FALL FAIR UPDATE
Just a few weeks left before our "DIGS" Island’s third Fall Fair –  Saturday, September 14th.

If you think you bake a pretty mean pie (special men only category) or loaf of bread or make a spectacular  jam or jelly or produce  anything else you can fit into one of the 16 categories, now is the time to get your entry ready for our fall fair. Brochures are on all the island bulletin boards with details.

The lighthouse community center will be open to the general public to view all the entries at 12:00 noon (after the judges have finished evaluating the entries). Also, at 12:00 several island vendors will be  selling their wares on the back deck. There will be harp music, and the librarians are selling books.
Jim will be pressing apples and making juice on the back lawn as well. Bring a container  and you can take home some fresh apple juice. On the lower field Veronica will be organizing different races for the kids – sack race, egg and spoon race and three legged race.

Saturday evening (7:30  pm) the fall fair wraps up with a dance in the Beacon House with Trish and Geoff and Rick entertaining islanders with their musical talents. The bar will be open and nibblies served. Tickets for the dance

Tickets are $5.00 each (kids get in free) and must be bought in advance.
Contact info. on email group for island.
Marg

Plant and Bake Sale May 18

DIGS PLANT AND BAKE SALE, SUNDAY, MAY 18 FROM 10 - 12

Come one and all to the annual DIGS plant and bake sale Sunday, May 18 at the Community Garden. Gate opens at 10:00 sharp. There will be lots of variety of plants for sale. Vegetables include tomatoes, peppers, herbs, rhubarb and  artichokes. Flowers for sale include a variety of hanging baskets for shade and sun, geraniums, pansies, nirene, lobelia, mums and dahlias. Many yummy goodies will also be available for sale at the bakery table. Bring bags in which to carry your purchases home.

the winter garden .. and a call for gardeners ..

well .. we did have winter this year .. i say that comparitively speaking as i'm betting the rest of canada doesn't think we have winter at all out here .. they simply don't understand that pouring down rain .. like we're blessed with today .. is winter ..

besides all that .. i'm here to let you know the winter garden is not yet done .. once i can get back down there .. with no snow .. or pouring down rain .. i'll be trimming off purple sprouting broccolii .. (broccolies .. ?) .. and putting them out on anna's stand so you can take some home for a taste .. i'm pretty excited about these guys .. they've lived through a fair bit of variable winter weather this year .. and, although they're looking a bit leggy at the moment they've produced a few pounds of beautifull purple broccoli spears .. they might become one of our favourite winter crops .. wait until you taste them .. ! ..

this  year's winter garden didn't really come close to the vision i have of abundant crops and a continual harvest .. from october through june .. nonetheless, i'm pretty happy with what i've learned this year .. it's been a relatively good first year .. and now, i'm full of excitement and determination to take the garden on to the next step in fulfilling that vision of abundance .. 2014/15 here we come .. !! ..

i say 'we' as i'm wondering if there's any out there who'd like join me in preparing the beds .. sowing the seeds .. tending and watering the plants .. and then harvesting this year's winter vegetables .. ? .. 

and i mean 'any one' .. young .. older .. elder .. gardener .. non gardener .. master gardener .. experienced or not .. if you're someone who'd like to .. or already loves to grow  vegetables .. please .. come into the garden and let's get at it .. i certainly don't have all the answers, but i do have one year of concentrated effort under my belt .. and i have great enthusiasm .. ask anyone .. ! ..

the seeds are all here .. and in fact, i started some leeks in the greenhouse inside the garden .. i've been researching and making notes .. i know which beds to be use .. and i'm about to draw up a picture of the planting ideas i have for them .. i'm going to follow some more intensive methods of planting .. like double rows .. and interplanting .. and successive planting .. and using garden made fertilizers .. and compost .. and companion plants .. 

see how easy it is to get carried away .. 

so .. as i say .. if you have even the slightest yen to grow veggies stop at the garden any time you see me there .. or email me at jtgrdnstff@gmail.com and let me know .. it will be so great to share this year's winter gardening experience .. 

