Digs Plant Sale May 11th !!

DIGS 2024 Annual Plant Sale

10am to 12pm on Saturday May 11th, 2024

See the plant list with links and photos here.

The plant sale will be held at our Community Garden (rain/shine) and features annuals, perennials, patio plants, deer resistant/shade plants and vegetable starters.

1.  Fifteen people at a time can enter the garden to shop (please don’t socialize too much so those who are still waiting in line don’t have to wait too long.)

2. Please bring your own bags, boxes or trays, wheelbarrow, to carry your purchases home. Only a limited number of such items are available.

3. There is no plant “holding area” due to limited space.

4. Payment is by the Honour System. Bring a pen and paper or calculator and tally up your plants (plant names and prices will be clearly marked) and put cheque or cash in the honour box. Assistants can help for those challenged by the math. See the plant price list below.

This Year’s Special: Only one shaft of sunlight at your place? Try: patio sized fruit & vegetables! See Jim Harris’s table at the sale for all these special plants! (To see what he will be offering this year: See the plant list with links and photos here.)

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DIGS 2024 Plant Price List

Vegetables 

6 packs  $4  basil, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, dill, ground cherry, kale, kohlrabi, leek, mint, onion, lettuce, parsley, pepper

2.5” pots $2  pepper

3.5” pots $3  cucumber, leek, giant leek, giant onion, squash, zucchini

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Tomatoes 

3.5” pots $3  Cherry: Sweet Million, Tumbler, Gold Nugget, Red Robin, Sunrise Bumblebee  Regular Tomato: Early Girl, Super Fantastic, Jubilee, Old German   Beefsteak: Mortgage Lifter, Better Boy Roma: San Marzano Lampadina II       

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Flowers

6 packs  $4  alyssum, aster, bacopa, cosmos, dianthus, impatiens, lobelia, marigold, nicotiana, pansy, salvia, sweet pea, viola.

3.5” pots $4  geranium, nasturtium, wave petunia, verbena

2.5” pots $2 fuchsia

2 gallon pots $7 six sweet pea plants with bamboo stakes

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Perennials

6 packs $4  Flowers: monarda (bee balm), rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) 

6 pack: $4 Herbs: catnip, thyme

3.5” pots  $4  aubretia, campanula (dalmation bellflower), columbine, dahlia, delphinium, foxglove, grasses, hellebore, hens & chicks, hollyhock, lavender, lily, lupin, nirene, phlox, shasta daisy, veronica, yarrow.

5" & 6" pots $5  Flowers/trees: aubretia, columbine, delphinium, hellebore, japanese maple trees, yarrow, strawberry

1 gallon pots  $7  Flowers: arabis, asparagus, azalea, chives, echinacea (cone flower), euonymus, columbine, delphinium, foxglove, fern, grasses, hellebore, hollyhock, hosta, hydrangea, lavender, lily, lupin, nirene, red hot poker, shasta daisy, veronica, yarrow

1 gallon pots Fruit: $7 fig, kiwi, raspberry

1 gallon pots $12  rhubarb, rhododendron

Fruit Bush: $22 Blueberry; $40 for pair of Honeyberry (need two for pollination)

Larger Fig Tree: $40

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See photos and instructions on how to grow all the plants offered here.

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Notes: There will be a limited number of "consultants" on hand to answer questions on the day of the sale.  Loonies & Toonies are useful (no change available.)  Quantities - remember your neighbour;  you are always welcome to go through again!

DIGs Memberships will be available: $10 single/$15 family.

Hope to see you there! ---- The DIGS Plant Sale Committee

Plant List for May 11th 2024

DIGS plant list for 10am-12pm May 11th, 2024

See pricelist and instructions above.

These blue links below will take you to photos and more information on how to grow each of our plants offered this year specifically.

 Asterisk* = deer resistant.

FLOWERS

For: Planters or Hanging baskets SUNNY

Alyssum* wonderland white, Alyssum* wonderland purple

Bacopa Blutopia

Shock-Wave Petunias: purple, white, red, denim

Salvia* - Red Vista (dwarf)

Salvia* - Amore purple

Snapdragon* Candy Showers (dwarf): Yellow dwarf trailing, Deep purple trailing, Red trailing

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Planters or Hanging baskets SHADY

Impatiens xtreme mix

Viola sorbet spring select XP (tight, compact)

Pansy - Clear Mix

Lobelia Crystal Palace, Lobelia Riviera Blue Eyes, Lobelia Regatta Sky Blue

Lobelia Regatta Rose, Lobelia Regatta Midnight

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Garden flowers SUNNY

Aster* - Milady Mix

Cosmos* - Sonata Mix

Dianthus* Coronet (white and purple)

Dianthus* Coronet New Mix (white, pink, purple)

Geranium in scarlet, pink, salmon,   purple (few); (Scented) attar of roses, orange fizz,

Marigold* (double - scarlet w yellow center) - Spry

Marigold* (double- yellow) Superhero Yellow

Marigold* (double - orange) Superhero Orange

Nasturtium Jewel Mix

Nicotiana* Perfume Mix

Salvia* - Salvatore Blue (tall)

Sweetpea heirloom mix

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VEGETABLES

JIM HARRIS'S SPECIAL: Patio-sized plants!

