Guided Work Party - July 20th

The forecast is looking hot hot hot! Today we learnt from Alex that the germination rate of a seed is directly correlated to the amount of soil particles it comes in contact with. So finer and less clumpy soil does great for the seeds! 

Art dropped by with some black cap raspberries for us to sample. They are native to eastern North America and can often be used as purple dye. Be careful as they can stain!

Angela recruited a few gardeners to turn the compost today. We unveiled the compost from the weeds bin and there was so much! Three barrows full to be exact. The last time this was done was on March 27th, close to 4 months in the making. The compost was spread throughout the woodlands border and the edible forest area.

Several root vegetables were planted today, including the red carrots from the citizen seed trial and different varieties of daikon and radishes. Can’t wait for them to pop up!

In the morning, I brought the gardeners some Asian buns from the seniors event happening in the park. After 2 hours of hard work, lunch of dolmas and fatayer was provided by Silva. For a refreshing beverage, Selina brought fireweed syrup served with cold soda water, find the recipe here.

Guided Work Party - July 17th

This has been a cool La Niña year for sure! Many old and new volunteers helping out today including those from the neighborhood, exchange students from Japan, and students from the north shore who heard about our community gardening! Alex led a walk through the garden beds and talked about how we can plan crops around the weather patterns of the year. This year might not be great for warm weather crops and we might not expect much here in Vancouver, a handful of ground cherries might be the expectation. However, the cool season crops like leeks, lettuce, and peas are still going strong! 

Alex shared some red orach or orache (Atriplex hortensis) seeds which has also been called saltbush or mountain spinach! Red orach is an annual cool season crop that can also be used to draw salt out of soil and has been shown to do so effectively (1): a self seasoning crop. The plants shared were a vibrant purple. This purple color comes from the pigments, anthocyanins, that are great antioxidants with benefits including lowering risks of cancer (2)! 

We also harvested some lacinato kale from the bottom up, leaving some leaves for the plant to keep growing! Raspberries, tayberries, black raspberries, and strawberries were also picked and shared. 

Angela also checked on how the compost was doing, a whooping 30℃! 

Jan

Red mountain spinach and seeds!

Jan explaining what makes Orache red - anthocyanins!

Alex with Red Orache

Weeding tomato bed

Companion planting red mountain spinach in our future garlic patch!

Harvesting berries!

Guided Work Party - July 13th

We harvested the rest of the broad beans today as the aphids were now causing serious damage, and laid the foliage down to dry out, keeping the roots in the ground to release nitrogen back into the soil.

The old garlic bed was given a good going over prior to a planned planting of a catch crop of potatoes and chard; it was top dressed with our compost.

There was lots of lettuce, bushels of  broad beans and peas, the last of the turnips and some bitter greens, and also a few strawberries which we shared whilst eating the frozen Strawberry Shortbreads left over from the Strawberry Tea, which made excellent Ice-cream Sandwiches!

Alex mentioned letting bolting plants go to seed, such as lettuce and broccoli, to give pollinators a little treat!  He and Selina also discussed the bitter greens, like dandelion leaves, in Rita’s plot which have health benefits. 

Angela

Snow peas, Snap peas and Pod peas!

Our Citizen Scientist’s (Wenwen & Elaine) reviewing their bean crop

Angela gave a brief talk on making compost, after which  the contents were given a good stir

Jan talking pea varieties.

Beautifully prepared bed ready for the Citizen’s Seed Trial of carrots

A barrowload of (slightly twiggy) compost ready to be distributed

Calendula and Fireweed are beautiful and tasty! Emily talking about health benefits of calendula tea. Selina’s calendula oil & salve. Fireweed blooms harvested to make fireweed syrup. The fireweed in all its glory, which Selina talked about after the work party during a discussion on its herbal uses, as well as Calendula. Selina and Emily talking about Calendula, whilst tasting Emily’s Calendula tea.

Guided Work Party - July 10th

Alex led his first work party and talked about aphid infestations and what gardeners can do to cope with them, bearing in mind they provide valuable food for predators! The rest of the garlic was harvested and stored temporarily in the greenhouse. We noticed that the cauliflowers had mostly bolted, despite our attempts to shade the curds from the sun, so they were also harvested, along with some broccoli that was also starting to bolt. The extreme heat a couple of weeks ago was probably to blame. Also, the red onions were showing signs of needing to be pulled, despite their small size. However, the white onions are looking good, and so are the leeks which needed further spacing. We picked the first of the berries, and are hoping for a bumper blueberry crop.

Angela

Thank you to Urban Root’s Giving Gardens for the wonderful cauliflower!

Urban Roots Cauliflower!

Alex teaching about aphids!

Cauliflowers bolting due to heat

Today’s harvest : garlic, red onions, lettuces, broccoli and cauliflower, chard, a few assorted berries, and Japanese greens!

Red onions, rather small , probably due to adverse weather

Garlic harvested!

Bumper blueberry crop