oh .. and before i forget .. thank you so much to all of you who contribute to the compost bin .. we're starting to create some beautifull garden-ready compost in those bins .. this year i'm hoping to work other methods into the composting area .. like making different garden teas such as compost, comfrey, and seaweed .. and we've got a plastic composter available that i'm happy to show you how to use .. if you're interested .. composting and all its magic and wonder is another huge area in the garden that i'm happy to grow into with others .. (excuse the pun .. ) ..

i think this community garden is such a great place for us to learn to grow food .. and flowers .. and herbs .. who knows what this wonderfull garden has in store for us .. ? ..

here's a link that i was given this morning for a very well done and informative magazine .. not from this part of the world, but nonetheless, full of good advice and inspiration ..

http://www.fromscratchmag.com/

the exploration of winter veggies continues ..

parsnips .. 

size 9 parsnip ..

a while back .. during the summer .. i thinned the parsnip patch .. a few weeks later i pulled one to see what they were doing .. well, they'd been busy .. !!! .. that parsnip was as long as my shoe size .. ! .. a beautifull specimen, my friend, phil, might have said .. i was thrilled to see such a parsnip emerge .. i think i might have even done a little happy dance .. these the first parsnips that i've grown .. parsnips aren't a vegetable seen in many gardens .. and, although i've eaten a few they aren't my favourite veggie .. there are people who love eating parsnips .. (to each their own) .. from the time kathleen planted the seeds .. in a lovely curving pattern .. i'd watched these guys grow and tended them throughout the summer .. what a wonderfull reward for such a pleasurable task .. 

it's said that parsnips sweeten with frost .. so, of course i'd like to find out if that's true .. we've been attempting to stretch the harvest out over time .. the outcome of that 'experiment' is that there are now only a few waiting for a frost .. once i saw how beautifully they were growing it was hard not to pull them .. i have to work on my patience, in that regard .. it seems to me that there's a window of time when any vegetable is at it's 'best' .. i'm on the road to find out when and where that window is ..

brussel sprouts
 

brussel sprout's top ..

after transplanting the brussel sprouts into the garden they grew amazingly quickly .. before we knew it they were filing up the bed .. wonderfull beings .. standing tall and beautifull in bed #3 ..

'red ball' brussell sprout forming ..

since then i've learned a bit about how brussel sprouts grow ..

for instance .. different times when i'd been down to the garden i noticed that the little crotches .. where leaf meets stem .. were always filled with water .. at first, i was a bit concerned thinking that that water would be detrimental somehow .. (how quickly our mind moves into ignorant speculation .. ! ..) ..

then .. a little later, i read that brassicas actually enjoy a good shower .. that they like water .. that it's good to keep their soil moist .. when i went back to the garden .. armed with this new information .. i could see how the little sprouts really did seem to be enjoying the water that gathered around them .. as if it were a necessary element in their growth ..

then .. summer turned to autumn .. there was plenty of moisture while we were diligent in watering the garden throughout the summer .. but then october was turned out to be quite dry .. and i noticed that the moisture in the crotches of the sprouts had dried up .. knowing what i did about what brussell sprouts like i made a point of watering all the brassicas in an attempt to keep them happy .. we'll see ..

kohlrabi ..

kohlrabi is a vegetable that i was introduced to by the mother of a friend from junior high school in winnipeg .. susie's heritage was ukranian .. her mother was a wonderfull vegetable gardener .. kohlrabi was one of the many vegetables that thrived in her garden .. at first bite kohlrabi made it to my 'favourite veg' list ..

i've yet to have what i would call 'success' in growing it myself .. it's another mystery to solve .. kohlrabi seems to be more an autumn vegetable than a winter one .. at least so far as my observation have been up to now .. they grew quickly from seed .. and in fact i harvested three of four beauties right at the beginning of their strongest growth .. the ones that are left now .. perhaps a month or so later .. are completely different .. whereas the younger ones were tender and sweet .. the texture has changed as the kohlrabi has matured .. the sweetness remains .. certainly good enough for stews and soups .. or stirfrys .. more to learn next year ..

cabbage ..

look at this cabbage forming .. it's beautifull .. ! .. again, i've worked in gardens where cabbage were growing yet not paid much attention .. now this winter garden provides me with the opportunity to do just that .. pay attention as they grow .. i've been watching the cabbages more closely since i realized they were folding their teeny tiny leaves into a 'head' .. it's a slow process .. fascinating to watch ..

