FSRN Campus Community Garden

2011 FSRN Community Gardening Workshop Series

2011-06-25T00:06:00.000-04:00

2011 Community Gardening Workshop Series

The FSRN Campus Community Garden is pleased to announce our 2011 Community Gardening Workshop Series. Workshops will be held throughout the growing season, every second Monday evening at 6:30pm, beginning Monday June 13th. We are inviting all community gardeners, backyard gardeners, aspiring gardeners and any other interested parties to attend. Workshops are all free of charge and will be held at the FSRN Campus Community Garden. Please bring a chair or blanket (for sitting on the grass) as seating is limited (i.e. we have only one picnic table!).

This is a great opportunity to meet fellow gardeners, learn some new gardening tricks and celebrate growing your own food! Whether you’re a budding gardener, a master gardener or somewhere in between, there will be lots of great information to learn and share!

Monday June 13th: 6:30pm Location: FSRN Campus Garden
Community Gardeners Workshop #1 Back-up location: TBA
“Soils 101”
Come and learn soil basics, and the importance of soil health for gardening. Soil sampling and amendments will be covered.
Facilitator: Joel Symonds, Lakehead University, Forest Resources and Soil Testing (FoRest) Laboratory Manager

Monday June 27th: 6:30pm Location: Saunders Fieldhouse,
Community Gardeners Workshop #2 SB1016 (across from reception)
“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
This talk will consist of a brief overview of the beneficial and pest insects that are common to Thunder Bay gardens with tips for their recognition. Recommendations for encouraging the ‘good’ ones while discouraging the ‘bad’ ones will be presented.
Facilitator: Dr. Ken Deacon, Entomology. Lakehead University

Monday July 11th: 6:30pm Location: FSRN Campus Garden
Community Gardeners Workshop #3 Back-up location: TBA
The ins and outs of Composting: learn about outdoor composting and indoor vermicomposting.
Learn about the best composting methods to convert your unwanted plant bits into nutritious plant food! Discussion will include outdoor composting and indoor composting (vermicomposting).
Facilitator: Erin Beagle, Roots to Harvest

Monday July 25th: 6:30pm Location: FSRN Campus Garden
Community Gardeners Workshop #4 Back-up location: TBA
Garden inputs: fertilizers, compost and compost tea
Learn about using natural fertilizers, and how to determine if and when your plants need them.
Facilitator: Christina Mol, FSRN, Lakehead University

Monday August 8th: 6:30pm Location: FSRN Campus Garden
Community Gardeners Workshop #5 Back-up location: TBA
Bees and Pollination
Please join us to learn about native bees, honeybees and the critical importance of pollination. Each participant is invited to make a Mason bee condo, compliments of the Thunder Bay District Stewardship Council, to take home. Spaces are limited, please register by contacting lee-ann@foodsecurityresearch.ca.
Facilitator: Barry Tabor, Beekeeper and owner of Bear’s Bees & Honey
* Space/materials limited to 20 so please register with Lee-Ann. Donations accepted for materials.

Monday August 22nd: 6:30pm Location: FSRN Campus Garden
Community Gardeners Workshop #6 Back-up location: TBA
“Seed Saving”
Come and learn about the importance, benefits and a few how-to’s of seed saving. Will include a demo on seed saving from some common garden plants.
Facilitator: Joanne Henderson, long-time member of Seeds of Diversity and Beekeeper

Monday September 12th: 6:30pm Location: FSRN Campus Garden
Community Gardeners Workshop #7 Back-up location: TBA
Extending the growing season.
Facilitator: Dr. Connie Nelson. Director FSRN, Lakehead University

Monday September 26th Location: FSRN Campus Garden
Community Gardeners Workshop #8 Back-up location: TBA
Preparing the garden for winter.
Learn what you need to do to your garden to put it to bed for the winter and have it ready to go in the spring!
Facilitator: Lee-Ann Chevrette, Campus Garden Coordinator, FSRN

I look forward to seeing you all soon and often!
Lee-Ann, Campus Garden Coordinator
lee-ann@foodsecurityresearch.ca
www.foodsecurityresearch.ca

Welcome to the 2011 Growing season!

