Summer Camps at the Orchard Garden

For three weeks this summer, the Orchard Garden is hosting the FUN Society's Summer Camps. they provide fun filled days for kids ages 6-16, and wanted to share their summer with us. Last week, we had our first group out, and played 20 Questions, where kids guessed which vegetable was taped to their back by asking friends for clues. They loved it - especially because they could eat the surprise veggie afterwards!

Next, we had a scavenger hunt throughout the garden, where campers looked for each plant in the garden, and tried their best to name each one. The sprinklers were one that day, so there was an added bonus when searching the greenery :) 

We had a great day, and are looking forward to the next batch of campers next week! Stay tuned.

Enhanced Practicum Take 2

Last week, the Orchard Garden welcomed our three elementary school teacher practicum students. They will be working with us for the next three weeks in workshops and hands-on garden work as part of learning about teaching in an informal setting. We are running workshops on many things, from local garden histories, to how to start a school garden. And of course, lots of digging in the dirt.

Lupins!

The westernmost corner of garden is full of lupins right now! These beautiful wild flowers are a welcome addition to any marginal soil. Not only are they bright bursts of colour, but their roots have a unique ability to take nitrogen gas from the air, and convert it into a useable form for plant roots. Adding nitrogen to the soil is a great thing for neighbouring plants.

Mid May Growing

With the 2 weeks of solid sunshine, and high temperatures, the garden is a happening place to be. Last year's kale plants are making seed with these brilliant yellow flowers. The fava beans are flowering. The apple trees are blossoming. And our resident gardeners, Panthea and Heather, are sporting 2013 Farm Fashion as they prepare and shape beds for planting.

Brilliant yellow kale flowers - 4 feet tall!

Fava bean flowers are my favourite because they smell like oily sun tan lotion. 

A plethora of apple blossoms.

Farm Fashion by Rosy, Panthea, Heather (left to right)

The Orchard Garden from the Perspective of two B.Ed students

Beauty. Peacefulness. Tranquility. Colour. Diversity. Abundance. All these words described our first impression of the Orchard Garden. What is this place in the middle of the hustle and bustle of campus life? A place of such freshness, where biodiversity can be seen, heard, felt, and smelled—all five minutes by foot from Scarfe!

Our time in the Orchard Garden has been filled with exploration and learning, in a sense a great mirror of the education process itself. We began our time by investigating the many facets of the garden, using the informative workshop series documents created by the Orchard Garden team. These followed the entire food cycle: from prepping the garden beds, to growth, to harvest, to preparing and eating a meal, and finally returning the end products to the compost bin—so they could become soil anew.

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is in full bloom at the Orchard Garden. It's such a beautiful time. Plants are young and fledgling, and promise a bountiful summer!

This garlic was planted last October. Look at it go!

Yet, the green onions are looking rather sad. You can admire the minimal weeds though...

The gai lan is coming along nicely. This fast-growing crop will be ready to eat soon. 

Workshop Series #6: Hands On

Our sixth Workshop Series was blessed with a brilliantly sunny day. The kind of day where you can hear the robins, smell the sweet air, and the sun's warmth on your face. We were thrilled to have sun because we spent the whole morning outdoors working in the garden!  We had three stations set up for the student teachers. 

Green onions are seeded!

Spring is slowly on its way: the crocuses blooming and the daffodils are up! And the field teams at the Orchard Garden have started green onions and leeks inside. The allium family, which includes, green onions, leeks, and storage onions, grow very slowly and mould from excessive moisture. In our climate, starting them early and inside is essential to make sure they mature in time. 

Sybil and Kate celebrating at the greenhouse!

Workshop Series #5: Sustaining the Schoolyard Garden

Last Saturday, the Workshop Series group looked at the practical issues about sustaining a schoolyard garden. We looked at questions like, "What should happen to the garden in the summertime when school is out?", "How best to work with the groundskeepers?", "How can we work with the Vancouver School Board?"

These are important questions for any teacher working to sustain a garden space. The group was privileged to be joined by an elementary school teacher Natasha, who has worked for 4 years to sustain her school garden in Vancouver, and Dolores from Evergreen, a charity whose mandate is to support new and continued use of green spaces on school grounds. These two women are an invaluable resource for the group.

