Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Responsible gardening.
I dropped my car off for servicing this morning on the way to work and so took the opportunity to walk through the Eleventh Ave community garden in the skytrain right of way on my way to the bus. This is a lovely little example of turning wasteland space (between the back of a strip mall, underneath the skytrain) into something green, beatiful and edible. Having said that, it seems to be suffering from the same sort of neglect that lots of our well-intentioned community gardens do.
I am absolutely in love with the community gardens movement in Vancouver with all sorts of small examples popping up all over the place but I do notice that for all the talk about every community garden space in the city being claimed, an awful lot of them go untended. I have been on more than one wait list without ever getting a call and apparently I am not alone. The city claims that there are currently thousands of people on wait lists for garden space.
In most community gardens there are a few really dedicated gardeners who seriously work their plot year round or at least intensively in the spring/summer…. but there also seems to be a fair number of people who garden one year and then completely forget their plot the next. Which is is fine if there is a plot reallocation process every spring so that new people can get a chance to get in. Strathcona Gardens does something like this and it seems to work well for the mainstay gardeners as well as allowing an influx of new gardeners every year.
Now I don’t want to complain too vociferously, understanding that these gardens are run by volunteers and there’s only so much time that anyone has. It’s mostly that I think the folks who claim community garden plots need to be a tad more responsible about their intentions before they block a space someone else might be able to use. While the initial enthuasiasm usually carries people through the first year, it’s easy to forget about it come other projects, and it is up to those plot holders who are wandering off to inform their garden co-ordinators that their ardour for dirt is not what it was. I personally would like a plot just for storage beans and edamame since I’m curious about trying to grow more of the protein we use all winter, but thus far I haven’t been able to get a plot close enough to our house (the new Pandora Garden was full before I found out about it) that I could go easily to tend it on a regular basis. Now I’m looking at other community spaces and wondering if we can start a garden all of our own in Clinton park or elsewhere, even while knowing there are plots going untended elsewhere.
Alas! But of course I’ve got my own yard to tend to right now anyway, and it is much easier to fit garden-tending in between other chores when I’m at home… So I’ll just remain satisfied at visiting the gardens or others and enjoy the overgrown, going to see chard and lettuce for what it is – beautiful flowers and seeds for the birds.
Love your country, not your government.
Photo taken October 2008 on Parliament hill overlooking the Ottawa River. Part of the Lucipetal series. Posted today in response to a piece in the Toronto Star over the weekend and the start of the G/20 summit amidst heavy police presence.
Will solstice bring summer?
It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t know GardenWorks was having a 30% off sale when I pulled up on Saturday or I would have had more time to rationalize all the “saving money” I could do by purchasing quantity. As it was, I spent another $35 on veggie starts, herbs and seeds to finish off the bulk of my summer planting (and start some winter planting) in anticipation of leaving next week on holidays.
Planting this weekend includes three kinds of cucumbers (my starts from seed died in the wet June we’ve been having), dragon tongue bush beans, basil (start, my seeds aren’t germinating fast enough!), cheddar cauliflower, red-veined sorrel and I put some more sage and parsley starts of my own in pots as well. On my deck I’ve potted some mojito mint as well as an apricot miniature rose which I bought for Brian since he wants to learn about growing roses.
Despite the wet weather we’ve been having, my garden has been very productive thus far, and I am very pleased by the progress of our backyard as a whole. The grass has grown in around the edges, the boxes are overflowing, and there are flowers peeking out everywhere right now: nasturtiums, poppies, borage – with more on the way as my cosmos and summer bulbs start sprouting. (Click the photo to get the full effect of the yard without being there). I really am very pleased at how our hard work has paid off and am moving into maintenance mode as we start to eat quite a lot out of the garden. We picked our first beet on Saturday (a bit bitter, they haven’t gotten enough sun to be really sweet yet), and have pea pods for stirfrys that will soon become peas for eating, lots of greens, and I noticed scapes on my garlic the other day which will soon become pesto.
Not to mention the morels which volunteered in my yard this spring and I finally picked yesterday (after spending a lot of time figuring out how to id them properly) and made a lovely pasta meal out of. I’m hoping that if we do have more rain it will extend their season to mid-July and possibly offer us another small crop – which is at least a side benefit to the grey.
In any event, not being one to complain about the weather, I offer up the following recipe which sure tastes like summer and makes an amazing breakfast addition (not to mention another way to use rhubarb, which I am now in my second crop of).
Raspberries and rhubarb
3/4 pound rhubarb
10 oz. frozen raspberries
1/3 cup apple juice
1/4 cup of honey (or to taste)
1 tsp. vanilla
Put it all in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, turning down to a simmer afterwards for 10-15 minutes. This is a beautiful topping for yogurt (or icecream), without being too sweet. Enjoy!
Poppy core
It really is very erotic isn’t it?
Getting to know all about you.
Anyone else out there getting a little bummed out by the rain? I really try not to complain about the weather normally – it’s not worth fretting about what is completely out of my control – but as this wet June has worn on, I’ve been increasingly frustrated. Last night, at a community gardening meeting, I heard from several people that they have been really struggling with their gardens this year due to the wet weather. Lucky for me, this hasn’t been the case (if you don’t count the things which have died from the cold), and I think that is partly to do with the raised beds and the fact the soil is just warmer in them. My parsley in the box is doing ten times better than the parsley I planted in the ground – and warmer soil is the only thing that really explains that.
Unfortunately, raised beds like mine also dry out faster, so come real summer they will require a lot more watering.
Last night saw the launch of a community gardening project for which we received a grant last month: Boulevards Alive! Over the past week we’ve been flyering our neighbour’s houses about this plot to tear up the boulevards and plant them with native and edible plants, and were pleasantly surprised last night when more than 15 people showed up at the meeting to discuss. So far we have about twenty households spread over nine blocks who have indicated interest in both helping to build the boulevard gardens as well as maintaining one in front of their home – so now that we’ve got the participants we just need to sort out the logistics!
The conversation last night was really great though, lots of talk about sharing and community building and building beyond this single project into other things. Fortunately we’ve got both our neighbourhood group as well as the Hastings-Sunrise Village projects that we can bring people into if the boulevard gardening project turns out to be a positive experience for everyone. After the meeting, we hung out in the garden for awhile and people said nice things about how mine was looking – which made for a little extra personal satisfaction at the end of the day!
B. was saying last night that for the first time ever he feels like he’s living in a neighbourhood where we have a shot at building a real sense of community with folks – and I have to agree. It’s partly because it’s east van and it’s partly the times – but we are definitely noting that there is a hunger for connecting on a very tangible level – and also that we have some super rad neighbours to get to know better.
Having said all of that I’m eager to be out working the garden some more – heading to GardenWorks tomorrow morning for a few cucumber plants since I killed all of mine by putting them out while it was still too wet. I’ve got some sorry looking pepper plants at the moment too (the ones in the cold frame are fine, it’s the ones I planted out that are none too happy). Here’s to hoping the rain stays away for a bit so the plants can get on with growing!
Red Cedar 