2011-04-30T18:44:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! This is the same information I just sent via email, but wanted to include it in our first blog of the year!
************

I spent much of the day at the garden, cleaning plots, preparing my garden beds, etc. I made it home just in time to avoid the rain!

The garden is starting to look really great, but there is much work to do. I need to bring attention to the fact that many gardeners from last year did not clean their plots and put their gardens to bed. The plots that were put to bed are practically weed free and almost ready to go. The others will require quite a bit more work to get them ready for the season. If you are new to the garden/did not have a plot last year, your garden plot will be cleaned out for you before you begin.

This is a reminder (not scolding!) that your responsibilities within the garden include cleaning the beds once you are done, so please keep this in mind (don't worry, there will be many more reminders of this towards the end of the growing season!). This is important for a few reasons: if you decide not to come back the following year, the plot will be ready for the next season's gardener. Also, it helps to reduce weeds and other unwanted plants in the garden. Those who did not remove plants from last year may seed the garden with unwanted plants in subsequent years (creating unecessary work for garden staff and the new gardener). This also places a heavy burden on garden staff to clean up all these plots. It is much easier for everyone to take responsibility for their own plots than to leave it for a couple of people to do. Thank you thank you thank you!!

More:
Facebook Group
I've just created a new Facebook Group for our garden. Please check it out: FSRN Campus Community Garden...and JOIN! It contains a bunch of photos from last year (more of these to come) and some photos from today. I will also post events, updates, and anything else related to the garden there. This will hopefully help facilitate communication between us. I recognize that not everyone uses Facebook, so I will keep the blog from last year up and update that regularly as well (more info below).

There is another group called Food Security Research Network Campus Community Garden...This is NOT the site. This was one I tried to put together but changed it (and have not deleted it yet). Please ignore!

Garden Blog
Last year, we created a garden blog that can be found at: http://fsrncampuscommunitygarden.blogspot.com/. It wasn't used a ton last year, but I will keep it up and running for those of you who prefer that to Facebook.

I will continue to post on the blog and send a note when I make entries. You are all more than welcome to post on there as well!

This is an ORGANIC garden!
I have been told that there may have been a few gardeners last year who used non-organic methods for eradicating insects and weeds (yikes!). This is an absolute no-no! Non-organic inputs and treatment are forbidden in the garden. I am working on putting together a list of acceptable treatments, fertilizers, etc. and will have that to you all shortly.

Garden workshop series
I am currently putting together a series of gardening workshops that will run for 4 months, from the end of May until the end of September. They will be held every second Monday evening at 6:30pm in either the garden or the greenhouse classroom (on campus-directions to follow). If you have any workshop topics you'd like to have covered, please submit them asap. Also let me know if you'd like to facilitate one!

We did several workshops last year and they were not extremely well attended. This workshop series will be open to all gardeners within the Community Garden Collective, a group of community gardens in Thunder Bay. Other gardeners are also welcome to attend. More info coming soon!

Best Practices document:
Based on great suggestions from a few gardeners last year, I will be creating a 'best practices' document on the Facebook page (I will also post this on the Blog). Our garden is a wonderful place, full of gardeners with diverse knowledge and experience and we should be sharing and celebrating this (and gleaning success stories).

I've started to create this document today and it includes some of my best practices (i.e. the things that worked best for me). Would you all please give some thought to the things that worked best for you in the garden? What kinds of things did you do get good yields? To grow the biggest and best and tastiest food? To battle the bugs and weeds (using organic means, or course!). To get the tallest sunflowers, etc.

The document is on the right hand side of the group page...check it out. I don't know if you can add your best practices directly to the document (probably not), so please send them to me and I will add them for you. You will all be able to see it.

