Mid-Summer Check-in

Mid-Summer has arrived! 

We are so proud to have had so much progress over the last month at PW Garden. Among the Summer Restoration, we have painted the second coat of the tool box, planted some radishes, lettuce and sunflowers, and seen some significant growth in our sunflower and zuccini beds. As well, we have just initiated the project of Kerrisdale Seed Library! To learn more about this library, to volunteer, or to become a member, visit my other blog,  http://kerrisdaleseedlibrary.blogspot.ca/, or contact us at kerrisdaleseedlibrary@gmail.com . We would appreciate any kind of support!

Now, here is a closer look at our garden during the month of August...

Here is our newly-repainted tool box thanks to Mickey. It will remain the background colour, but we will add on more design to it in September.

Our sunflowers have almost out-grown the bed. 

Not only that, but they are constantly attracting the pollinators!

 The Zuccini is also showing up. Volunteers have harvested about 10 so far, and there are still a couple left to extract seeds from.

Here are our brand-new radishes (middle row) and sunflowers (side rows). 

Our radishes are more than ready for harvest, and our sunflowers are continually growing.

A closer look at our radishes:

We left one bed of kale to be harvested...The time has finally arrived! We are extracting the kale seeds right now. To learn more about saving kale seeds, visit http://kerrisdaleseedlibrary.blogspot.ca/.

Our usual parsley, basel and cilantro.

 And our apples looking as red as ever!

That's about it for our summer progress so far. Another thank-you to our summer volunteers. Also, don't forget to take a closer look at our Kerrisdale Seed Library Blog.

Happy Summer,

Sheida Naderi-Azad

Here Comes the Summer!

Hi world,
My name is Sheida, and I will be co-president of the Garden Club for 2012-2013. It's been an exciting three years at the club, and I'm happy to be taking more charge next year. I am currently leading my very first project- Summer Maintenance! The Summer Maintenance project includes painting the Tool Box, watering and harvesting the garden, and creating a Seed Library.

I painted the primer onto the box. In a few weeks, Micky will paint the second layer.

As part of Summer Maintenance, we have the Summer Irrigation Group. It consists of very dedicated and enthusiastic teens- PW's current and former students. The plan is to water the garden for every single day in the summer, and maintain it until school resumes. Special thanks to this year's watering volunteers: Michelle Chan, Tamara Chang, Jordan Chiu, Graham Drinnan, Micah Gay, Micky Hoskin, Lucia Huo, Danielle Mayo, Frances Ramsay, and Venus Wang.

Our summer garden has basel, kale, strawberries, cilantro, and parsley. I also planted lettuce and radishes in the two empty beds, which should show up in a few weeks! (All photo credits to Khorshid Naderi-Azad)

Our very own strawberries.

Here's some Zucchini.

Basel, cilantro and parsley.

Kale, anyone?

Meanwhile, our apple orchards continue to grow.

Finally, heads up! We are creating a seed library in Vancouver called the Kerrisdale Seed Library. A Seed Library is essentially an opportunity for community members to gather and exchange seeds, which will enhance the quality and variety of everyone's garden. If you are interested in becoming a member of our library, feel free to contact us!

That wraps up our summer plans...Stay tuned.

-Sheida Naderi-Azad

So Long For Now!

On behalf of Danielle and I, we'd like to thank everyone in the Garden Club for making this an absolutely amazing year.  We've done a lot over the past 12 months, and we're looking forward to seeing what else becomes of the garden in the future.  We hope the Garden has a fantastic future, and continues to be a place of community, sustainability, and education.

Best of luck, and keep growing!

-Danielle and Jordan

P.S. Be sure to try some kale/chard/spinach/basil/herbs when you come by - they're delicious.

P.P.S. So are the strawberries.

Spring!

The garden's certainly starting to shape up now that it's Spring...

Our strawberries are starting to flower.

The kale & chard bed's doing nicely, too.

 We're getting visits from out local pollinators...

...and here is the newly hung sign!

One more thing: on Thursday, May 31st, we'll be holding our first annual Vancouver School Garden Picnic! It's at 3:45 right here in the garden, and all are welcome!  We'll have photos from the event up soon after.

Herb Patch + City Farmer

On Thursday, we planted some more seeds in our herb patch: cilantro and parsley.  We'll transplant the basil plants soon.

Our chives are pretty healthy as well...

As is all of our kale!

Some of us also took a tour of City Farmer, a demo garden on the corner of Maple and 6th.  I've included a link to the entire photo album below (we took quite a few photos).  We also got some great ideas for planting, composting, watering, and much more!  If you ever find yourself near the demo garden, be sure to drop by for a visit, it's highly recommended!

City Farmer album: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117766690004523371125/albums/5734450801914943809?authkey=CKfJ-_SXtN6G9wE

New Season, New Soil

Last Thursday, the club worked to prep the garden for the Spring. Working with some brand new soil we purchased, we finally filled and evened out the remaining empty beds. We'll be planting some new plants soon!

We also re-staked the apple trees and transplanted our raspberry bushes beside a fence. We had a group of observers all the while:

Seeds!

We planted some new tomato and parsley seeds last week, and they've already germinated! They're currently sitting in a windowed room in the school, where they'll be getting plenty of sunlight during the day.

We're going to be transplanting these guys in mid-March, so stay tuned until then...

Thank you to the Kits Seed Library of Village Vancouver for supplying us with our parsley seeds and some basil seeds! Next year, we'll be sure to give some of our garden's seeds back to the Library. (You can find more information about the Seed Library and Village Vancouver here: http://www.villagevancouver.ca/group/kits-village-seed-savers-kits-seed-library)

Winter

It snowed in the garden for the first time in a long time. Here are a couple photos of the plants and snow:

A Goal

To make the Prince of Wales Community Garden a place of community, sustainability, and education.