Garden Upgrades

Our lovely new sign!

The iris's are amazing this year

Amazing garden upgrades were accomplished at our latest work party... some highlights include a new boulevard  squash bed, the installation of our lovely Kitsilano Garden sign (stay tuned for our whimsical directional sign at the back - a work in progress), our 'found' basalt stones installed in front of the new bench on the west side of the garden, new hobbit tree pockets for planting, hanging our vintage original garden sign on the back of the shed, maintenance and clean up of the compost, weeding, weeding, weeding. 

'The Future Site...' our original vintage garden sign

Peek a boo

Alliums - spectacular

Which sandwich should I have next?

Thanks to all our members who attended in a bit of a drizzly Saturday morning to get this incredible amount of work done in our beautiful garden.

Our guest 91-year-old worker - blessed by a forget-me-not blossom - thanks Dad!

Thank you Kitsilano Whole Foods - yummy organic food

Prepping the future location of our direction sign - stay tuned

Squash bed crew member!

umbrella at the ready

Hobbit Tree additions

Garden Fundraiser BBQ

Well... it was Mother's Day so people were full from their brunches/lunches... it was rainy... and the BBQ setup was in the parking lot, not out front of the Choices Market. Still, all in all we had a ton of fun chasing up potential donations and foisting some organic hamburgers on those that were willing. Thanks to a couple of our garden members for coming out to support the garden.

Servin' em up! David was full of bbq tips, what a guy.

We had many lovely conversations talking about our beautiful garden and our bee homes. We are very grateful to Choices Market on the west side and their enthusiastic staff for making this happen for the benefit of the garden. We will know a little later the tally of how much was raised - and even if it doesn't exceed our previous Choices fundraiser - it will be extra $$ for the garden coffers for 4 hours of our time on a rainy old Sunday. And of course thanks to David for setting up yet another fundraiser.

Biscuit was so well behaved - even with all that lovely meat to tempt him. What a trouper!

Alan, our garden mason bee expert -  manning our display

Oh... the light

Bleeding Heart

One of the benefits of our overcast weather is the magical light that is the perfect foil for taking pictures in our gorgeous garden. The details and colours of the foliage are crystal clear with the grey skies overhead.  I took the opportunity this afternoon to have a mooch around the garden and captured the following images. Remember remember the sun will return!

uh, gorgeous lipstick tulip

Chive Blossoms ready to burst

Fern unfurling

Solomon's Seal 

Neighbourhood Small Grants - we got one!

A few of us got together and secured a Neighbourhood Small Grant from the Vancouver Foundation and the City of Vancouver that will benefit the Kits garden members and people from the community who wish to participate.  The grant money is to be used for a Seed Saving Workshop that will take place sometime in September.

Le Cheque. 

For those of you interested in saving seeds the Workshop will be most interesting. It would be nice not to have to always buy seeds... and we are also hoping that we could create Kits Garden Seed packets to fundraise for the garden. Details will be communicated to the membership when everything is arranged. In the meantime enjoy this gorgeous weather we are having and plant some seeds!

Birds

Birds. This is the time of year when the garden is filled with the sound of birds. The Northern Flickers have returned and are inspecting our Hobbit Tree for their summer condo. Couldn't catch a good shot of them tonight but managed to capture this lovely little fat breasted robin who found a delicious juicy worm to feast on.

robin resting with his prey... on top of the new bench

Seconds later he took flight - but not before I managed to snag this next shot... he seemed transformed into something quite mythical.

The garden is rapidly transforming as well... this is the time of year when everyone is anxiously looking for signs of growth from the early spring seeds that have been planted (peas, arugula, lettuces, spinach, etc) 

Arugula popping up...upper left is a coffee stir stick - for scale

but the most noticeable - daily - is with the overnight growth of all our lovely perennials. Lovely.

Hobbit tree detail

Forget Me Not

Enjoy... soon they will be gone!

Summer Spring in Kits

Last week...

This week...

Wow, the weather. Spring is most definitely here - every day at the garden brings a beautiful change to observe. The weeding of our perennial goutweed is a pleasure in this weather and with the sounds of the birds overhead. Those little birds with the spots seemed to have taken up residence in one of the birdhouses. Lovely. It's time to plant those peas, onions, radishes, lettuce and ? - will this wonderful heat lull us into a sense of security and make us plant more than is typical this time of year? Go ahead! You can always reseed if our bubble bursts.

Gorgeous lily - an appropriate treat this time of year

Manure the Motivator

The first work party of the 2013 season was a marvellous melding and mashup of many members motivated by the mound of manure and the myriad of must-do monkey business that makes our magical garden - well - magical. I will cease the magniloquent text and leave you with some shots from our sunny day. Capping it all off were the culinary treats provided by our local Kits Whole Foods (Capers) who have kindly agreed to another season of organic sustenance for our work parties. Happy spring gardening!