I'm going to plant!!!!
I was inspired by Nicole and Mike last year, who planted very early in the season last year and got about 1 month extra food-growing time. I've been doing some research, and I'm going to do an early planting of:
onions, kale, peas, radish, and spinach (hooray!). These should be find, even if (when?) we get another frost.
Wish me luck!

As always, there is much more to include, but this is getting long. Thanks for getting through it! I was very happy to spend some time in the garden today and a couple of gardeners from last year stopped by check on their plots. I am looking forward to seeing all the gardeners from last year and to meeting the new gardeners this year.

Again, you are welcome to go to the garden anytime now. I'll be planting as soon as it dries up a bit more (hopefully this week!)

Have a great weekend and stay dry!
Lee-Ann
Campus Garden Coordinator

Garden Closing Gathering and Work Party...this Sunday!

2010-09-27T11:56:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone. I harvested my pumpkins with my children yesterday, on that incredibly beautiful day, and it gave us such tremendous joy! They are sitting on our steps, and make out house look very 'Halloween-y".

The fall has totally crept up on me here! I'd like to invite you all to a "Garden Closing Gathering and Work Party". It will be this coming Sunday, October 3rd, between 1 and 5pm. I will be there for that full 4 hours, but invite you all to drop by and stay for as long as you are able. I'll have tea on hand, and a few goodies to snack on. It will be a good opportunity to harvest some of the food that remains in the plots. Again, if you have extra food, I will collect it for donation to the LU Food Bank. Believe me, it will be most appreciated!

I see that many of you have already cleared your plots and we are very thankful for your efforts! I would like to emphasize a few things: you do not have to get all of your food out of the ground by this weekend (I've had a few gardeners ask when they had to clear out their plots). I recognize that many of you have planted garlic (or will shortly), or have perenials in your gardens, or root crops you'd like to leave for the timebeing. That's great! No need to remove or disturb. Please do however remove all dead and decaying matter and place on the ever-expanding compost pile. It is best to get this done sooner than later (there's no telling when the snow will fly, and it is much nicer to do it now than when the ground is frozen!).

Volunteer Hours:
Many of you have not 'spent' your 4 volunteer hours in the garden, so please try to attend this Sunday and we'll put you to work (and we will appreciate it!). This is a big garden and a big job...the more the work is spread out, the easier it is for all of us. Remember...we're a community!

That's all for now. I do hope you'll join us on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be harvesting the remainder of my kale and chard as well as my kohlrabi. Please get in touch if you have any questions. We will have some tools at the garden for you to use on Sunday, but if you have your own that you like to use, you might consider bringing them.

Have a great week!
Lee-Ann

Potluck dinner at the garden Saturday!

2010-08-28T00:24:00.001-04:00

Hello. This is a reminder about the potluck dinner that is happening at the garden tomorrow between 5 and 7pm. I have received few (2) RRSPs, so am not sure if there are others who are coming. As I mentioned in previous emails, I am planning to bring a barbecue/hotdogs, drinks, etc., but am unsure about quantities. Would you please just let me know if you're coming so I can make sure to have enough for everyone (and not tons extra).

If you are planning to attend, would you please try to bring a dish with a garden-grown veggie incorporated into it somehow. That would be great! Also, would you please bring a dish and cutlery, as I'd prefer not to get plastic. Also, if you have a chair, please bring it along; we all know seating is limited!

Hope to see you there!

Garden Pest Workshop this evening at the garden.

2010-08-24T09:47:00.002-04:00

This is a reminder that Dustin will be putting on a workshop this evening on Garden Pests. The workshop will run at 6:30 at the garden. We hope to see many of you out tonight, as this will be one of our last workshops and the information is very relevant to what we've seen in our garden this year. It also includes treatment options and ideas that I think you will find useful.
Hope to see you there!

