introduction as he is the go to plant guru of them all. Brian is so in touch with all that's upcoming in the garden world well before we know whats happening. He has the inside look on new garden trends. Brian Minter will be sp...

Are you ready? It's just a month away. Let's celebrate the beginning of the spring garden season by getting ourselves in the know on all things related to food gardening for 2014. Are you wanting to grow vegetables this year? It's a huge trend across the country and you are not the only one. Everyone wants to learn how to grow and harvest their own food. Come listen to Brian Minter as he talks about food gardens. Seating is limited so come early. Doors open at 10am with Brian's talk starting at 10:15am. Never been to a Seedy Saturday? Its the third year for Delta and we love sharing this event with the community. The Ladner Community Garden Society decided it was time for our community to hold a Seedy Saturday event. Its an event where you can come to swap open pollinated seeds, especially the heirloom types. I love starting plants from seed so I have lots of seed to bring to the swap table and hope I will bring home something new to try in my garden. I know...

Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo 2014 is coming up quick. We are pretty excited with our lineup of speakers this year. So what is a Seedy Saturday? Its a time to get together with other gardeners and celebrate the beginning of a new garden season. I know its only February but here on the west coast, the Crocuses will be in bloom by the time this event takes place. Yes, we are very lucky to have this mild west coast climate which lets us be in our gardens almost all year round. This year the seed swap will be back. Do you have unused seeds from last season that you would like to trade for something different? Please package them in a small envelope with the name of the plant, the year the seeds were harvested or bought, how many seeds are in the envelope and if it is a hybrid or open pollinated. Open pollinated seeds are best as they will grow true to the plant they came from. Seedy Saturday will also be a place to look for new things for the garden. There will be ven...

Happy new year to our allotment gardeners, our community sponsors and readers. We wish for all of you an abundant season like we had in 2013. Last year the weather couldn't have been better for growing vegetables.  All the gardens looked great last year so I will share a few photos of what did best. Just look at the kale. There were so many different types of kale being grown in the garden that it was mind boggling. They added some great colour to the gardens. The spinach also did well as can be seen by this photo.    Peas, peas and more peas. It seemed like they never stopped producing. Many gardeners grew a second crop in the fall. So many different kinds of lettuce. Look how this red lettuce adds striking colour to the garden and to a salad. Last year we finished the two pergolas, an arbor and built a fence. We also started a hedge row which will be an ongoing project.  The grade three class returned to the garden and had fun le...

We would like to thank all our volunteers at the community garden for all they have done this year. From building a fence and arbor to painting and helping with garden classes, so much has been accomplished. Its been a busy building year and we are going into 2014 with less to do. We will be focusing on planting some new gardens and getting our herb spiral built. Thanks to those who attended our Christmas party. It was nice to have such great conversation. That's what community is all about. As we go into the new year, we will be looking for a few new directors. If you have some time to spare, we meet a few times each year to organize potluck dinners and work parties. In order to keep our garden going we need five directors so if you can help out, we would be very happy to have you on board. This past season was a very abundant one at the garden. We had peas and beans growing like crazy and at times it was hard to keep up with the harvest. The grade three class h...

Yesterday the grade three class that comes to the Ladner Community Garden had a fun time building scarecrows. At the end of the school day we placed four of the scarecrows in the garden as we like to show the public what the community garden is all about. Well, we may never do that again. Sometime between 3pm on October 9 and 10am on October 10, three out of the four scarecrows were kidnapped, gone, vanished! These guys are a bit awkward to carry as the wooden supports are long and a bit heavy if you are walking with them. The three scarecrows that went missing are the ones with pillow cases for heads in the top photo. If you saw anyone walking by with scarecrows under their arm yesterday or any suspicious activity near the garden on Holly Park Drive in east Ladner please let me know. All the clothes were bought from the local thrift shop out of my own personal money. When I visit the thrift shop the ladies are going to ask me how it went with the scarecrow day. Won't the...

As we reach this time of year, we are thankful for the abundant harvests we have had at the Ladner Community Garden. What grew well this year were the peas and beans. Loads and loads of beans just kept coming until the temperatures dropped. This season comes to a close soon but we have accomplished a lot. Our new fence is up and its looking great. The work on our hedgerow began this year and we have more shrubs coming. We just need a volunteer work party to get it done. If you have been by the garden our pergola is coming along. The cement work is almost done and we are preparing to build some new flower gardens using recycled concrete. Did you know our front rockery is made from four recycled driveways? Now that's recycling at its best. The grade three class has had a lot of fun learning at the garden. We have a couple more classes this month and the students will return in the spring. So far the students this year have donated 100 pounds of fresh vegetables to the ...