Update:

November 2015:

The Garibaldi Garden is still being blogged on the new Garibaldi Annex PAC’s blog. 

Stay in touch with the Garibaldi Garden happenings  and enjoy the garden!

 

End of school year happenigs in the garden

The kids were doing some really great garden maintenance in the past few weeks: They weeded by the school entrance wall, weeded the garden beds, spaced out seedlings of chard and quinoa and thinned carrots.

Also, our new garden signs have been cut for us by Van Tech shop students and sanded by the kids during lunch break. Last night the signs received a coat of primer during our annual End of Year BBQ an potluck. Next they will be painted – some next week and the rest in the Fall.

And… we had so much fun at lunch break on Friday shoveling and raking bark mulch into the garden! It will help us smother weeds and grass between the flower beds:)

 

Care sheet for Garibaldi raspberries and mint

Both of these plants, once they establish root, will spread wherever they can by means of sending out new roots nearby, so plan for this by planting them into a spot where they will be either prevented from doing this by a wall or sidewalk, or where it will be easy to dig it up and dispose of escapees.

Mint is a very low maintenance plant: It can grow in both full sun and shade, though it prefers full sun. It likes water but is fairly drought tolerant.

If you do not want it to escape your designated area at all, plant it in a pot with a saucer.

You can trim leaves for teas, sauces, cosmetics and mojitos all spring, summer and fall. Once the plants wither from cold, cut the stems just above the ground and compost them. The mint will regrow next Spring.

Medicinal uses: The tea can be used for indigestion, diarrhea, flatulence, cramps and bad breath. The potent smell of the crushed plant helps relieve headaches.

Do not drink daily, though, as mint interferes with iron absorption (as does coffee, chocolate and tea…)

Contraindications: Should not be used by pregnant and nursing women and very young children (can lower blood pressure significantly and cause throat closure and breathing difficulties) and by people with reflux (relaxes the gastric sphincter and makes reflux worse) or gallstones (stimulates bile production).

Raspberries love sun and moisture. They hate being transplanted, so make sure to water your transplants well for the next few weeks, until they establish new roots.

Loosen the soil to 30 cm deep and remove all weeds from the area. Add some compost, if available. Plant your canes, so that the “border” between the root and the stem is about 3-5 cm below ground. Firm up the ground and push the soil down around the plant with your foot or hands. If you can, add a mulch of some leaves, wood chips or straw around the raspberries to keep the weeds out and water in the soil. Your canes will probably bear their first fruit in the Fall of this year.

 

These raspberries are twice-bearing, which means that once they are established, they will give you a fruit in early summer, then take a small break in August and give a second crop in the Fall.

 It also means that you need to prune out old canes twice a year, in order to give the actively growing canes some sunlight. The “old” canes can be recognized by a colour change (noticeable darkening/purpling) and slightly shrivelled look at the lower part of the cane. Just cut those out at the base and dispose of them in a city green bin, as they are quite woody and would take a long time to decompose in a regular composter.

The first pruning is to be done in August, during the break between crops. The second pruning is best done in the spring, just as the new growth is starting on the canes. During this pruning, shorten the healthy growing canes by about 1/4 to 1/3.

 

Kids potted up raspberries, mint, calendula and borage for sharing

Lunch time was really busy on Friday! We had a crew of dedicated gardeners potting up the mint and raspberries that have escaped their designated patches, as well as baby calendula, fennel and borage that came up from last year plants’ seed.

At pick up time, the plants went to their new home! We have a few pots of day lilies and ornamental “grass”, as well as mint, borage, fennel and calendula left by the garden shed. Help yourself any time!

 

Another successfull Manure Sale!

Farmer Bob from Hopcott Farms in Pitt Meadow brought us 16 yards of his 2-year old gold:)

Many amazing parents and neighbours helped to bag it into over 500 bags and many wheelbarrows.

By the end of the day, we had only about 60 bags to sell and $1200 on the bank for the Garibaldi PAC. Our school and neighbours rock!

 

Manure sale is back!

We will be selling  the famous Hopcott Farms manure again on Saturday, March 9, 10:30 am – 4pm.

