Summer 2014

The garden is hard to miss on a beautiful summer day! It is harvest season, which calls for many new visitors and large bags of products. Thanks to great planning by Stephanie and Hannah, this summer the garden has such a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Take a look for yourself:

Sheida Naderi-Azad

Mentor, Prince of Wales Community Garden

Revisiting the Garden

Last Thursday I was chaperoning a field trip for the global sustainability course run by Mr. Andrew Humphries at Prince of Wales Secondary School. There, I bumped into Stephanie Wu who is currently enrolled in Grade 11 and will be leading the Garden Club next year with Hannah Madden-Krasnik. 

Stephanie quickly filled me in on the progress they made this year. The committee has discussed long-term goals of the Garden. It has agreed on a new cohesive design which links the orchards at the far end of the garden to the beds near the tool kit. At a large scale, the beds will contain the garden and produce a leaf-like shape. From a detailed perspective, the garden will include a picnic table, an amphitheatrical area with benches, and a mulch path which adds directionality.

To substantiate this long-term goal, the committee has started to move the benches into the designed shape. Stephanie Wu and Hannah Madden-Krasnik organized a productive "work-party" on Wednesday, April 30th. Below are some snapshots of the day's proceedings, taken by Stephanie. 

PW Grade 10 students digging up the bed with the supervision of 

Diane Phillips, Garden Club sponsor

Transfer of beds

Ms. Diane Phillips placing newspaper beneath the new 

location to prevent grass from growing underneath.

Filling in the new beds

I was very proud of the committee's progress in the past year. Stephanie is excited to be leading next year's committee alongside Hannah. She is currently working on a summer irrigation project to yield optimal produce year-round.

More on this soon!

Sheida Naderi-Azad
President, Prince of Wales Garden Committee 2012-13

Greenhouse!

A few weeks ago, Micky Hoskin took the initiative to buy the equipment for a greenhouse at the garden. On a sunny morning in March a few of the Garden Club members helped us install the greenhouse.

Julia Weder, Micky Hoskin, Sophia Vartan, Bryan Buraga and Zachary Nakashima take out some soil to add to the targeted bed.

  Graham Drinnan adds the soil to the bed.

 The whole team is hard at work.

 Group photo with the greenhouse!

The installation of the greenhouse was surprisingly a straight-forward and inexpensive process. We are prepared to add a few more next year if the need arises. 

The Garden Club will be happy to answer any questions regarding the greenhouse. Please do not hesitate to contact us at pwcommunitygarden@gmail.com

Cheers,

Sheida Naderi-Azad

2012-13 Group Photo

Below is a group photo for all Garden Club members in the school year 2012-2013. 

A copy of this photo will be published in Prince of Wales Annuals.

Thanks everyone for the amount of work you have put into the garden!

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.