An visit from an honourable friend

On Wednesday, November 3rd, we had a delightful visit from an old friend of the garden's, Ms. Cornelia Oberlander. Ms. Oberlander is one of the most innovative and environmentally aware landscape architects in North America. Her well-renowned projects including C.K. Choi Building, Vancouver Public Library, Museum of Anthropology, Robson Square Courthouse Complex and VanDusen Botanical Garden, have all brought refreshingly sustainable ideas to their communities. It is truly an honour for us to have the support and collaboration of such a remarkable figure in the development of our own community garden. Ms. Oberlander has supported us since the very beginning of the establishment of the garden; from giving us tips on the design and layout of the beds, to donating the seeds for our very first plants. It was really a pleasure to have her back at the garden to show her how far we have come from the last time she visited.



Today, Thursday, November 18th, Ms. Oberlander presented a lecture on Biodiversity and Landscape Architecture in the Old Auditorium at UBC. Ms. Chung, Emma and I had the honour of attending this lecture, and were very delighted to see our very own Prince of Wales Community Garden featured as one of Ms. Oberlander's sustainable landscape projects. As the Garden Committee, we really appreciated this acknowledgement and would like to take a moment to thank Ms. Cornelia Oberlander for her constant guidance and support. Dear Cornelia, thanks a million for all the encouragement.

October's harvest

I found some photos from committee members harvesting and watering the plants on the day that we planted the trees. Our October harvest included a large amount of beans, carrots, leeks, and delicious, red strawberries. Check out our harvesting day:

p.s. Thanks to Fan Di Gu for providing these photos.

And here are some pictures that I took last week of the strawberries (as you see they are treated specially):



A start to the orchard dream

The 6 apple trees that Emma Gosselin had purchased last spring and Ms. Phillips had taken care of in her garden during the summer, are finally planted in our very own garden.  The first step toward the much-anticipated future orchard was taken on Friday, October 1, when a group of members digged the holes for the apple trees on the west side of the garden (by the fence). The trees were planted the following Thursday (October 7) during the Garden Committee meeting with the help of many committee members and other student volunteers. Unfortunately, my camera died on the spot and I couldn't take pictures of this defining moment for our garden. But stay tuned because I might be able to find some photos of the day through other people who were present.

Also, big thanks to Camille Roberge's mother who gave us two more apple trees from her garden to plant in ours. They are going to be planted tomorrow during the committee meeting. Yay apple trees!

Note: The two trees that Camille donated

Getting back to work

And the moment we had all been waiting for... the school year of 2010-2011 has now started!

This year is the first year that we are going to have the Garden Committee run as an official school club at Prince of Wales. This is naturally very exciting because great work has been done by our wonderful summer members for the past couple of months and now the garden has a strong foundation for further development and expansion. At this stage, there are many projects and ideas that are ready be undertaken for the improvement of the function and layout of the garden and it is up to all you fellow PW students to join us and get involved.

Our first meeting of the school year will be happening on Tuesday, September 21 at lunch in room C110 and everyone who is interested in helping us out at the community garden is strongly encouraged to attend.

If you are a summer member, make sure to show up so we can present the project we've finished together as a team to the new committee members and our sponsor teachers. If you just heard about the Garden Committee and want to know more, please also don't hesitate to come to the meeting. We would be more than happy to have you there and hear your ideas and comments. Everyone is welcome!

Many thanks to summer members: Allie Peloquin, Claire He, Danielle Mayo, Emma Gosselin, Heather Ross, Jordan Chiu, Michelle Chan, Sheida Naderi, Mike Zhai, Paloma Brioschi, Swetha Yatham, Kavya Yatham and Sasha Mills. And I am looking forward to a great year at the garden and meeting all the new Garden Committee members... See you all on the 21st!

New seeds

I finally got around to planting more seeds in the extra three beds of the garden. I've planted shelling peas, snap peas and mesclun. The seeds will be ready to harvest in the fall.

p.s. I hope people would notice the signs I've put up at the extra beds and don't take any of the soil (especially now that seeds have been planted in them).

The faucet crisis (!)

Last week we faced some complications at the garden. During one of the member's shifts, the faucet that is used to water the plants broke off the wall in an accident. The situation was temporarily dealt with within a couple of hours when the school head engineer came to the rescue and shut the flow of the water from inside the building. However, since it wasn't clear when the faucet would be replaced by a new one by the VSB, we were left worried about the fate of our plants for the rest of the summer. On Tuesday of this week, I went to the school to see if I could talk to any of the engineers about the problem. I was directed to John, who told me that thankfully, a plumber was going to install a new faucet on the very same day. The key to the new tap was left for me at the office the next day and thereby, the faucet crisis happily came to an end and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

On a separate note, today is the last day of July and for the past month, our Garden Committee members have really dedicated themselves to taking care of the garden. I'd like to mention that the August schedule for watering shifts is now posted and many thanks are sent to Paloma Brioschi, Claire He, Jordan Chiu, Allie Peloquin, Michelle Chan, Danielle Mayo, Heather Ross, Sheida Naderi, Emma Gosselin, Swetha Yatham, Mike Zhai and Kavya Yatham for all their efforts in the past four weeks.

So far so good

We are now in our fourth week of successfully tending the PW Garden after the school year ended. This process includes the watering, harvesting, thinning and planting seeds/plants by a number of student volunteers. As a proud member of the group, I'm glad to say that our garden looks more alive and thriving than ever. Shout outs to all the enthusiastic and committed members who are making this project run smoothly. Jordan Chiu, Allie Peloquin, Michelle Chan, Sheida Naderi, Emma Gosselin, Swetha Yatham, Claire He, Mike Zhai, Kavya Yatham, Danielle Mayo and Heather Ross, thank you for doing your shifts for the past three weeks. Here's the current look of the garden:

On of the ways in which the garden has progressed since June, is the work that has been done on the further development of its layout. Initially, the PW garden consisted of four adjacent beds, a compost bin and a water tank (temporary irrigation system). As of June 25, a box for storing the garden equipment has been built and installed; thanks to the work of Ms. Palejko, Ms. Chung, Sheida Naderi-Azad and Sasha Mills. (The wheelbarrows are kept beside the box and locked to the fence). Also, the extra amount of soil which was leftover after the filling of the four beds was moved to three future bed locations and the rest was covered and stored in the former place until future use. This time-consuming task was completed with the help of Ms. Phillips, Ms. Chung, Michelle Chan, Emma Gosselin, Swetha Yatham, Sheida Naderi-Azad, myself, and a number of other students. In addition, signs where put up to inform the passers-by of the context of our community garden.

A lively Hi

And...here it is! Finally, the blog for Prince of Wales's new, very exciting Community Garden is up. Here we'll be posting any good news and bad news and updates of any kind regarding the plants, the members and the overall running of the garden.

For starters, if you pass by our garden, this is what you would see written on a sign --put up last Friday-- right in front of the beds:

PRINCE OF WALES

Community Garden

Est. October 2009

A group of Prince of Wales students wanted to promote sustainable education and development in both the school and the community through this garden. Currently, the plants in the garden include lettuce, radish, kale, carrot, broccoli, basil, spinach and strawberry. During summer 2010, a group of volunteer students will be tending the garden to continue to keep it alive.

Enjoy viewing the garden but PLEASE don't touch or take the plants or the soil.

Many thanks,

Prince of Wales Garden Committee

Stay tuned for more of everything as we begin to share with you every new line of the tale of our thriving little community garden.