whenever i do a walkabout the garden i touch the cabbage heads to see how they're doing .. i can feel how loose the leaves still are .. as images of dense, almost translucent cabbages, come to my mind i think there's a long way to go before these little guys will grace anna's stand .. they're called 'january king' ..


the purple sprouting broccoli is .. i believe .. a late winter early spring crop .. west coast seeds suggest harvest is february to may .. this is another of those vegetables that i've grown fond of over the past couple of years .. it' so wonderfull to have fresh, crunchy sprouts at that time of year ..

the cauliflower mystifies me .. i'm watching closely but so far don't see a lot happening .. cauliflower are also an overwintering crop .. like the broccoli their growth slows down in the colder weather .. apparently they can handle temperatures of -12 to -19 degrees .. i haven't seen any little cauliflowers forming yet ..

during the next few winter months i'll continue to put any produce i harvest out on anna's stand .. there won't be many and the timing will likely be inconsistent .. so first come first served .. enjoy ..

our winter veggie garden is growing .. ! ..

this year we got curious about growing a winter vegetables .. inspired by gardeners from the east coast .. pacific northwest .. and britain .. and by paying attention to what to plant when, we now have quite an assortment of winter and autumn delights coming along in the garden ..

red ball brussel sprouts ..
for christmas .. ? ..

spinach .. scallions .. carrots ..
recently planted ..

turnips and radishes .. 

cauliflower .. 

we'll pull parsnips in october .. 

little cabbages already forming .. 

beets .. kohlrabi .. arugula .. 

as this is our first concerted effort to plant winter vegetables in this garden there's lots of experimentation going on .. consequently, there's just a few cabbages and cauliflowers planted .. two varieties of brussel sprouts .. half bed of purple sprouting broccoli .. we want to see how things grow for us .. discover what vegetables we like .. we'll try a few mustard greens and hardy lettuces and asian vegetables, too .. we'll put tents over these ones giving them some added protection .. from the rain, mostly ..

there's lots to learn about growing winter veg .. that's what this garden is for, in part .. to discover .. to learn .. to enjoy ..

so keep your eyes on ana's stand throughout the cooler months for some fresh winter delights ..

the brassica bed about a month ago ..
they're about 3 feet tall now .. 

Fall Fair coming up

FALL FAIR UPDATE
Just a few weeks left before our third Fall Fair – Friday, September 13th and Saturday, September 14th.

If you think you bake a great pie or loaf of bread or make a spectacular jam or jelly or produce anything else you can fit into one of the 16 categories, now is the time to get your entry ready for our fall fair. Brochures are on all the island bulletin boards as well.
________________________________

DIGS FALL FAIR ENTRY FORMS.
for SATURDAY, SEPT 14/2013

Name_________________________Phone_________________

Please circle the category below that you are entering. You may enter as many categories as you wish, but please fill out one form per entry with your name and phone no.
There is a $1.00 fee per entry.

All entries must be presented at Beacon House on Friday, Sept 13th (6 to 8 p.m.) or Saturday morning (9 to 10 a.m. ). PLEASE no late entries!

Beacon House will be closed to the public while the judging is taking place (Saturday morning, 10 a.m. to noon).
At noon on Saturday, the exhibits will be open for viewing.
Good Luck!

VISUAL ARTS

1. Best Painting
2. Best Sketch
3. Best Photograph
4. Best Natural Beach Art

HORTICULTURE

1. Biggest Zucchini
2. Most Unusual Vegetable
3. Single Heaviest Onion
4. Flower Arrangement...Three different varieties of flowers in a jam jar (minimum of
five blooms)
5. Three vegetables or fruit on a plate, same size and type.

BAKING/PRESERVES

1. Best Pie
2. Best Bread
3. Best Muffins
4. Best Jam/Jelly
5. Best Pickles/Chutney
6. Preserved Fruit in a Jar
7. Best Cookies
8. Best Buns
9. Best Cake
10. Best Fruit Crisp


HOME ARTS

1. Any Knitted or Crocheted Item
2. Any Type of Craft
3. Any wood working
4. Fabric Craft – needlepoint, felting, weaving, dyeing, sewn item

CHILDREN

Primary ( 6 years and under)
Junior (7 years and over)

1. Visual Arts – painting, drawing or sketch
2. Three veggies or fruit – same size and type on a plate (see rules in horticulture section
3. Cookies – 6 uniform size, same variety
4. Fabric craft
5. Ceramics or Woodworking

___________________________________
Also, at 12:00 several island vendors will be selling their wares on the back lawn of the Beacon House along with the librarians who are selling books.