$5 per bag a or bring your wheelbarrow and save!

We also deliver. Cash on delivery.

Pre-order at the.manure.sale@gmail.com

If you would like to earn some free manure, come and help us bag! Childcare and snacks are provided for the whole day:)

 

 

The rain did not stop the garden party!

What a great afternoon we had together!

Kids made pine cone bird feeders till we ran out of ingredients to make them:) and all ate some home-grown potatoes with butter, crackers with raspberry jelly made by Anne-Marie and David from the bounty of our raspberry patch and drank some hot apple juice.

Once the rain decided to take a bit of a break, we also dug some holes for the 2 new cherry trees and 6 new blueberry bushes and many happy bulbs were planted and are ready to brighten things up in the spring.

The kids even got to plant some garlic!

It was really great to see Garibaldi so busy on a really wet Saturday afternoon!

 

P.S. Black ladies jacket has been found. Talk to Anne-Marie, if you would like to be reunited with your jacket:)

 

BRITANNIA SCHOOL FOOD GARDEN – THOUSAND GARDENS IN AFRICA FILM FUNDRAISER

The Grandview Woodland Food Connection, Eastside Family Place and Slow Food Vancouver are pleased to present a special film screening in support of the new garden twinning project between the Britannia School Food Garden and the Slow Food Thousand Gardens in Africa Project. 

This is a Sustenance Festival event   www.sustenancefestival.ca

 

Britannia Community Centre, Upstairs Canuck Family Education Centre
Sunday, Oct 14

Suggested Donation: $10 – $20

6 pm silent auction & food. 7pm film Screening
Information: 604-718-5895

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/463921626981957/?context=create

 

To Make A Farm (2012) asks: what might the future of local food and farming look like? This beautifully photographed documentary explores of the lives of five young people who without farming backgrounds embark on making their farming dreams a reality. Starting from scratch, they meet risks and challenges of this demanding profession with imagination, passion, and sacrifice. Intimate and beautifully photographed, this documentary offers a hopeful look at small-scale food production in an age of industrialized agriculture.

 

The Man Who Stopped the Desert (2010) tells the story of Yacouba Sawadogo, an African peasant farmer who has transformed the lives of thousands of people across the Sahel. His agroecology techniques and his name are synonymous with reversing the process of desertification. In fact, Yacouba has been described as single-handedly having had more impact on conservation than all the national and international researchers put together.

 

Thank you to our sponsors and supporters: 

Pharmasave on the Drive, Dr. Penny Thompson, Vancity. 

Britannia Community Centre and the Sustenance Festival  

Our chefs with Foodwisdom and products donated by:  BOS Banana Co-op, Canadian Hazelnut Company Agassiz, SOLEFoods, Southlands Farm, Pitchfork Organics, East End Food Co-op, Cedar Isle Farms and Fiore Farms.

Silent Auction donors: Biercraft, Black Dog Video, Dilly Dally, Easy Park, Ethical Bean, Esscents Aromatherapy, Falconetti’s, 

Farm Folk City Folk, Highlife Records, Home Hardware, Little Nest, Mamata, Storm Brewing, Storm Crow, Take-Five Cafe, The World In A Garden, Tracey’s In Laws

 

 

Thanks to your support the bulb fundraiser is a great success!

Thank you all for helping us raise the money needed to fill our new raised beds! We made $350 dollars – just as much as we needed for this purpose:)

We will be filling the beds sometimes this Thanksgiving weekend – time TBA. Any hands are welcome.

This will prepare our garden for our Fall Garden party  on October 13 – hot potatoes with garlic butter (potatoes and garlic grown by our very own!), hot apple juice, garlic planting, perennial exchange and more.

Hope to see you there!

 

Bulb fundraiser due by this Friday

Want to add some colour to your garden and plant some spring bulbs? You could help our garden committee to fund garden improvements by ordering your bulbs through our fundraiser.
Please, submit your bulb order (extra copies are available by the school office) by this Friday! You can drop it off at the PAC table during the volunteer drive days (today, tomorrow and Thursday) or at the office.