FSRN Campus Garden Interview on CBC tomorrow at 7:20am

2010-08-16T21:42:00.002-04:00

I did an interview with Lisa Laco from CBC and Joel Symmonds from LU earlier today and it will air tomorrow morning at around 7:20 am. Tune in if you can. Lisa was so impressed with the garden!

Permaculture Workshop Tuesday at 6:30pm

2010-08-16T21:40:00.002-04:00

Hi. Pascal will be putting on a permaculture workshop tomorrow evening at 6:30pm at the garden. Come learn the basics about permaculture and meet some of the other gardeners! Hope to see you there!

Mountain Fresh Update and extra food donations

2010-08-12T13:04:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone. I went out to Mountain Fresh Farm today to check on the crops and here is the update. There are some peas left, lots of beans (about 5 varieties), beets, and there will be carrots soon. I was not able to pick today but am going out to pick tomorrow. I was told there were cucumbers, but they are not the pickling kind. Though Connie told me that you can slice these to make pickles and also use them for relish. For those of you who have ordered pickling cucs...sorry... it is a no go. I have about 5 orders now for beans and will do my best to fill those tomorrow. Once I have them I will contact you and we'll figure out a way to make the exchange. If anyone else wants anything else, please let me know. Thanks.

I've connected with Tony Curci at the RFDA and he will gladly take extra/unwanted food for distribution to local food banks. You can either drop off the food at the RFDA office at 704 McKenzie Street, or call Tony at Office: (807) 622-7440, Cell: (807) 629-7268. We could also probably arrange an evening harvest at the garden and have him come meet us to take it all away. Please let me know what you would like to do if you have extra food.

The garden looks amazing! Great job everyone!

Picnic table at the garden!

2010-08-04T18:41:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone. I just wanted to let you all know that Karen from the Brain Injury Association of Thunder Bay & Area has donated to the garden a very generous gift of a picnic table. The BIATBA have 4 plots in the garden, right at the front of the garden. We are extremely thankful for this gift which will be a wonderful addition to our garden. The picnic table was delivered today, so please enjoy it!

Thank you so much Karen and BIATBA!

Recipe

2010-08-03T22:33:00.002-04:00

Hi. Sue, one of our gardeners, was recently asked by another gardener for a recipe for picled beans. She asked that I share it with all of you, so here it is:

Pickled Yellow Bean ( Can be used with green)

1. Wash beans in cold water and cut stem ends off
2. Stand up vertically in pint jar ( 750 ml jars work better, for height)
3. In each jar, place:
a. 1 clove garlic
b. 1 chili pepper(small or large, depending on how much “zing” you want)
c. 1 spring dill
4. To prepare pickling solution:
a. liquid mix is ½ and ½ water to vinegar
b. roughly 1 cup (250 ml) liquid will be required per pint
c. add 1 tsp pickling salt per cup
d. bring water, vinegar and salt to boil
5. Pour boiling solution into packed jars
6. Let stand for 6 weeks.

Enjoy!

Composting Workshop Tuesday Aug 3 at 6:30pm

2010-08-02T22:20:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone. This is just a friendly reminder that Pascal will be putting on a composting workshop at the garden tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm. We had a good turnout last week for Dustin's talk on soils (thanks Dustin and all who attended!) and hope many of you will decide to join us tomorrow evening as well. I've been away for the last few days and am looking forward to seeing the garden tomorrow, as well as 'harvesting' my family's dinner!

See you soon!

Growing AND preserving food for increased food security

2010-07-26T11:59:00.003-04:00

Many of you have been asking how you can donate extra food that you are not able to use. I have been thinking more about this and one of the goals of the garden is to increase local food security through community gardening/growing our own food. If this is to be achieved, it is important to learn (or re-learn) how to also preserve food for months when we are not able to grow. I understand such things as lettuce and such are not easily preserved but much of the other greens (i.d. spinach, chard, chinese greens, etc.), root vegetables, peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, etc., are.

