April 2019

It has been a beehive of activity in the garden since early April. Thanks to the efforts and perseverance of our volunteers, we have made a tremendous start on the garden and weather permitting, will have a varied and bountiful harvest to share with our community.

Volunteer Activity

We have some familiar faces
returning to volunteer in the garden, but also many new faces – high school
students as a class or as individuals, post-secondary students with an interest
in environmental studies, and neighbours who have just moved in or discovered
our garden on their walks. We also welcomed volunteers from Canterbury House
retirement residence, who are maintaining our raised beds in the north
extension. We are thrilled to work with so many different people and are
learning quite a lot from each other.

We have been working on most
weekends since early April, and are about to start our regular work shifts.
Please feel free to stop in and visit, or join us to volunteer during these
times:

Fridays 9 AM – 11 AM
Saturdays 9:30 AM – 12 Noon
Starting June 5 Wednesdays 6:30-8:30 PM
Starting June 5 Wednesdays 6:30-8:30 PM

Walking Around The Garden

As usual, we rotated our plots so
that we are growing vegetables in different locations than last year. Please
feel free to walk around and discover what is growing where! We have been
marking what we have planted and are looking into improved signage in various
languages. You may also notice that we have improved some of our trellising and
plant supports for tomatoes, cucumbers and pole beans.

Scott and Barbara, our city
partners, have been stocking us with compost and wood chips.  These are delivered at the foot of the garden
and then shovelled and wheelbarrowed by our volunteers throughout the garden so
it does take us a few weeks to use up the piles. Thank you to our Parkview
neighbours for their patience during this time.

Harvest and Sales

We are growing all your favourites
like garlic, kale, swiss chard, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. We are
trying to re-grow some past favourites, like onions and New Zealand Spinach,
and trying out some new vegetables: Kohlrabi, fennel, black radish, daikon
radish, bitter melon and cucamelon. Fingers crossed these succeed!

We have completed the asparagus
harvest. Rhubard and lovage are available in June, but our harvest variety will
really pick up by the end of June. Expect spinach, arugula, radishes and snow
peas before the end of June, then the berry harvest will begin.

Sales start June 5th and continue to
October:

Wednesdays 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Saturday, 10 AM – 12 noon