Annual Strawberry Tea

PLEASE NOTE: THE STRAWBERRY TEA IS POSTPONED UNTIL SUNDAY, JULY 29. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY CONVENIENCE. Next Sunday, June 24, is the 3rd annual strawberry tea, which is a fundraiser for the Tofino Community Food Initiative. Funds go towards the school and community gardens (and our efforts to create more) and other initiates of the TCFI. There's no need to dress up, but fancy hats, flouncy dresses and linen suits are, of course, welcome and encouraged. The event is in the garden at 380 Gibson Street and runs from 2 to 4 pm. This year we are only serving strawberry shortcake and tea (gluten-free and vegan options). We hope you can join us! For more information, contact Adrienne at 250.725.1288.

The Great Wall of Surrey

How cool is this? This living wall is just on the boundary of Surrey and White Rock.



I was captivated, so had to circle the block to get some photos without causing an accident. There are little pockets on the wall, each with a plant inside. Some of the Bergenias were blooming.





Here's an article with some more info. and before and after pictures. Quite an improvement, don't you think?

Planting a Strawberry Pot

I have had a strawberry pot for years. I love the look of it, but don't love the fact that it is very difficult to grow good plants in. Watering is always the issue — it's hard to distribute the water throughout the pot. Too much and it just overflows out the pockets. Too little and it never makes it throughout the pot. So thanks to You Grow Girl for these tips on planting strawberry pots that work. (There is a great tip for watering at the end of the post.)

Advice for Starting Your Seedlings

Some great advice here on starting your own seedlings, from the blog Garden Wisdom.

Mid-March Garden

I took some photos a few weeks ago, showing what's going on in my garden (and in my kitchen). Of course this was the year that I really got on the early seeding in indoor flats and just as a few things needed to be hardened off, the snow, sleet, hail and horizontal rains came (and stayed for a week). We seem to be back to rain now, so I'm starting to harden off some oriental greens, lettuce and peas to go into the garden (most under plastic or cloches for a bit yet) by the weekend. Wish me luck! Gardening is always a bit trial and error, but they're only seeds. They can be restarted.



My stalwart rhubarb bed that seems to hang in there every year despite having to deal with the shade and roots from a nearby "hedge" of cedar. I gave them a good mulch of alder leaves this winter and have fed them a few times with manure.



Greenhouse harvest! These radishes were planted last fall and just put on a nice growth spurt. Very tasty; not too woody.



Greens in the greenhouse: arugula and tenderheart (an oriental green, I believe). I have some other small lettuces starting to grow well in the greenhouse as well as mizuna in the garden.



This was the first winter for my little lemon tree. It seemed to survive just fine, despite the cold snaps and the greenhouse being blown apart a few times. I harvest 3 lemons from the tree (which is how many blooms there were on the plant when I bought it). It needs a good fertilize and perhaps a larger pot, but I'm eager to see what it will get up to this year.



I am a firm believer that the biggest challenge we have here is not so much the lack of sun, but the abundance of rain. I usually try to cover beds I'm about to plant with plastic (or glass) for a week or so beforehand. Then, once the seeds or seedlings are in, I also keep the beds covered until I think they are well-established. After that, I keep a close eye on the beds and when excessive rain or wind is on the way, I cover them up for a bit. I also have a small portable cold frame (about 3'x4') that I move around and an old window that I use to cover newly seeded sections of the beds.



Of course the kale is hanging on. This is Lacinato. I'm using most of the kale in juices and green smoothies at the moment as there will be new greens soon! Other plants in the outdoor garden include fava beans and garlic (both planted in the fall and looking well), a few stalwart beets and mizuna.





This year I have done a lot of seeding indoors. It helps that only two of us are at home at the moment, so most of the kitchen table, the sunny window seat and a table downstairs (with my first grow lights) are taken over by seedlings. Here's what I've put in:

leeks, sui choi, artichoke, fennel, broccoli (two varieties), lettuce (two varieties), collards, cauliflower (two varieties), several varieties of flowers (calendula, lupine, cosmos, sweet peas, etc.) I also sprouted peas and fava beans in moist paper towels. This worked very well and all of the sprouted seeds are now in peat pots and I'm hardening off the peas already, with some going in the garden this weekend. (The first batch were planted a few weeks ago in my cold frame.)

Outside, under glass, I have seeded: arugula, corn salad, kale, collard, radishes, carrots (a bit early; but they're only seeds!) and oriental greens (Gai Lan).

West Coast Compost

If you don't have a compost pile, it's time to start one. There are lots of resources on-line, but for starters, here's a great list of 80 things you can compost.

And something I learned the other day is about the ratio of browns to greens. (Browns meaning leaves, wood, paper, cardboard, lint, etc. Greens are kitchen scraps, green grass, etc.) My ratio has been way off. I think I might even have had more greens than browns, but apparently (thanks Josie O.) the ratio of browns to green can be as high as 25:1. So my project this week is to start stock-piling more browns.

What are your composting tricks?

Putting the Community in Community Gardens

Wow - what an inspiration the town of Tahsis is! Check out what a group of people accomplished in their community garden on a rainy Saturday (that would be yesterday).

Three of us met to do a little bit of digging in Tofino's first community garden at the Tofino Botanical Gardens. We turned in the fall rye and had a tour of where the new garden beds will be. The wood should arrive soon and we hope to construct the boxes for the beds in the next week or so.

