Tuesday is “Monday” here at the Edible Garden Project, and for months now I’ve been meaning to write at least weekly on what projects we’re working on. It’s the beginning of a new week, so I’m turning over a new leaf and sticking out my elbows to make enough time in my day to write an update.
Lillooet Park Community Garden Tool Shed
Before: Tool shed with primer... not everyone was a fan of the colour. Cedar siding will fit into the landscape very well.
This weekend was a whirlwind of activity! We spent the morning at Lillooet Park Community Garden putting the siding on the shed that was built by volunteers this Spring. We had been waiting for a few months with hopes that we would be able to salvage enough materials for the siding, but it just wasn’t coming together. With Fall creeping closer we decided to splurge and buy it – cedar bevel siding. It was easy to install (thank you instructional YouTube videos and courageous volunteers) and it looks fantastic now. Just a few finishing touches to go up on the corners, and the Lillooet Park Community Garden will be officially done! Just in time for the Grand Opening celebration on September 17th (mark your calendars).
Siding going up on the Lillooet Park Community Garden Shed.
Almost finished! Just the corners and painting the door left to do.
Neptune Terminal’s Open House
Miles, one of our new and enthusiastic volunteers, attended the Neptune Terminals Open House for the afternoon. Neptune was offering tours of their facilities, information on what goes on, and how they’re involved in the community. As a funder of the EGP, Neptune generously invited us to join in the festivities. We had a great time giving out winter vegetable seeds, seed bombs, and information on our programs and how to get involved. Thank you Neptune!
We finally have a Greenhouse!
Sean to the rescue with his truck for transporting the Greenhouse.
After years of having a greenhouse on our Wish List we can finally check it off! When we received the aluminum frame greenhouse most of the glass panels were missing of broken, but that was okay because we decided that having plastic panels would probably be safer as it would be staying in a public community garden.
After a somewhat harrowing drive over in the back of Sean’s pick up truck (he always manages to show up for the tasks that involve moving large loads of materials!), it arrived at the Lillooet Park Community Garden. On an incredibly raining day in July, Heather, Linda, and I put the frame back together. A lunch break including grilled cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate was the only reason Heather could convince me to get back out there to finish the job, but we got it done. We spent a couple pf weeks measuring and cutting the new plastic panels in the alley behind the North Shore Neighbourhood House, and got a few curious looks from neighbours. Finally, this weekend we installed the last of the panels! We have to figure out how to put the door back on, but I’m confident that our investigative skills and cunning will figure it out.
Emily with a circular saw.... that's a bit scary.
I’m really excited to get in there and build a worm compost in the floor of the greenhouse. This will simultaneously give us an excellent and fast way of composting scraps, but also help to heat the greenhouse from all the activity creating the compost. I’ll dig out a pathway down the middle of the greenhouse to a depth of 2-3 feet, and build a boardwalk platform along the top of it. The platform can be removed to add material to and harvest the compost. I’ll post more as this project develops! City Farmer has a lot of great information on worm composting (aka vermiculture) if you’re interested to learn more.
The finished product!
Group Gardening at Lillooet and Booth
Our Saturday staple, Group Gardening, went very well this weekend too! Thank you to the volunteers that came out to help us get our garden plot and compost bins at Lillooet Park Community Garden and the Booth Garden in order. It was great to see a new face at the Booth garden too – welcome to the EGP Brendan!
We planted seeds for our winter crops in flats, and took them back the greenhouse to get growing. We planted: spinach, yellow chard, kale, beets, lettuce, arugula (also known as rocket), and brussel sprouts. I think we will fit one last planting of radish, snap peas, and carrots directly into the ground as well. If we have a good September then we should be able to get a good harvest out of these before the first frost.
Kale seeds