Winding down...

Perfect
It's that time of year when the garden is winding down...It's a beautiful time in the garden with a stunning array of colours that seem even more gorgeous with the back drop of grey skies and crystal clear fall light. As the trees and plants transform into their winter palette it's a time to ponder what a great season it turned out to be... with the white and red dahlias still showing off as a reminder of the summer...and a pointer to the season to come. It is a quieter time in our garden - with a beauty that is maybe not so obvious but there for you to enjoy.

Last strawberry before winter

Echinacea

Sunflower - detail

Sunflower in the Hobbit Tree

A rare jewel on offer

Lucky gardener

Edamame

Through the Arbor is a doorway to a new world...

Our garden entrance has been enhanced by a cedar arbor... next spring it will have roses and grapes.... ahhhhh

Arbor crew (Alison is hiding)

September Summer Work Party

Wow, it's a never ending summer... we had fabulous weather for our second to last work party of the season. Lots of garden members turned out and we got a ton of stuff done - including planting our leftovers from the plant sale, reorganizing the tool shed, grooming of the compost bins (emptying, chopping, relayering... phew), retrieval of gorgeous stone slabs from the railway track, weeding weeding weeding, and feasting on the generous sandwich, vegetable and fruit platters donated by our local Capers. Have fun harvesting the rest of your fall bounty and enjoying the last of our summer weather. A few snaps from the day...

Compost Crew

Capers... it has been a slice...2 years of generous donation of organic food at every work party!

Ergonomic Compost Chopping Block

Inaugural Kits Garden Plant Sale!

A few snaps from our fundraiser on the weekend. Thanks to Eiko and Tara for capturing images from this fun event  - definitely a keeper for next year!

Super sales person - Inessa!

Setting up shop

Herb bunch maker

Tussie Mussie mayker

Plant Sale - Saturday!

Spread the word! We are having a plant sale this Saturday to raise fund for the garden - specifically to help pay for an arbour that will go by the main gate - if we make enough - perhaps we could afford to build two arbours for both gates - here's hoping. 

We will also be selling bundles of herbs and tussie mussies from the common areas - as well as any donations of excess veggies from the garden members. Please get in touch with Alison or Deirdre if you want to contribute bounty from your garden towards the sale. I know that I will be hoping to offload my beans - as I don't believe I can eat any more!!

July Potluck Work Party

Lots of yummy food at our annual pot luck work party, a well deserved treat after all the hard work that was done. Some highlights were a major clean up behind the shed and proper compost layering... creation of a new patio area in the back (espalier apple tree to come), weeding and revealing the existing Squamish stone pathway, some hard pruning to shrubs and trees and some other stuff too!

Another successful work party!

Burt 'Patio' Reynolds

June's evening Work Party

Great turn out for our first evening work party of the season. All this rain has made the garden lush... well not for beans and other plants that need the sun!!

Lots of weeding and editing was done in all the communal areas - and it was nice that the weather cooperated - a lovely evening. We have become accustomed to tasty treats from our local Capers at our work parties. This is  provided through their Community Chest program - and they did not disappoint. A lovely tray of organic fruit and sandwiches was our evening snack. Oh, a big highlight of the night was the take down of the existing compost bins. Let's face it, they were never really very functional but I did have a little pang in my heart as they did give us some lovely compost over the years - and they were nice and big to throw all our green material into! Can't wait to see the new system installed that will give us our important element of compost for the garden.

Ha ha - a goutweed bouquet!!

what on earth is Geoff doing?!

A snap from today... (can you tell by the grey sky?!) a busy little bee (perched on the bottom blossom) on the Borago officinalis - better known as borage. Did you know that this plant is edible and medicinal? The leaves can be eaten raw or sauteed... and the flowers look gorgeous in a salad. And lord knows we have a lot of salad with all this rain. Oh yeah - enjoy the rain over the next few days.