Bittersweet Fall - Bedtime

I consider Fall the bittersweet season because it's so beautiful with the warm rich earthy tones of red, orange and browns - the last gorgeous roses and the yummy fall greens... but it means the abundance of the season is pretty much over and all our beloved plants are returning to the soil to rest for the winter. Soon we will be cosied up at home avoiding the rain and dreaming about spring! Thanks to the dedicated members who turned up for the final work party - we were a small but mighty group. We managed to get a lot done - special thanks to our coordinator Kaisa for keeping us on track. We enjoyed our Capers lunch and can't imagine a work party without it. Here are a few snaps from our work party, the dahlias are spectacular this year... stay tuned for the next blog highlighting the 'cottonwood carnage' - it's all good!

Lazy Days of Summer Work Party

Great work party today! Thanks to all the members who attended and Jean-Yves for keeping us organized. We got a ton of work done today in a perfect summer day. The stones that had risen up due to our cottonwood roots were re-laid, the compost patio staging area was finished off, the hobbit tree lower garden was augmented with lots of perennials from other parts of the garden, a twine field trip was arranged :), Helen's groovy gift to the garden of glow in the dark solar lanterns were installed on the hobbit tree and shed... check it out one night if you are around.

Of course, lots of attention was given to all the common areas with weeding and watering. Oh, almost forgot about the great job that was done on the compost and cleanup to give us that black gold that is so readily sought. Let's all try and keep diligent at chopping up our green waste and putting it in the bins regularly so that it doesn't pile up like that again. Oops, was that verging on a compost rant?

Enjoy the rest of your summer harvest and sunshine days! Soon enough when next we meet for our end of season work party - it will be sweater weather in October.

Our July Work Party & Potluck - Summer is Here!

Thanks to all the garden members who came to our July work party that was a combination of creative and practical endeavours which included weeding and clean up in all the common areas like the boulevard, west garden area, raspberry patch and herb garden... maintenance like cutting back the never ending suckers on the cotton wood trees... pulling out and re-chopping the compost... re-laying of the main stone path...re-painting the garden shed...tarting up our Hobbit Tree and surrounding garden... and design and installation of our compost 'patio'... concluded by our fabulous potluck lunch. Hope I didn't miss anyone's efforts!! Once again, huge kudos to our local Capers Whole Foods who donated sandwiches, chips, veggies, and fruit... and our dedicated gardeners who brought home made goodies to top it all off. I missed popping in one of the truffles :( - but I hear they were d-lish. A few snaps from the day!

Summer? Technically - Yes.

I don't know about everyone else... but this weather is really getting to me!! Having said that I continue to enjoy the bounty from the garden which continues unabated even with this cold unseasonable weather. Bounty being arugula, radish, mustard greens, peas, sorrel, lavender, all the herbs except for basil as it requires a little heat and sun - thank you very much. The sweet peas are coming on full force and the tomatoes are hanging in there! Let's hope that our cloudy and coolish Canada Day today is the last day of this trend. Bring on the summer sun. Please.

The latest exciting developments in the garden include the City cutting down the Cottonwood tree at the back - said tree has been transformed into

'The Kits Garden Throne' - courtesy of enthusiastic city workers with their handy chainsaw and direction from your garden Chair - ha ha get it?! It's a wonderful living addition to the garden - a place to perch and snap some royal pictures.

Hope you enjoy the latest shots taken in the garden today. Happy Canada Day!

P.S. Our next work party and Pot Luck lunch is coming up soon on July 10th. There will be lots of home made food and yummy organic treats courtesy of our neighbourhood Capers. See you there!

April Work Party - it rocked

Thanks to Amy our work party coordinator & our chair David for making our 2nd work party of the season such a treemendous (get it?) success.

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Thanks to those garden members who enthusiastically attended our April work party - despite the threat of rain. Because of the rain and moist conditions of late, the weeds were coming out like butter! All the common areas received a weeding treatment and the garden is looking fantastic. Particular Kudos to the members who worked on the front boulevard around the gate - there isn't a weed in site.

The cottonwood trees had their shoots trimmed, the compost

bins were emptied and

aerated, the fruit trees pruned, and the Hobbit Tree was our creative

endeavour of the day. Lots of lovely little plants and seeds were popped into the finished burlap wrapped baskets and we are hoping for a luscious Hobbit Tree this season.

What made our day extra special was the absolutely

scrumptious snacks and lunch donated to our members by Christine Robertson from the Capers Whole Foods Market. Thanks to Tom and his staff at the Kits Capers on West 4th Avenue for putting the goodies together for us. I don't think we could have asked for a more generous array of goodies which included chocker-block stuffed sandwiches, chips, a vegetable tray with dip, a huge fruit tray and bottled water. It was so nice standing around the table at the back getting re-fueled and chatting with everyone. Thanks Capers!!

So many great shots of our members - enjoy!

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day on Saturday for the Garden was a busy combination of mending the herb garden fence and a barbecue fund raiser at our community Choices market on 16th avenue whose community outreach program is a wonderful way for the garden to build our funds for special projects. Both events were a tremendous success despite the inclement weather.



Thanks to the dedicated garden members who braved the rain to do the fence deed. Many thanks to our local Greens Organic + Natural market on West Broadway for the lovely basket of sandwiches, granola bars and fruit that kept everyone going. Greens is a new market founded by two UBC grads whose vision is to create a community oriented grocery store committed to zero-waste and buying local where possible. The fence was finished up on Sunday and we are set for the season - bring on the sweet peas!


Our display table at Choices was a tactile cornucopia of a gorgeous bouquet from the garden (thanks Alison!!), a mason bee house (sans bees!) and various literature on bees (thanks Allan!!), organic gardening books, and a handmade Sussex trug. Our cause was promoted with a great deal of enthusiasm by David, your garden chair and assistants D & Allan. All proceeds from the sales of the hot-dogs and veggie-dogs will go towards repairs and planned projects in the garden. The Choices management and staff put in a great effort to organize this event and kept the hot dogs, free drinks and fruit leather coming - all for the benefit of our garden.