We are planning a workshop that will provide information on how to preserve the food that you grow. I will send out info on when that workshop will be held soon. Unfortunately the workshop won't be a 'demo' as we don't have a space for it, but there will be a lot of information that will be useful to you in helping you to put some food away for winter.

I am still looking at a system for gardeners to donate unused food to local food charities. The idea of the Thursda evening pick up won't work, so I'm looking into something else. I'll keep you all posted.
More soon!

Tomato Diseases

2010-07-26T11:56:00.002-04:00

While I was at the garden yesterday, I was approached by two gardeners who were concerned about an apparent tomato disease affecting many of the tomato plants in the garden. When we took a closer look, many of the tomato plants in the centre and side closest to the river have shriveled black leaves. I have been doing some research to figure out what is going on and I believe it is early tomato blight.

I have included a few links here so that you may try to diagnose the problem on your plant. I hope this helps. It appears to not be affecting, as severely, the tomato plants towards the back of the garden (closer to Oliver Road), but I will keep an eye on it. Please keep me posted as this develops. The first link provides information on how to treat this disease (in an organic garden).

http://organicgardening.about.com/b/2009/07/05/diagnosing-tomato-diseases-is-it-early-blight-late-blight-or-septoria.htm

http://www.google.ca/images?q=early+blight+on+tomatoes&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GPEA_en&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=_IRNTNCvIsTYnAeS7ozZCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDgQsAQwAw

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/tomato.html

Hope these help! More information coming soon!

Upcoming garden workshops and garden update

2010-07-26T08:41:00.004-04:00

Hello gardeners. This is a reminder that Dustin will be putting on a workshop at the garden tomorrow (Tuesday) evening between 6:30 and 7:30 pm. The workshop will be on garden soils. It will be very informal (i.e. standing...as we have no tables to sit at).

Next Tuesday evening, at the same time, Pascal will lead a workshop on composting (see how our compost pile is shrinking? It's working!). We are putting together more workshops and hope to hold one every week or two until the end of the season. I will forward a list of topics and dates once we have them finalized.

The garden looks amazing! I'm running to a meeting now but have much more to say so will have more posts soon.

Coming up:
-tomato diseases
-food security and food preservation

Have a wonderful day and I will hope to see you all at the workshop tomorrow!

Garden Workshops

2010-07-19T23:03:00.002-04:00

Hello Campus gardeners! I wanted to let you know that Dustin will be putting on a workshop about soils next Tuesday evening, July 27th, between 6:30 and 7:30pm at the garden. He will be covering soil components and textures, soil pH, how to amend soils, and more. It will be a very informal workshop and we invite all to attend. Children are always welcome! We are putting together some other workshops and they will be forthcoming. I will send a schedule shortly.

I harvested a large quantity of peas and beans from my plot today and feasted with tremendous gratitude this evening. My boys could not get enough! I am amazed at how swiftly things are progressing in the garden. It looks amazing. If you have extra food that can be donated to a local food bank, please let me know and we can make arrangements. I will look forward to seeing you all in the garden soon!

Garden Work Party Thursday July 15, 7-9pm

2010-07-14T22:50:00.004-04:00

Just a reminder about the work party tomorrow evening between 7 and 9pm. It seems many people are at the garden at that time so I thought I'd try to coordinate with that. If tomorrow doesn't work for you, not to worry...there will be other opportunities. We will be focussing on weeding the pathways tomorrow (it is a constant battle), but we've had other suggestions from gardeners on how we can all get our volunteer hours in.

Please bring shovels or other weed-digging implements. I look forward to seeing you all there!

First blog entry...

2010-06-22T23:53:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone. Just want to officially welcome everyone to our new blog site. I hope this will be a useful and effective tool to facilitate our communication when we are not in the garden. Please feel free to post your thoughts, ideas, comments, etc., about what is happening in the garden. I will look forward to seeing how this develops. First, let's see if it works!