Sandown memories 2021

It’s been a while since I posted anything about our Community Garden and although there is new stuff for this year I felt I had to give a quick overview what happened after June last year.

It was a year of challenges for sure and big learning! The year had started with way too much water and flooded beds. Later, after the irrigation was connected, it was difficult to adjust and of course coming fall water couldn’t run off due to heavy clay soil.

The next challenge was the wire worms that occur often in places that used to be meadows. They ate a lot of the roots of our baby plants which killed those tiny plants right away. We spread a special kind of mite, stratiolaelaps scimitus which are predatory soil mites feeding on fungus gnats, thrips, and apparently wire worms. They came from Applied Bio-nomics just around the corner in North Saanich. They don’t do any small retail but in 2022 we found them at Russel Nursery and reapplied as we have a different growing space now.

Then the flea beetles took over the stage and ate just about any green leaf they could find: radishes, kale, chard, cabbage, lettuce, you name it. Somehow some plants survived and started to get big and strong!

Then we had “sheep”! The sheep had gotten out several times from their enclosure but were always spotted early on and brought back. This time they discovered the tasty treats and mowed down quite a bit of veggies from the first beds they could find. Luckily they didn’t get into the space of the “farmpreneurs”. The decision was then made they had to move or next time they might do more damage. Understandably as it was a very hot summer and they had very little shade and just dry grass which made the juicy vegetables so much better!

Because of the heat little Bellatrix had to be fed by baby bottle and we took turns heading out 3 times a day to feed her. She would be noisily awaiting her bottle and it was such a pleasure getting to know the different voices and meeting “the boss” who so loved to be scratched and cuddled.

Once I had Yoda with me and the sheep all came up to the fence stomping their feet and he was not too sure about that. A poodle is just not a sheep dog I guess.

And then of course the extreme heat was tough on the plants as well and lastet a few weeks. Victoria’s hottest day was on June 26th with 35.2C.

We had a wonderful harvest of tomatoes, lasting into October. Lots of them green which ripened indoors and I had a lot of canning experiences! Sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers.

We visited a farm and the amazing gardener Bill with his fantastic versatile construction for raised beds.

And sooo many flowers! The birds, mostly starlings, loved the sunflowers and it was a joy observing them.

The new raised beds for next year were constructed and we started planting them with garlic, arugula, tons of kale, and Romanesco broccoli all of which grew through the winter.

The last thing to harvest was the pink and painted corn which turned out a little small but still makes popcorn.

Excited about another year of growing food, now that we have some more experience under out belts!