If you are interested in a community garden plot, here are the details:

Eight 4' x 6' (1.2m x 1.8m) plots are available at the community garden site in the Tofino Botanical Gardens (TBG). Plots are available for a one-year lease and come ready to plant with access to garden tools and water. (The annual lease fee of $75 also includes a one-year membership to the TBG.) Preference will be given to people without secure access to garden space. Gardeners must make a one-year commitment and sign a user agreement. If you are interested in a plot, please contact the TCFI at tofinolocalfood@yahoo.ca by March 11.

A meeting of all community garden plot owners will take place at the end of March or early April. A soil preparation workshop/work bee will take place April 15th, so please be prepared to attend this.

Compost Your Christmas Trees

Tofitians! Louise Rodgers will be chipping and creating compost from your Christmas trees this coming weekend. You can drop off trees this weekend, on the empty lot at the end of Pfeiffer (next for 590 Pfeiffer) or, for a toonie, Louise will pick yours up. Call her at 5-2675.

West Coast Compost: Kelp!

Here's a great post from a west coast gardener on the benefits of composting your garden with kelp. Thanks, Sarah!

Gardening as a Subversive Act

Check out this TED Talk by Roger Doiron: My Subversive (Garden) Plot. Inspiration for the coming growing season. (Thanks for Chris L. for the link.)

Kelp Pickles for Gardens

The Tofino Community Food Initiative has been hard at work making kelp pickles. They are a hot item in town and we only make them a few times a year, so get yourself over to the Weigh West Marina today, from 11 to 7, to pick up a jar and other goodies from local artisans and foodies.

Gardening with Pallets

This winter, I am determined to get the "bones" of my garden in order. (That, and doing some serious mulching. I've been piliching leaves from all over town.) But, I don't have bags of cash so I've been thinking of how to re-purpose items like pallets. At the moment I'm thinking a 3-bin composter system for my yard waste, plus some smaller raised beds, but I also saw this, which is pretty clever if you have a small space.

What do you do with pallets?

Organic Gardener Course - in Tofino and on-line!

This spring, Gaia College is again offering its Organic Master Gardener Course in Tofino. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in gardening. Much as I'd love to go, I don't think I can swing two weeks off work, so I was excited to find - after snooping around Gaia's website - that you can also take the course on-line. Hmmmm, perhaps the beginnings of my birthday/Christmas gift?

Plant Your Garlic

I am probably about a month late for this, but I finally got my garlic in the garden two days ago during a brief respite in the storms that have been pummelling the coast. (Thanks to Josie O. for the fabulous Red Russian garlic bulbs!) I had added some well-rotted compost to the bed a couple of weeks ago and gave it a little fluff with the pitchfork. Even though the bed is in one of the lowest parts of the yard (read, wettest), the 12" high raised bed meant the soil had good texture and wasn't waterlogged. As per Ms. O's instructions, I planted the cloves about 3" deep, 8" apart and then covered the bed in a nice mulch quilt of alder leaves. In the back of my mind I had this niggling thought about New Moon and planting garlic. I was just updating my journal and, smarty-pants me, I planted on the New Moon!

Not so fast smarty-pants. It turns out you should not, actually plant on the New Moon, rather in the lead up to the New Moon. I've no idea why and whether it really does matter. I'm just glad I got the bulbs in the ground at all. (Small victories you know.)

Google New Moon + garlic and you'll find lots of posts. Here's one.

Seed Savers

It seemed like an unlikely day to get stoked about my garden again (and to get my butt in gear to rejuvenate the blog), but I putzed about in the sleet and freezing rain for quite a long time today. I was excited to finally install a new composter — take that, Mr. Rat — and then raked leaves and mulched my garden, watered my lemons (yes, 3 of them, still happy in the greenhouse) and cut out a Provencal haystack's worth of blackberry and honeysuckle vines. I even unearthed some Jerusalem artichokes that volunteered in the garden. Now, what to do with those babies. More on that later.

For now, here's a crafty idea if you are a seed saver.

Community Garden Tour (Revised)

The Tofino Garden Tour will be on September 4 from 3 to 7. Sorry for the confusion. Check the blog of the TCFI for updates and maps. Hope to see you there!

Showcase Your Garden!

The Tofino Community Food Initiative is having its 3rd Annual Edible Garden Tour on Sunday August 21st, from 3-7 pm. The purpose of the tour is to inspire locals with the abundance and variety of foods that people grow in Tofino plus highlight some of the special ways that people grow food on the west coast.

The TCFI is looking for folks who would be interested in showcasing their vegetable gardens and greenhouses on the tour. The hosts would be asked to be available to show their gardens from 3-7 pm on Sunday August 21.

Everyone is encouraged to participate, however large or small, new or old your garden may be!

If you or anyone you know would be interested in showcasing your garden, please email tofinolocalfood@yahoo.ca by Sunday August 14th to make sure we get your garden on the map. You can also send us a message via Facebook or simply reply to this posting!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Tips for West Coast Gardeners

Some good info. from longtime west coast gardeners.

Lessons from the Green Man

This blogger has been trying to eat something from his garden every day of the year. Here are some of his lessons learned. I broke a few yesterday, but it was finally so nice. I optimistically planted some seeds in the garden, but under glass. I've had greens in the greenhouse for about a month now, so I think it will be okay! As I was preparing one of the beds, I found three small lettuces growing! Little miracles to have survived the snow and freezing temps we had several times this year.

What do you have growing?

Strawberries for you?

I spent a good part of the weekend thinning out my strawberry bed. If you want some cast offs let me know!