Riley Park Community Garden

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Bottoms up in the border!

Today at Riley Park our volunteers  planted 225 cloves of garlic (Red Russian, Porcelain Music & Salt Spring Select varieties).

Growing garlic is one of the easiest crops there is, it needs virtually no care until harvest time in 9 months. Use only local garlic that is accustomed to our local climate. Gently break apart the individual cloves (without tearing the protective covering of each clove); plant 4” deep & 6” apart. Mulch with leaves over winter.
According to Dan Jason of Salt Spring Seeds, growing our own garlic is not only more tasty than anything you’d buy in the grocery store, it also reduces ‘the vast and unnecessary waste of non-renewable resources incurred by transporting garlic thousands of miles‘ (from Changing the Climate With the Seeds We Sow 2019) - so you’re doing your bit for climate change as well!

We also dismantled the small irrigation lines and put the hoses away for the season.
9 kg of Tomatillos were harvested, some green beans, a few cucumbers, hot peppers and basil.
A lovely Arabic lunch was provided by Silva to top off a wonderful afternoon in the garden