Monday 3 November 2014

Volunteer Appreciation


PERRY: "The gardens are beautiful, I really like how they are set up. I enjoyed caring for the plants, making sure they had enough water, raking, etc"   


A big thank you to Perry and all the volunteers who help keep our community garden looking so beautiful, we couldn't do it without you!

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Fall Clean Up



The saddest time of year is upon us, time to clean out the garden plots and ready them for winter if you haven't done so already.

It's important to clean up your plot(s) no matter your
intentions for renting that plot again...
prepare the garden bed this fall the way you'd want it done for you
for a tidy winter and spring



WEED!
Please weed the bed, especially the sides...this makes the spring growth spurt for the weeds slow down.  2012 spring saw 4 gardeners weeding empty beds for 3 hours...let's not repeat that.
**You can leave peas and beans in your bed--just chop and mix them into the soil**



Please make sure to chop up everything you put into the compost, making sure to dispose of all grass and weeds in the garbage.


Wednesday 17 September 2014

Foodbank donation - Fresh From the Heart Challenge






Foodbank donation for Fresh From the Heart Challenge.


Jeff Wilson, MLA for Calgary-Shaw donated his entire plot of potatoes and carrots!  


Thank you Jeff!


Monday 25 August 2014

Join us in creating a Legacy garden for all to enjoy in our community - Save the Date September 6th

NATIVE PLANTS

All neighbours and community gardeners in Midnapore and Sundance,
join the Mid-Sun Community Garden in
planting over 500 plants.
        Be a part of the ever growing community garden.

These plants will surround part of the garden in our berm. Be part of the legacy garden growing in your community. 
 We will be attracting, feeding and housing pollinators of all kinds.  

When everything is coming up roses, you can sit on a bench in the garden and say,
"I contributed to creating that beautiful garden"

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH
Anytime you have between 
9:30-3:00

Meet your fellow neighbours,
Learn a little in the garden
See what it's all about
Be a part of beautifying your community.

See you in the garden
50 Midpark Rise S.E. (by the community centre in Midnapore)

Joining us or have a question about this day, email us


THANK YOU to our supporters




Saturday 23 August 2014

Family Picnic Fun in the garden

Under blue skies and sunshine
gardeners, families, and friends
enjoyed a delicious potluck picnic.
Thank you to every one for their smiles, shared food, and fun!
Hope to see you next time!

 

Wednesday 20 August 2014

zucchini book



Here is a book recommendation from Anita, perfect timing if you are inundated with zucchini.  Published locally in Alberta.  

Monday 18 August 2014

FAMILY PICNIC THIS SATURDAY

FAMILY POTLUCK PICNIC
                                            In the garden
Bring your favourite dish to share
Are you bringing a sweet or savoury dish?
RSVP

Saturday, August 23
12:00-1:30

Relish the food, the friendship and the sights in the garden.

Thank you for supporting our berm project

 

We're having another fabulous plant share!


Need plants? Have too many plants?

Come to the

FALL MID-SUN COMMUNITY GARDEN PLANT SHARE

Sat, Sept 13, 2014    9am-12pm

 

Plant intake 815-930 am

Plant share starts at 930 am

Address: 50 Midpark Rise S.E.

 
·      Annuals, perennials, shrubs, veggies, house plants

·      Purchase plants for $1-3 dollars!

·      Shop garden-related vendors!

 

 

Saturday 16 August 2014

Cover crops for 2014

Soil Improvement with Cover Crops or
Green Manure
·       Return nitrogen and nutrients to the soil
·       Suppress weeds
·       Loosen and aerate packed soil
·       Reduce soil erosion
·       Add organic matter
Packages of winter field peas/ fall rye for sale for $4, cash.
 
 
1.   Clear plot, turn soil and scatter the seeds in early September.
2.   Water a bit so they germinate and have a chance to root well.
3.   Leave standing over winter and in spring till under one month before planting.
--


Saturday 9 August 2014

fresh from the heart challenge--thank you for donating!

"Fresh From the Heart Grow Challenge"



Gardeners Share with the Calgary Food Bank

Here is a win-win-win friendly challenge for all community gardens!

•    Fresh produce for Calgarians short of food
•    Feeling good that your surplus fresh produce is finding a good home
•    Getting to know your neighbouring gardens
•    Bragging rights for community gardeners
•    Encouraging the growth of more community gardens


Here's how it works:
•    Calculate the square footage of your garden under cultivation.


•    Send an email to cgrn@calhort.orgto request a simple registration form that will be used to help the Calgary Food Bank calculate the poundage being donated per garden.


•    Harvest your fresh, disease-free produce (taking pictures as you do). No need to wash or trim the produce.


•    Either take the produce to the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank or call & ask them up to come & collect it.  