Vegetables for Planters or Pots (patio/dwarf/compact) see Jim Harris's table for special selections

Basil tower - Emerald (grows into a tower)

Cucumber (patio) - Patio Snacker

Eggplant - Patio Baby (3 inch fruit)

Pepper - Snackabelle

Strawberry Delizz - (good for containers)

Tomatoes for hanging baskets/patio:

Tumbler (red; hanging basket)

Red Robin (red; container 12" tall determinate)

Gold Nugget (golden; container 24" tall determinate)

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VEGETABLES

Vegetables for raised beds:

Broccoli - Gypsy (slow to bolt)

Cabbage - Katarina (green)

Cabbage - Cairo (red)

Cauliflower - Amazing

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NEW! COLOURED CAULIFLOWER

Cooking hint: Preserve colour by roasting or steaming.

Cauliflower - Clementine (orange)

Cauliflower - Graffitti (purple)

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Celery - Hudson

Cucumber - Bush Pickle

Cucumber - Marketmore

Ground Cherry

Kale - Vates (curly - slow bolting)

Kale - Lacinato (dinosaur, tall)

Kohlrabi - (giant) Superschmeltz

Leek - Lancelot

Leek - Giant

Lettuce -  Parris Island Cos (romaine), Buttercrunch, Kaiser, and Speckles (red/green)

Pepper (green - sweet) New Ace

Pepper - Jalapeno Raam (hot)

Pumpkin - Small (7") Sugar

Radiccio - Rossa di verona

Scallion - Parade

Summer squash - Scallopini (yellow) - Sunburst

Squash - Butterbaby

Squash Mini Green Hubbard

Squash Acorn - Festival

Squash Butternut - Waltham

Tomatoes

Also see container/basket cherry tomatoes above in Jim's special plants.

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Vine Cherry Tomatoes (Indeterminate means needs staking and topping):

Sunrise Bumblebee cherry Tomato (orange-gold; indeterminate)

Sweet Million cherry Tomato (red; indeterminate)

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Vine Beefsteak tomato: 

Mortgage Lifter (red; indeterminate)

Better Boy (red; hanging baskets or bedding)

Roma: San Marzano (determinate)

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Vine Regular Tomato: 

Early Girl (red; indeterminate)

Super Fantastic (red; indeterminate)

Jubilee (yellow; indeterminate)

Old German (striped red/gold; indeterminate)

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Onion - Bunching - Parade

Onion - Giant - Kelsae

Zucchini - Yellowfin (yellow)

Zuccini - Raven (green)

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Herbs:

Basil Genovese

Dill - Fernleaf

Oregano*

Parsley

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Update 2024 perennials (asterisk = deer resistant)

Arabis* 

Aubretia* 

Azalea 

Black-eyed Susan* (Rudbeckia) 

Columbine* 

Dalmatian Bellflower* (Campanula portenschlagiana) 

Delphinium* 

Echinacea* 

Hellebore* 

Hollyhocks

Hosta 

Hydrangea 

Lavender*

Lupine*

Monarda (Bee Balm)*

Nirene 

Oriental Poppy* 

Red Hot Poker* 

Rhododendron* 

Roses 

Salvia* - Blue (Meadow Sage) 

Shasta daisy* Leucanthemum x superbum

Tiger lily

Veronica* – Whitley (Speedwell) 

Yarrow*

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Succulent:  Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum tectorum) 

Tree: Japanese Maple 

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Fruit: Fig trees, Blueberry, Honey Berry, Raspberry, Strawberry

Foliage:

 Euonymus 

Assorted grasses*

Ferns*

Lambs ear*

Herbs: Catnip, Thyme*,

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* = deer resistant. 

The Deer proof plant list  is also in the right side bar of this blog for your convenience.

Planning overlapping crops

 Hello garden-lovers,

 This week at the garden we are continuing to direct-seed and transplant spring veggies. Everything that was direct-seeded in early April has sprouted (yay!), but the low temperatures at night mean outdoor veggies are slower than those in the greenhouse. A few at a time the flower and vegetable transplants that can tolerate cool nights are being moved outside; lettuce mostly, of which there are many varieties. Jim had seeded quite a few new ones for the plant sale and gave us some of his transplants to try. Here's how it looks today (see map below). Even though it happens every year, it's still a thrill to see rows of radish and spinach about to burst into full adult-plants after a long winter.