Hot Dogs,($3.00) pop and ice cream bars ($1.00) will be available at the bar starting at 12 noon.

Jim H. will be pressing apples and making juice on the back lawn as well. Bring a container and you can take home some fresh apple juice!

On the lower field Veronica will be organizing different races for the kids – sack race, egg and spoon race and three legged race.

Kid's races will start at 1:30pm.

New this year is the Partner Calling Contest.
Entrants, male or female, can be loud, seductive or nasty.... or be creative....

Saturday evening (7:30 pm) the fall fair wraps up with a dance in the Beacon House with a variety of music including line dance lessons there will be snacks.

Tickets for the dance are $5.00 each (kids get in free) and are available from Margaret.

Get ready for the Fall Fair!

Photos from early June

Dear Garden Lovers,
The Little Diggers have been growing giant vegetables (in pvc pipes against the fence), planting squash and tomatoes, and all sorts of other things (sifting soils, potting up summer plants). The Big Diggers have been harvesting spinach, lettuce, beet greens, chard, snow peas, and watching everything burst into summertime liveliness.
Enjoy these photos.
Two Sundays in early June.




To enlarge, click on photos above, and choose SLIDESHOW fullscreen. (F11)

Direct link to photos. (in case you don't see above slideshow on your computer.)

Best, Jen

Photos - newsletter & plant sale

Here is a tiny handful of bake-sale plant-sale photos from Saturday.



To enlarge, click on the photos and choose FULLSCREEN slideshow.

Also, lots of folks wanted to see colour photos from our island's most recent newsletter.

Here's a direct link: newsletter photos from Jen.
Here's a slideshow.



To enlarge, click on the photos and choose FULLSCREEN slideshow.

Best, Jen

P.S.
Here are some requested simple garden charts for our DIGS planting this year:
What goes where?

How's the old rotation going? (read months at right side bar bottom to top).
Getting ready to plant Tomato, Carrots and Beans after May 24th when soil is warmer. All beds rotated to prevent pests and diseases.
 Bed numbers at top for community plots:

Also: when to plant which seeds in our climate?

Here is a sample of a gardener's timetable from the U.K.(which has similar climate as P.I.)
You can enlarge the chart, large enough to read, just click on the the image below. To return here, click on the upper right X or use the BACK button to return to the blog.



If you need a printed versions of any of the above, look on the DIGS bulletin boards.

Plant & Bake Sale Upcoming - Little Diggers

PLANT SWAP AND SALE

DIGS annual plant swap and bake sale is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 11 at 10 am at the community garden. Friday will be a day to help set up, and Saturday early will be great if you're bringing baking.


===============================================

LITTLE DIGGERS

Little Diggers Gardening Program began on April 6 but you can join in at any time.
All island children are welcome .
We will meet in the community garden at 10:30 am on Sundays through the season starting May 1st.

There is a $5.00 registration fee per child.

If you require more information please contact Jim Harris at meharris@telus.net

See you SUNDAYS, 10:30 am, for little diggers, rain or shine!

What does ORGANIC really mean?

Dear Garden lovers,

Today at DIGS we were talking about organic seed and organic fertilizers.
There was much confusion about the term "organic" so I went home and looked it up, and guess what?
It's a hugely confusing word.

Organic when applied to vegetables and fruits can mean
a) grown without pesticides, and/or
b) grown without chemically produced fertilizer

And note that there are fertilizers made from pulverized rock, so they are not "chemically produced" in a lab, but mined and simply pulverized, like limestone for lime or Potash for Potassium.
What you'd be environmentally conscious of would be the soundness of the mining practices.

What we all also wanted for our DIGS garden was definitely also non-GMO as in:

c) grown without genetic modified organisms (GMO)
d) sold through a non-supporting-of-Monsanto seed company
(not supporting GMOs and not linked to Monsanto who've bought up many seed companies but left their original brand names in tact so you can't tell they're "Monsanto").

a) b) c) and d) we've achieved! (Yay!)
But now, what about organic seed?