•    Attend the Harvest Fair on October 1 at Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre & experience the friendly produce competition, farmers' market, awards ceremony and more!

The Mid-Sun Community Garden has been donating food to
the Calgary Food Bank since 2011.


Is your Community Garden up to the Challenge this season?



 

Thursday 31 July 2014

UPDATED Mason bees....since the workshop, have you found some in your garden?

We were curious...
"did you attend our mason bee workshop,
and if so, did your mason bees hatch?"
 
From our own garden:  "Our 2  Houses hanging on the shed at the garden have several holes
similar to the electrical outlet. Very encouraging !!"
 
From another gardener:
"Yes I attended the mason bee workshop and received a gift of hibernating mason bees. As you can see in the attachment, they didn't hatch.
However, the mason bee house that I was given and hung in my backyard became home to several mason bees some of which have hatched. I don't know whose bees made their home in my backyard, but thanks!
 
  
 
 
 
Check this out:--DESPERATE MASON BEES!

 
 
 

Bee-utiful poster! Check out this link!


Friday 25 July 2014

Cover crops...in summer!?! from MOTHER EARTH NEWS

From MOTHER EARTH NEWS

The ecological benefits of cover cropping go beyond soil improvement: Cover crops scavenge nutrient surges in soil that result from tilling in fresh plant matter or manure. They also prevent runoff pollution and “bank” excess nutrients for later crops. These beneficial covers boost biological diversity in and around gardens, a key to naturally preventing plant diseases and insect damage. Plus, many cover crops perform double-duty as forage for poultry and livestock, making a homestead less dependent on purchased inputs.
Too often, gardeners practice cover cropping only in the off-season — for instance, to protect soil in winter — and assume it’s not a summer option. But it is, and planting summer cover crops provides big payoffs.


Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/summer-cover-crops-zm0z14aszsto.aspx#ixzz38XvUrUWz

July Workbee, can you come?

Saturday, tomorrow, is a scheduled workbee at the garden, 
July 26, 930-12
You are encouraged to come, meet some other gardeners and have fun. 
Participating in a workbee(s) is part of your community garden,
 it's where we literally put the community in the garden!

 We will be staining and installing the arbour,
painting the benches and general maintenance..weeding etc.
We promise you can choose the task and level of effort you put in. 

AND I promise, you will be smiling during and after the workbee,
each time I go I have loads of fun..!  really!

What you could do, if you are shy like I can be, is "check" your plot...say around 1015/20ish..and see what happens..and I promise someone will say hello....
See you on Saturday?
Kids, snacks, water bottles, and smiles welcome
And mark your calendar for Sept 6 BERM BABY BERM!

Sunday 20 July 2014

Strawberry Social Success!

Thank you to all gardeners and friends of the garden
who came to our strawberry social. 
 
We enjoyed a delicious sunny afternoon of conversation, strawberries/cake/cream, fruity/minty drinks, and community. 

HUGE shoutout to Jeff Wilson MLA who sponsored the tasty treats, thank you for continually championing our garden!
 
We hope we meet more gardeners at our next event!

Wednesday 16 July 2014

raspberry rhapsody

These raspberries are thriving thanks to our
intrepid volunteers who faithfully water and weed.
Thank you.
Check this out and we hope to see the fruit of their labours soon.



Will you join us? Strawberry social this Saturday

Come Celebrate Summer at our
STRAWBERRY SOCIAL
 
Come out to the Mid Sun Community garden on
 
 Saturday, July 19
 1-230 pm
 
and enjoy the taste of summer with some strawberries!  DELICIOUS!
 
We even have a sponsor!  Thank you Jeff Wilson MLA for supporting our community events!
 
Hope to see you there!
If you can RSVP, that'd be a big help, but otherwise no worries please show up

Friday 4 July 2014

SAVE THE DATE! Strawberry Social!

Come Celebrate Summer at our
STRAWBERRY SOCIAL
 
Come out to the Mid Sun Community garden on
 
 Saturday, July 19
 1-230 pm
 
and enjoy the taste of summer with some strawberries!  DELICIOUS!
 
Hope to see you there!

one of gardeners shares about her first tomato of 2014!


My First Tomato in 2014
Picked on June 29, this is the earliest maturing tomato I have ever grown!  I planted the seed on March 29 and repotted the tiny seedling to a 2 inch pot for a few weeks.  Later, I put it in a big pot and introduced it to my greenhouse with lots of other tomatoes on June 1. 
It is called Stupice and was bred in the Czech Republic in the 1970’s. It is certified organic, OP or open pollinated. Days to maturity are said to be 60 to 65, right on the mark. This is an indeterminate, vine plant so I staked and pruned it. It will grow tall and bear fruit all summer. It is a potato leaf plant with small to medium fruit, sweet and flavorful. What a treat! This is one of the varieties that we had for sale at TOMATO MANIA. It is great for our short and sometimes cool summers in Calgary. I highly recommend it for your home garden or greenhouse.
CG
 

 

Sunday 22 June 2014

New Garden communication sign!