Click on the map to enlarge it.

Creeping Shade: We have to face the fact that our community garden is surrounded by incredibly tall trees that simply block the sun. If you were to place a light meter in beds 1 to 5 at this time of year, you might find they only receive less than four hours of sun until July when the sun is higher. So this impacts us, and makes us a shorter season and ever more doubtful location for heat-loving plant like tomato and squash. So we'll have to keep an eye on this as we plan how to adapt over time. We obviously cannot produce in such abundance as Charles Dowding for example, whose farm is well out from under the influence of tree shade.

 But if you want to see some delicious looking examples of multi-cropping in a small allotment sized bed, these videos are GREAT examples, so I'll include them here for inspiration. Enjoy!

New Charles Dowding video on 

keeping your beds full of veg all season:

(video)

For allotment growers interest:

What can you plant in one small vegetable bed? (video)

Also good:

What does a fully planted garden look like mid-summer? (video)

Clearing and replanting in mid-summer (video)

Soil doesn't need to rest with "No Dig method" - keep growing food! (video)

Interesting fact:

We are in the same Plant Hardiness Zone as Charles Dowding, 8b but we have more surprise frosts, I believe, because of the geology of many river valleys carrying occasional arctic super-cooled cold air from the north down to us in our watery haven of warmth. You can look up zones for B.C. here. Dowding is in Somerset UK (zone 8).

Question of the Week: When should I plant tomatoes outdoors? 

A: Whenever there's a question about our zone the best gardening advice I'd probably turn to organic gardener Linda Gilkeson, from Victoria BC. She has a monthly newsletter which I've linked in the right hand column of this blog.

Her newsletter that speaks to the question about when to transplant tomato plants to the outdoors is this one: tomato & other heat-lovers pdf

Also, from what I gather from listening to local gardeners:

Yes, you can plant out early and cloche the plant as forecast requires, for sure.

And if you truly wait til May 24th (the safest possible date) some stores are sold out of all the good tomato plants. So you do have to go buy them by the 15th of May or so, and then keep moving them outdoors bit by bit. Very annoying.

 But everyone takes a little bit of a gamble, and sometimes it does pay off to try for the second week of May. But avoid weakening them or letting them get leggy, that's for sure. (And if they are leggy, bury the stem quite a bit).

Best, Jen

April early seedings

 Dear Garden lovers, 

Today we planted radish, turnip and mixed lettuce. Last week we planted early potato, broadbean, pea, snowpea, and there are new baby transplants of lettuce and spinach (seeded in February). (Update: For April 6th see below and holy cow, the snowpeas are up!!). See this garden map to see where it was planted so you can watch for it to come up. Such a thrill!

click on map to enlarge it.

Items in gray text on the map are future-crop transplants.

Bed 1 - Chard, (seeded) Shelling Peas, (sprouted!)Broadbean

Bed 2 - Early Potato

Bed 6 - transplanting Lettuce shortly (some will go among spinach)

Bed 7 - Bloomsdale/Yukon overwintered Spinach plus additional February seeded Spinach

Bed 14a - Pac Choi (transplanted April 6th)

Bed 15b - Carrot (seeded April 6th) - Mokum F1 hybrid

Bed 17a - Turnip (seeded April 2nd) - Hakurei

Bed 17c - potted Parris Island Cos lettuce joins the parsley (potted April 6th)

Bed 21 - Radish (seeded April 2nd & April 6th)

Bed 21 - mixed Lettuce (Mesclun) (seeded April 2nd)

And for spring personnel: We now have a Radish Empress, a Snowpea Majesty, and a Lettuce Queen. Could you be the next Prince of Chard, Pontiff of Parsnip or Chancellor of Carrots? Come down on Saturday mornings at 10 am to receive your crown (and seed packet)!! We think crops do better if there is one overseer for each. Expertise in each specialty is a great thing!! See you on Saturday!  Jen

Newcomers may also like to see:

  How Our Garden Works & Garden Allotment Guidelines

April 6th update see this diagram below:

click on map to enlarge it.

April 6th: carrots, pac choi and more radish were planted as shown above. 

Question of the Day: What is our gardening Zone here on the island?

 Every micro-climate is different due to elevation (if you're on a mountain in can be colder; when you're down at sea level it is warmer), but like Vancouver, which can range from Zone 8-9, our area is listed as an 8b.

You can look up all of B.C.'s Zones for gardening here.

Question of the Week: What is our compost made out of at DIGS?

A: We layer raked leaves (mostly maple) and seaweed in a 9:1 ratio. They are layered together in a rectangular bin made of old pallets. The leaves break down faster if they are lawn-mown but having switched to a new electric mower (quieter/easier) we no longer have the rip-snorting power to mow leaves as we used to. So we're using a "Rot-It" powder to break down the pile faster. It's working well so far.