Oganic Seed
We've managed to purchase all our DIGS seeds from companies that do not support GMOs nor Monsanto, but since we often pick veggie varieties by their best veggie qualities (like Blue Lake Green Beans, for example) the varieties we pick are not always certified "organic seed."

Organic seed is certified not to have been treated with pesticide, but it does not guarentee better flavour, stronger plants, or higher yields. It is not always clear whether or not the crop for seeds has been treated with organic fertilizer only, and that also leads to some confusion.

So does buying organic seeds matter?
Yes it does matter if you want to generously support all the organically certified farms that produce that seed without pesticide use. That's the way to insure they can continue to thrive. Conventional seed crops often receive more pesticide sprayings than the same varieties grown for eating.
But the pesticide does not stay on the seed, which is cleaned before packaging.
To the best of my knowledge the pesticide is not inside the seed itself.

So buying "organic seed" fully supports future research and development of organic/sustainable farming practices. And we do want to support that. So, so good so far.

But there's more "organic fertilizer" confusion to wade through....

Organic fertlizer:
There seems to be confusion in the general talk about "organic" fertilizer and none of my online reading has really cleared this conundrum up. (see links below)

Fertilizer replenishes the plant food in the soil. Besides trace mineral/elements, all plants also need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (K), and despite putting tons of well-composted organic manure on a home garden, it's still possible that you're cropping so intensively that your soil is short in N, Ph, or K.
So even if you add lots of perfectly gorgeously ready-to-fertlize-your-veggies manure (and remember uncomposted manure is too "hot" and scorches plants) that you can still be short of N, Ph, K and those trace elements and may have to amend by using some organic fertilizer.

So we'll do our best at DIGS, and remain 100% pesticide and GMO free, and will try to keep up on the copious Organic reading.
Good luck. It's one confusing word that's still being defined even as we speak!
Best, Jen
_________________
Reading
_____________________
What organic means - source for info. on a complex topic:

What food production processes can be called "organic" in Canada?
What substances are permitted and prohibited for use in organic agriculture?

CAN/CGSB-32.311, Organic Production Systems – Permitted Substances Lists, includes the following substances lists:

•Crop production including fertilizers, plant foods, soil amendments, crop production aids and materials, and weed management

•Livestock production including feed, feed additives and feed supplements, health care products and production aids

•Processing and sanitation including organic ingredients, non-organic ingredients and with organic ingredients, processing aids, cleaners, disinfectants and sanitizers, and pest control substances

read more from: http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ongc-cgsb/programme-program/normes-standards/comm/32-20-agriculture-eng.html
---------------
What is organic seed?

http://houseplants.about.com/od/propagatingyourplants/a/What-Are-Organic-Seeds.htm
----------------------------
What is the definition of organic farming?
(2001) Organic farming is based on a simple principle, namely strict respect for the links and natural balances between the soil, plants and animals (animals nourish the soil, which nourishes plants), to which is added the constraint of a prohibition against synthetic chemicals.(2)
From this principle and this constraint follow a number of agricultural practices which distinguish organic from conventional farming, including:
a prohibition against chemical fertilizers and pesticides, plant and animal growth regulators, hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, etc.;
a prohibition against genetically modified organisms;
a prohibition against soilless culture (which does not exclude greenhouse growing);
the requirement, in the case of animal production, to allow free ranging, to use organically produced feed, to limit animal density in buildings, etc.; and
the requirement to observe conversion periods in crop production before any “organic” commercial exploitation, etc.
The supporters of organic farming add a social and ethical aspect to the definition of organic farming, because they see in it a means of preserving a human dimension in agriculture, one that is respectful of the environment and in touch with the consumer.
from:
http://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/prb0029-e.htm
----------------
What about organic meat, eggs, milk?
http://www.thestar.com/news/2008/04/27/what_is_the_meaning_of_organic.html
-------------------
Can manure substitute for organic fertilizers?
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/fertilizing-old-fashioned-way-with-manure.aspx
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1192.html
-----------------
What are the standards for organic manure?
http://www.cog.ca/faq/index.php?action=search&tagging_id=17
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