Harvest

Harvest began on July 23, 2013 with lettuce and swiss chard in abundance. The Buttercrunch lettuce had some fabulous heads. Since then, we have dropped off two more loads of lettuce and swiss chard as well as baby carrots. In total, we have harvested over 50 lbs of produce with a value of over $100.

We have also installed our new solar panel for our electric fence purchased through a grant from the Public Service Alliance of Canada Agriculture Union Social Justice Fund.

We have a marmot who has been caught munching greenery in our garden. The fence won't stop him but he's an unusual visitor so we'll leave him be for now.

Tomatillos

Swiss chard & Grand Rapids lettuce

Volunteer Karma

Seeds in the ground

Dave managed to get seeds in the ground yesterday just before all this rain. He planted carrots, red beets, swiss chard, Grand Rapids and Buttercrunch lettuce.

Spring Seeding

Spring seeding - What's in the ground?
Peas (4 rows of Edible Pod Super Sugar snap Peas from TnT Seeds)
Carrots
Beets
Lettuce
&
Swiss Chard

Final harvest

The final carrot harvest was completed this week. In total, we donated 2079.5 lbs of produce to the Lethbridge Interfaith Foodbank!

There is a bit of work left to do in preparation for next season's garden. We'll be spreading compost and tidying up the garden in the next few weeks. Then it's time to rest until next year!

Remember - Potluck at Ken's this Wednesday!

Approximately 600 lbs

We now have donated approximately 600 lbs and have beets, carrots and the majority of our tomatoes yet to harvest.

The weather is still wet and temperatures are cooling. We have had to prune our tomatoes hoping to encourage ripening. The danger of frost is lurking and we have a contingency plan should we need to harvest the tomatoes before they are ripened.

The beans have finished and the peas are nearing the end. Lettuce is still growing and we have harvested a few eggplants.

We have seeded radishes two weeks ago and plan to have an early fall crop to harvest.

The apple trees on site are nearing ready for picking. We'd love to have extra help when it comes time for this. Let us know if you are able to help!

Heat units!

The garden is beginning to flourish. On Thursday, 13 volunteers met to weed the garden, thin carrots and seed lettuce.

On Friday, the first produce was harvested! Lettuce and spinach were delivered the the Interfaith Food Bank.

What we learned? Water the lettuce well before harvesting, harvest when it is as cool as possible or have water in the harvest tub to keep the lettuce from wilting. The gourmet mix proved to be hardier after harvest than the other lettuces (Grand Rapids).

Emergence

Peas are up!

So are the beets!

Lettuce, spinach and carrots have begun to emerge. We dug down to check on the beans and they have germinated.

And the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and marigolds are beautiful.

planting

After a setback of snowfall, the planting of the garden has begun in earnest. Carrots, beets, spinach and lettuce have been planted and peas and beans will be in the ground this evening. The peppers and eggplant have been transplanted as they have outgrown their pots. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant will be planted outdoors once the chance of frost has passed (typically, after this upcoming weekend).