Category Archives: Gardening

Stage 1 Watering Restrictions Begin

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The good news is, we don’t have to do any watering these days, as Mother Nature seems to be taking care of it for us!

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Between now and October 15, here are the watering restrictions:

  • Even-numbered addresses Monday, Wednesday, Saturday mornings 4 a.m. to 9 a.m.
  • Odd-numbered addresses Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday mornings 4 a.m. to 9 a.m.

For more information, visit The Metro Vancouver Website.

$10 Trees

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The City of Vancouver is selling $10 trees currently. The city has a goal to plant 150,000 trees by 2020, and as such, they host twice-yearly tree sales.

Trees include fruit, flowering, shade, and conifer trees, and you can buy them online, then pick them up April 29 or 30 at Hillcrest Centre.

For more information, click here.

Please Help Water

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Members, we currently have a situation on the main floor of the co-op. Our irrigation system is not currently working, and while the gardening committee is working on solutions for that, we need everyone’s help to keep the plants and trees alive.FullSizeRender

 

The gardening committee has bought a 200 ft hose and it is in the courtyard. Those of you that live on the main floor, please take some time once a week or so to water around your place. Remember that this counts towards participation hours.

Thanks for your help! If our trees and plants die, we don’t have the budget to replace them, and this dry, hot weather requires them to be watered.

Stage 1 Watering Restrictions Introduced

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Given how hot our spring has been, it’s probably no surprise that the City of Vancouver is introducing watering restrictions early this year.

Starting May 15, we are in Stage 1. This means:

Rainbarrels are provided for the rooftop gardens, and there are watering cans in the garden sheds to use. The rainbarrels can be refilled by hose if we don’t get rain.

For more information, visit: The City of Vancouver.

Spring Gardening Tips

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The Gardening Committee is busy adding topsoil, cleaning up, fertilizing, and getting the public spaces ready for summer.

For those of you with garden plots or even balcony planters, now is the time to start making things happen!

Here are some tips from the Campbell River Garden Centre:

Herb Garden

Veggie Gardens

  • Apply manure or compost to rhubarb, strawberries, roses and veggie beds (remember to avoid manure where potatoes will be planted as manure can cause scab on potatoes)
  • Dig in Fall Rye or other cover crops that you added to your veggie gardens in fall if you haven’t already done this

Veggies Seeds to start in March

  • Cool weather veggies go in now including:-arugula, broad beans, collards, corn salad, kale, Oriental greens, peas, radishes and spinach. Our robust veggie starts are generally in stock by early March.

Veggies Seeds to start in April

  • In addition to the above March list you can also plant:- beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots (unless we are having a colder/wetter spring) fennel, green onions, kohlrabi, lettuce, onions, parsnips, swiss chard and turnips

Water Restrictions Eased

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As of September 23, Watering Restrictions in the City of Vancouver have been eased back.

Currently, and until October 15, we are in Stage 1 Watering Restrictions. This means:

  • Allowed: surface and power washing
  • Restricted: washing cars (with a spring-loaded nozzle only)
  • Allowed: hand-watering of gardens, trees and shrubs
  • Restricted: residential lawn sprinkling.
    • For Hastings: Tues. / Thurs. / Sun, 4am to 9am ONLY
    • For Cardero: Mon. / Weds. / Sat: 4am to 9am ONLY

For more information, visit the City of Vancouver website.

Winter Gardening

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Just because summer is coming to an end, doesn’t mean you can’t still grow vegetables through the fall and winter.

Because of our temperate climate, you really can grow food year-round. Here is a list of vegetables that are hearty enough to survive the West Coast Winter:

Planting & Harvesting Winter Vegetables in South Coast BC

Winter Vegetables Planting Date Harvest
Broccoli June – July Winter, Spring
Brussels Sprouts May – June Fall, Winter
Carrots July – Aug Fall, Winter
Chard April – June Fall, Winter
Collards July – Aug Fall, Winter, Spring
Kale July – Aug Fall, Winter, Spring
Leeks April – May Fall, Winter
Parsley/Parsley Root April – Sept Fall, Winter, Spring
Parsnips May – July Fall, Winter
Scallions June – Aug Fall, Winter
Turnips Sept Fall, Winter
Winter Salad Greens:
Arugula Aug – Sept Fall, Winter, Spring
Bok Choi Aug – Oct Winter, Spring
Chicory (Endive, Radicchio) June – July Fall, Winter
Lettuce July – Sept Fall, Winter
Mache (Corn Salad) Aug – Oct Fall, Winter
Mustards July – Aug Fall, Winter
Spinach July – Aug Fall, Winter

Chart Courtesy of BC Farms and Food

Here’s a great video explaining how to plant a fall garden:

 

Preparing Your Garden For Winter

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Even though the days are still sunny, our growing season is coming to an end. For those of you with rooftop garden boxes, here are some tips on how to winter your garden so that it’s ready for the spring!

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  1. Dig up any old plants (annuals) that are dead or dying.
  2. Many plants you can leave, as they will continue to produce well into the fall. These include heartier plants, like kale or squashes.
  3. Dig in a good organic fertilizer and top-up your soil, if you like.
  4. Cover exposed areas with straw or leaves.

Here is a great article that goes into more depth: Preparing for Winter.

Watering Restrictions

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Given that Vancouver is in a pretty serious drought right now, there are some really strict watering restrictions in place. Click here for more info.

We can only water ONCE PER WEEK.

588 Cardero: Mondays between 4 am and 9 am

1515 Hastings: Thursdays between 4 am and 9 am

Please don’t water outside of these times–there is a stiff fine for noncompliance: $250.

Regular watering of your vegetable gardens is not affected, and the gardening committee are keeping the rain barrels full for this purpose.

We could use assistance with watering. If you have a ground-level suite, please help out.