A mini-field-trip to Beaufort

 A quick mini-trip to our friends, the Beaufort Community garden yesterday, netted these photos shown below! You enter through narrow footpaths (from St. George in our case) and as you reach the public gardens, one side is a Food Forest (we got a quick tour from Alan and his grandson) and the other side, with a fence and gate, and full of flowers and young veggie transplants, are the allotment beds.

Enjoy these photos! Higher definition photos are avail. on request, but even better, call them for a visit (you can see the number on the sign when you click on the photos to enlarge them).

The Food Forest has of all kinds of interplanted food trees and bushes:

They told us that their Allotment Member's weekly work parties and potlucks had been halted for two years due to Covid, but have just started up again:

Lots of ideas to share back and forth in these field trips, for sure!

Harvest at DIGS July 16th

 This past Saturday we harvested LOTS of different fruits and veggies!

If you click on the collage above, you will enlarge it so you can peer into it.

There are potatoes, raspberries, snowpeas,  peas, garlic scapes, scallions, sweet peas (flower), rhubarb, lettuce, mesclun, and zucchini!

Next week we're going to see BLUEBERRIES ripening!! (go on down and have a look! The blueberries are on the right side lane in their own netted cage between the leaf-corral and the white greenhouse.

In the photo above there is featured a very colourful allotment bed with full grown broccoli!!! The squash and runner beans have taken off with the hotter weather, and there is so much to enjoy! Come and see, anytime!!

Field Trip to Co-op Cmty Gardens

 Back in June several DIGS members went to visit and explore the community garden at Beban park (near the golf-course) that produces starter plants for the public, all year round, using a giant new greenhouse.

I took lots of photos and have three collages here which you can click on to enlarge and really see the details. More photos (just ask) feature close-ups of innovations.

Firstly, this community garden ONLY produces starter plants. They are open one day a week for sales in the front yard.  Their members grow all kinds of things from lettuce to herbs to fruit and veg outdoors in corrugated metal beds, raised off the hard surfacing that was originally built as an outdoor bowling green (but after building it all they found it was too windy!)

At the time we visited, in June of 2022, the greenhouse was in the midst of being changed over from beds that grew winter starter plants (with heater cables and automated watering) to summer hot house beds. It was super hot inside and noisy from the fans, but obviously dearly loved by dedicated volunteers.

Some of the outdoor features were: Mason Bee Houses, raised metal sided beds, and incredibly good plant labels that were plastic/waterproof. Note the way they put blocks under their table legs to create the right height of table for potting up!

Our tour guide and host was excellent, and there were several features of community involvement, great sources of products for gardens, and donations from local businesses to find out about.

A very enjoyable fieldtrip. Lots of fun had by all. But it really made us appreciate how quiet and natural our DIGS garden is. It's a paradise. More to follow! Jen

Coolest Spring We Ever Saw

 

The Dessert Auction was a complete success! And the harvest of vegetables has begun at the DIGS community garden! Here are some of the things we have been harvesting (not all in this photo):

Scallions, Lettuce (red & green), Rhubarb, Potatoes, Broad Beans, Peas in the pod, Snow Peas (Mangetout), Mesclun, Organic Leafy Mix, and Asparagus (and of course earlier, radish and turnip).

We have planted Tomato, Green Bean, Squash, Potato Towers (short ones), Swiss Chard, Beets, and more, and have just finished putting the upper-most "roof" netting over the Blueberries and Raspberries.

Come on down and take a look. It's positively superbo' ! :>)