Look at our new installed white board on the outside of the shed.  Please use markers that are located inside the shed to add special messages for the garden members.  Maybe you are going to be away for a summer holiday, write your plot number and dates that you are away to ask others to water.  If you do water the plot, write the date beside the request.  Read the sign to see if you can help others in the garden.  Check for the most up to date message of activities being held in the garden and participate.



Our Summer Solstice Garden tea party...a great success

on Saturday, June 21, 2014
Mid Sun Community Garden's 
Summer Solstice Garden TEA PARTY was a smashing success.
 
 
Thank you to Dave, Catherine (delicious brownies), Rose-Marie, Ruth, Karyn, Sophie
 
Hope to see you next year!

Sunday 15 June 2014

Gardeners busy at work!

MLA Jeff Wilson digs his plot!
Dave keeps the garden tidy, thank you!
Workbee on the berm

 
 

Sunday 1 June 2014

Our plant exchange team=success

Congratulations to a fantastic crew who made our first biannual plant share a success!  Thank you!

Wednesday 28 May 2014

PLANT SHARE!! THIS WEEKEND!! GREAT VENDORS TOO!

 Come support our vendors:

South Hill Designs
Calgary Rose Society
Calgary Alpine Society
Epicure
Norwex Cleaning Products
Cory's Cedar Plant Boxes
Mike Dorion's Compost Tea !!

Tuesday 27 May 2014

TOMATO 101: What to do with those lovely tomato seedlings you bought on Saturday....


Tomato Planting in Calgary
“When is the right time to plant my tomatoes?” There is not a single answer for this question and optimal dates often change between years and locations. In order for you to make your decision, you must take into account Calgary’s average last frost date, the weather forecast and your soil temperature. Tomatoes cannot tolerate any frost, so if you plant them too early and they get frosted, you will have to replace them with new plants. Calgary’s average last frost date is May 23rd so that should be your absolute earliest planting date. Because this is an average date, remember that there is a 50% chance a frost will occur after May 23rd, so be ready to cover them if necessary. The weather forecast is

important since it gives us a view as to whether we are going into a warming or cooling trend.  The coming week’s forecast looks quite good, with frost seeming unlikely, although we all know that Calgary weather can be quickly influenced due to our location near the mountains.
 Very important to consider is your soil temperature. Tomatoes are tropical plants which like warm soil. If your soil is still very cold, planted tomatoes will just sit and not grow. For me, my home beds are still cool, but my raised bed at the community center is warm. Even with this, I won’t be planting my community garden until next weekend when things will be even warmer and the chance of frost is very low.
This year, because of the cold spring we could not get our plants outside into really good sunlight so they have grown quite tall and thin. This is not an issue since we will make sure to plant them deeply to build the biggest root systems possible. In an earlier article we had discussed that when re-potting tomato seedlings we can develop a bigger overall root system by taking advantage of the plants ability to send out roots along its buried stem. We will do the same thing again as we plant them out into our gardens. Plant them more deeply than in their current pot so roots will grow along the buried stem which is better for our dry conditions.
You should prep the plants before planting by trimming off all of the leaves which will be buried when you plant them deeply. The picture shows where to remove leaves, and as well, an indication of how deeply to plant the stem.  We remove the leaves to avoid the issue of having them continue to grow and keep popping out of the ground all summer long.
What if we have very tall plants? Not a problem since they can be planted on their side to cover up even more of their stems. The final 2 pictures show how to do this, and for a couple of my plants this year I will be using this technique.

Good luck with your planting, and we’ll see you at the gardens.

 Compost
Right now, our community garden group has been blessed with a large pile NNof top quality compost, specially shipped in for us to use in our plots.  The pile is getting smaller by the day, so you need to move quickly if you want some! It is located just west of the community centre and with the tools and wheelbarrows we have at our disposal, it could not be easier to apply.
For tomato growers, a generous amount of good compost worked into the soil is considered one of the necessary ingredients for success. Compost, aka black gold, lightens soil, adds humus, holds water and provides nutrients for plants as it rots away.  Our beds have clay based soil so the compost can help to lighten it, making it easier for plant roots to grow. If the compost is well mixed into the soil as an amendment it will help retain moisture as well, something which is important for Calgary gardeners.
How do you start? Applying compost properly is a bit of work, but it will pay off with improved plant growth and yields. Dig a wheelbarrow full of compost, dump it on top of your bed, use a bow rake to spread it out evenly, and then dig/mix it into the soil with a garden spading fork. Mix it in to the depth of the fork tines, about 8-10 inches. Mixing is important since the greatest value is only realized when it is mixed with your soil. There is little value in simply top dressing your bed since compost dries out more quickly than soil, will not lighten the underlying soil, and will stop rotting when it is dry. Complaints about the compost “drying out too quickly” will come from those who just dump it on top of their bed as opposed to mixing it in as a soil amendment.

