Digs Fall Fun Fair and Barn Dance

DIGS will be sponsoring a traditional Fall Fair this year to celebrate the
skills of our island's gardeners, cooks, artists and wine makers.

The fair will be held on
Friday, Sept. 16 and Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Light House.
Listed below are the categories to be judged:

1. Visual Arts: - best painting/sketch - best photograph
2. Horticulture: -3 vegetables of same size and type - biggest zucchini
3 fruits - most unusual vegetable -mixed vase of garden flowers
4. Baking/Preserves: -best pie-best bread -best sweet loaf-
best pickles-best jam/jelly/chutney
5. Wines: -best homemade white wine -best homemade red wine
6. Junior Category: -best scarecrow
7. Giant Onions: - single heaviest onion

You may enter as many categories as you wish.
Entries will be accompanied by an entry form (available in August at the pub, community garden and island bulletin boards or online at here at the digs blog.)
A $1.00 fee will be charged per entry, and must be presented at the Lighthouse Friday night (Sept. 16) or Saturday (Sept. 17) before 10 am. Judging will take place Saturday morning between 10 am and noon by a panel of highly qualified local judges and ribbons awarded in all categories.

The exhibit will remain open Saturday afternoon for viewing by the public. Other activities will take place outside. Info to follow.

As a finale there will be a Barn Dance on Saturday evening starting at 8 pm. Admission is a plate of appetizers. Dress is somewhat farmer-like.
Now is the time to start planning your entry so that you can join in the fun. Good Luck! Margaret Harris

littler community gardeners ..

it's so delightful to watch the children at the garden .. they get in to lots of different activities .. some made for them .. others of their own making .. as i was puttering around in the garden, this past saturday, i witnessed this impromptu display of community gardening ..(before i go on, i apologize for any misspelled names) ..

 it all began with nicola .. she was helping glen at their plot ..

before i knew it, fay happened by to see what was going on ..

so .. nicola showed fay what she'd been up to ..

pretty soon, along came immogen .. with her shovel .. ready to join in ..

by this time, having got the project scoop from nicola, fay took the initiative to dig ..

next time i looked, lola had brought her shovel, too, and just dug right in ..

 a little later, i passed by ocea, kazaya and lenni, who were hard at it .. it looks like they're taking their cue from immogen ..

 

there was quite the little convergence of small gardeners .. and parents ..

everyone having fun gardening together ..

then .. it was time to clean up ..

'timing is everything' .. it would seem my timing was pretty spot on .. how wonderful to be witness to this burst of spontaneous creation in the garden .. glen and jess and nicola's bed benefitted from some extra kid energy .. and, i trust lynn is pleased with the progress in her bed .. "many hands make light work" ..

so, i invite you to come down some saturday, and suggest that you, too, will witness delightful moments unfolding before your very eyes ..

even little ruxton was eager to help .. in his fashion ..

Plant Swap & Sale will be May 15th

PLANT SWAP AND SALE The DIGS annual plant swap and sale is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 15 at the community garden. As you prepare your garden for spring please think about potting up extra plants to swap at this event. More details to follow. Marg

April 19th Little Diggers "Garden of Giants"

Attention Gardeners and Little Diggers: We will meet this Saturday, April 19 at 10:00 am in the community garden. We have more transplanting and bed preparation to do.

Little Diggers will meet at 10:30. This week they will start their Garden of Giants.

If you are a LITTLE DIGGER you will arrive anytime between 10 and 10:30 am (newcomers can still register for the season. $5) At 10:30 we will start our little diggers program.

Also:
If you think you would like to try to grow a GIANT ONION and be a participant in our GIANT ONION contest, you can come to the garden between 10 and 11:39 am and pick up your onion sets. There is no charge. With any kind of luck there should be an “expert” to answer your onion questions. All are welcome.

a bed in the park: a blanket of seaweed

i wrote this awhile back, and am posting it today .. from sunny arizona .. i understand it's raining at home, so won't go on about how wonderfull the weather has been/is here .. see you all soon ..


we are so fortunate here to have access to seaweed for our compost piles .. or for putting directly on our  garden beds .. below is a picture of my favourite spot where i go to collect this mineral-rich, natural garden goodness.. as i head down, pitchfork and trug in hand, i am aware that for centuries people around the planet have put their hand to the same task .. there is a continuity of purpose running from them then to me now ..

it doesn't take much, really, to provide what we need for our bed in the park .. my favourite time to harvest seaweed from this beach is in late autumn through early winter .. then there is an abundance of fresh seaweed rolling in on the tide .. already beginning the process of decomposition ..

 
when the time's right, i head on down with my wheelbarrow, pitchfork and trusty trug .. two trugs full to a wheelbarrow load .. and off i go to our bed in the park ..

i spread the luscious seaweed across the remaining two thirds of the bed .. then, i rake up the bits of leafage left over from the bags of maple leaves graciously left by islanders for the larger garden's compost container, which fellow gardener, donna, has run over with the mulching mower .. the rakings i gather provided more than enough to cover the seaweed nicely .. now the bed will sit, covered in a blanket of natural, island available amendments .. 

later, i'll add another layer .. this time of compost .. then, the bed will sit, again, until early spring when all will be turned under .. and dug in .. to sit, yet again, until late may, when we'll begin planting .. whew! .. that's a lot of "sitting" ..

