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.

Tip Toe... Through the Tulips...

Well, ok, there aren't any tulips on our entrance boulevard but there should be! A gorgeous path has been created by two of our dedicated members - David and Alison - to help us all with our weeding duties on our signature entrance garden. Perennials have been moved into a more pleasing placement to allow for the meandering path - and new scrumptious flowers have been planted.

Step One - the pathway was determined by literally 'walking the walk'... leveling the path and then laying the beach shells to form the base. Step Two - cold calling Northwest Landscape & Stone Supply for a donation of stepping stones. David spoke to Bill who kindly agreed to donate not only Bluestone stepping stones quarried from Vancouver Island - but also beautiful Oro Verde gravel and aqua and blue tumbled beach glass. It was like Christmas! There was enough that the Herb Garden also benefited. The Oro Verde has used to improve our flagstone pathway at the back. Thank you so much Bill for your generosity and also for the personal delivery - it was really inspiring. Step Three - laying of the stones on a rainy old Saturday afternoon... a one man job by David.

The boulevard will now be easier to access via our charming pathway - for our constant need to weed out the dreaded gout weed.

Thank you to David and Alison for creating our wonderful new path which will look fabulous rain or shine.

Spring 2010 Work Party - Gold!

The Kitsilano Community got off to a great start for the 2010 gardening season. The weather was AMAZING and we had an enthusiastic turn out for our Ma'nure and spring clean-up work party. Besides the distribution of our lovely organic manure, tons of other stuff got done - with mostly smiles all around! Some of the highlights... entrance boulevard cleanup... widening the main flagstone path...hobbit tree beautification... garden shed re-organization... weeding, weeding, weeding... did I mention weeding?
Kind thanks to Kevin at the 3515 w. 4th IGA and Lawrence at the 2948 w. 4th Starbucks for donating healthy snacks and coffee to keep everyone fueled and raring to go.

Fall Work Party

You wouldn't know it from the sunshine and warm temperatures but yes it was our Fall Work Party to prepare for the winter season ahead. That meant heavy duty weeding... will the gout weed every go away?

We turned and re-organized the compost bins and it looks like we are definitely going to reap some 'black gold' in the spring. The lead garden scrounge (said in a loving way) Alison found some nice round garden pavers which we installed in a lovely sunrise pattern in front of the wooden compost behemoths. Tools were cleaned, oiled and re-organized in the shed... and the fallen branches from our crazy windstorm a couple of weeks back were bundled up for the City to haul away.

All in all a great work party with much accomplished even though our crew was small. I guess the other members who didn't attend were at the Vancouver Film Festival or at the beach?!

Enjoy the last of the fall harvest!

Autumn Harvest... Fall Calls...

What a season. I don't know about you but our heatwave gave me the best harvest of tomatoes I have ever had... which is continuing to provide lots for the freezer! Along with zucchini's, the ubiquitous kale and red cabbages our '15-block diet' was a success. Oh, of course with a few retail stops at the fabulous new 'Jackson Meats' (love the chandelier... very NYC) and our beloved 'Capers'.

One of our garden angels donated some more gorgeous flagstones which has really made a wonderful impact around our tree-bench oasis... more beautiful blue mussel shells were added to the mix along with some diligent digging and setting of the stones.

Check out the picture of the little fatty I found right by the bench - the little guy must have fallen out of the cottonwood tree as he was munching on a leaf. I looked him up and he is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in his (her?) caterpillar phase. I wish he would eat the whole tree!

The fall seeds I planted to provide us with greens into October and beyond are already in full force and the dahlias are keeping us thinking too much about the cold weather to come. Personally I love the fall but since we had such a tropical summer that I was lucky enough to fully enjoy I feel a little wistful seeing and feeling the fall calling.

Happy harvesting everyone.