One last tip is to ensure you mix it into your soil right up to the inside edge of the boards. Hot weather crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers are not shy about having their roots grow right up against the warm boards, so you want that soil to be as fortified as the soil in the middle of your bed.  

Determinate versus Indeterminate tomatoes

During the rush of the community tomato seedling sale you may have picked up one or more of the few `determinate’ varieties being offered for sale. To find out, check the variety tag to see if you have any of Independence Day, Polbig F1, Bush Beefsteak, Arctic Fire and/or Celebrity F1.
Everything else we sold (Sun Gold, Sweet Million etc) was an `indeterminate’ variety.

Indeterminate plants are `vine’ tomatoes which produce fruit along the length of the vine, while determinate plants are `bush’ tomatoes which produce their flowers & fruit at the end of branches only (see images). In most cases, determinate plants stop growing while they are fairly short, making them more manageable.





Neither type (determinate/indeterminate) is better, but each has to be treated in a slightly different manner in your garden in order for you to be successful.

Determinate (bush) varieties should not be pruned, can be contained and supported by tomato cages, and do not need to be staked for support. Because the plant terminates each branch with a flower axil, the size of the plant is controlled and the fruit tends to ripen within a concentrated time period of time. Early determinate tomatoes will flower, fully fruit & begin to die within our short Calgary growing season. If you have a determinate variety from the sale, just remember “use cages for support & no pruning.” The side shoots should be left on determinate varieties.

Indeterminate (vine) tomato plants will need to be vertically staked for support since they will grow out of standard tomato cages.  You can start them in a cage, but be prepared to add a stake later if you want to control the plant. As well they should be `pruned’ for best fruiting results. In our context, pruning means removing side shoots from the main stem. Because these vines will grow indefinitely – or until they are killed by frost - the fruit they produce ripens along the main stem over an extended period of time. In our climate with a killing frost, you will end up with lots of green fruit at the end of the growing season.
As an fyi, we will be producing a detailed article on proper pruning techniques and options, and doing an in-garden demonstration.


Re-potting

When re-potting tomato seedlings we can develop a bigger overall root system by taking advantage of the plants ability to send out roots along any buried stem. In Calgary, we want the biggest root system possible to help the plant survive in our dry climate, and I have found this technique helpful to do so. Please note this technique does not necessarily apply to other types of flower & vegetable seedlings.

The new pot should be deeper than the original one. Remove the tomato from the original then place it directly into the bottom of the bigger one, before adding any new soil. Fill in the spaces around the old root ball with new soil and add enough to ensure an additional length of the exposed stem becomes buried (see diagram). Within a few days, new roots will begin growing along the full length of the buried stem and these will help sustain the plant in addition to the original ones.  Be sure to remove/trim any leaves which would become buried in the process.
This method will also provide additional stem stability, and we will employ it again when we finally put the plants out into the garden.
After purchasing your tomatoes from the Mid Sun Community Garden seedling sale on Satuday, you may be asking “What do I do next?” or “What steps do I need to follow to ensure success?”  Here are a few pointers which can help you be successful.

Even  though today (Saturday) is cold, the trend for the coming week is one of general warming and it will be important to get your plants out, “hardened off” & into the outdoor sun so they can grow stronger. “Hardening off” tomatoes is the process of getting plants which were raised indoors under lights to a point where they can be grown in full sun. The process in tomatoes is similar to how we ourselves slowly increase our time of exposure to the stronger spring sun to build up protection. Humans can get a sunburn, tomatoes can get a sun scald (see picture). Sun scald is not lethal, but it is unsightly and it will definitely slow the growth of young plants.

Hardening off tomatoes takes about a week of gradually increasing exposure to sunshine to fully transition from indoor light to full sun. To start, begin by locating the plants in shade with no direct sun. After a day or two, re-locate the plants into brighter shade with an hour or so of direct sun (maximum).  From there, gradually add hours of exposure to direct sunlight each day until the plants are capable of handling full sunshine.
In Calgary, because night time temperatures remain so low, you will typically want to bring your plants into the garage at night to ensure they are not killed by frost.

Keep your plants well watered and if they begin to become root bound, you can re-pot them one more time into bigger containers before you finally plant them out.