Saturday March 26th

Attention Gardeners: We will meet this Saturday, March 26 at 10:00am in the garden. We are going to discuss purchasing a tomato cloche and then do some planting and transplanting. Don't forget to renew your DIGS membership fo 2011. $10.00 singles and$15.00 family.

a bed in the park: the garlic's poking through

this is our bed .. at the moment one third of it is growing .. garlic, that is .. you can see the part we've planted at the back of the bed, covered in straw .. we planted the garlic in late november, if my memory serves me right .. then, we mulched it with straw .. then, we walked away from it .. but not until after saying a little prayer of sorts .. something like "okay, guys, there you go .. do your best" .. that sort of prayer .. then, we waited .. and in the new year, the garlic guys began showing themselves through the straw .. so lovely .. so green .. so young and fresh ..

now, we'll just keep watching it .. i think that helps .. them knowing you're out there rooting for them .. (no pun intended) .. i'm down at the garden at least once a week .. just to check ..

AGM Sunday, February 20th at 1pm

AGM Sunday, February 20 at 1pm at the lighthouse.

Dear D.I.G.S. members and island gardeners,
DIGS will hold its Annual General Meeting on Sunday, February 20 at 1:00 at the Beacon House. After the formal meeting we will be viewing “Dirt – The Movie”.
Popcorn will be served.
Memberships for 2011 will be sold ($10 single - $15 for a family) and a whole new season planned.
All are welcome.

The Hummingbird Story from "Dirt the Movie": Animation


Dirt-The Movie- Trailer- this DVD is in the public library for loan.

a bed in the park ..

i have a pet peeve .. it has to do with the home and garden channel on tv .. in fact, i've written to them on two different occasions to suggest that they take the "g" out of hgtv, as  over the past two years i have seen little .. if any .. gardening shows on this channel .. lots of 'home' .. no 'garden' .. which surprises me, really .. i mean, in these times of 100 mile diets .. and eating locally .. community and allotment gardens .. farmers' markets .. it astounds me that such an important educational tool has not taken up the mantle to educate people about growing veggies ..

so .. there i was ranting about all this to a friend when she, offhandedly, said something like "well, maybe you need to do something about that yourself" .. yikes .. well, i admit it .. the thought had crossed my mind a few times .. but how would i approach such an idea .. could i actually pull it off .. hmmm .. maybe i could start on a small, personal scale ..

then, while i was working away at the pub garden the other day it occurred to me that perhaps there is something i can do .. after all, we rent a garden bed down at the community garden .. i can use our garden bed as an example .. and, we have this website where i can babble about how things are doing in our veggie bed .. it will be a bit like journalling .. a record of gardening in 2011 ..

our bed is beside the greenhouse ..

so .. all that said, please keep in mind, dear reader, that i do not profess that my way of gardening is THE way of gardening .. quite the opposite, really, as i believe that there are as many ways of gardening as there are gardeners .. that once we learn the basics it's up to us to take our garden in whatever direction we choose .. that the most important aspect of gardening is to have fun .. enjoy it .. experiment .. and learn from every mistake .. oh, yes .. and, of course, to take pleasure in the fruits of our labours ..

and so .. the story of 'a bed in the park' begins ..

Saturday Garden Meeting

Saturday, Feb. 5, 10:00 am DIGS report:

What we did:

- mowed leaves to put on compost (for faster breakdown of cellulose you mow the leaves before layering.)
- cleaned out the greenhouse, swept, and removed mouldy pots
- used pro-mix to fill flats for Mesclun (tiny lettuce that you can snip and re-grow) which is to be planted first week of March
- tidied the social shed in ready for interior paint (white) and re-organization of seeds, papers, recycling, coffee and first aid kit etc.
- assessed the success of several winter brassica varieties.
- removed mushy-gushy outside leaves and yellowed leaves from winter brassicas
- restacked compost bins with wonderful layers (thanks Jane!)
- admired the garlic which is about 1-2" high.
- pruned the grapevine. (How do you prune grapes? Answer here.)
- had coffee and gabbed and visited.

Took less than 90 minutes - nice folk, nice sunshine, nice fun.

And here are the local gardeners list of month-by-month tasks for February and March:
(click to enlarge.)
February


March


Best, Jen

Great gardening online resources...

Here are some good new resources:



1. Companion Planting Chart.Help yourself to an incredibly good chart on companion planting in pdf you can print out.





2. Seedliving is a Canadian based online venue for buying, selling and swapping open pollinated seeds and live plants!! Also great articles, gardening information and online resources on all kinds of topics including permaculture, compost, planting in a bag, online courses...

Cate