As always, there was an outdoor component to the workshop, and Dolores led us outside to give us an example of an activity easy to do with kids - with or without a school yard garden. Another fun workshop day!

Participants were asked to look for living and non-living things in the natural space. 

Can you guess what these living and non-living things might be in this photo? 

Rain? A problem? Nah. Not for Dolores.
She passed around cardboard clipboards with plastic bags pulled over them. 

Workshop Series #4 - another success!

The Orchard Garden and friends rang in the New Year with the fourth Workshop Series on January 12th. By way of reminder, this Workshop Series is designed specifically for teachers-in-training, who want to learn how to include garden and outdoor spaces into their teaching, and importantly linking it to Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLO). PLO's are the standardized milestones that teachers are required to cover and meet each year with their students. 

This month's theme was centred around designing school gardens, the challenges and rewards of maintaining school gardens, and tips for how set new ones up. Our hands-on activity was using permaculture principles, compasses, and rulers, to map out areas of sun and shade in the Orchard Garden. We practiced this so that anyone wanting to set up a new garden will know how to assess where the sunny and shady spots are, and plan accordingly. 

Participants working together to measure the angle of adjacent buildings.  

Volunteer Team

Hello all!

We hope your new year is off to a good start. We would like to invite those of you that would like to become more involved with the Orchard Garden to the first meeting for interested volunteers next Monday, the 21, at 12pm in room 66 (just off Agora). This will be the beginning of a volunteer student management team that would take up 2-3 hours of your time per week devoted to care of our lovely garden. Team meetings will be held bi-monthly. There are also positions for events planning/communications volunteers, so if you're not so keen on working in the garden, there is other meaningful work for you to do!

We are really excited for this semester, and look forward to hearing your ideas about the garden and starting the first "club" of young agrarians on this campus! Please invite any peers you think would be interested. 

For more information, contact: The Orchard Garden Volunteer Coordinator <tog.volunteer@gmail.com>

The Orchard Garden office in late autumn light

While we were preparing for our Dark Garden Arts event and the TLEF renewal process in the Garden office last week, the late autumn sun burst through, low in the sky, and made everything golden. Even the foosball game was beautiful.

-Susan

An Outdoor Movie Screening

A big-screen outdoor movie night came to the Orchard Garden last week, through a joint effort by the Orchard Garden field team and the Land and Food Systems Global Resource Systems (GRS) program.

A Harvest Celebration!

On Tuesday October 2, we celebrated the harvest season in the Orchard Garden. It was a great day, filled with good food and good friends. We had music by Susan and Julia, some kolrabhi carving activities, an apple press squeezing fresh cider, and a wheat weaving workshop by Brian. A good time was had by all! Some visual highlights are below...

a sweet farewell...

 

This is my farewell post... and so I gift you with a photograph of my favourite new discovery in The Orchard Garden:  Green Gauge Plums.  Perfumey, golden flesh in a tight skin with a dusky bloom easily rubbed off on jeans.  These little fruits make my heart sing.

As I prepare for my new position teaching food and gardening to elementary students in Portland, OR, I'd like to reflect on the huge learning experience of working in The Orchard Garden for the previous year and a half.

And so, here are a few of my favourite photos (new and old) that will continue to inspire me and guide me in my new teaching position.

Hiring!!

 We are excited to announce that we are accepting applications for the following work study position (10 hrs/week):
Volunteer and Production Coordinator for The Orchard Garden (TOG)

If you meet the following qualifications, please send a cover letter detailing your interest and experience to: theorchardgarden.info@gmail.com 
no later than Fri. August 31, 2012!

Graduating, Hiring, and Growing!

Although classes are out right now, The Orchard Garden is in full swing!  We harvested 47 pounds of zucchini and 33 pounds of cucumbers for last week's CSA.  Our tomatoes and tomatillos are quickly ripening.  We're up to our eyeballs in bush beans and succulent chard.  This is the height of the summer!

Julia's Research Installation

 

If you haven't seen it yet, stop by The Orchard Garden to experience Julia's Ph.D. research installation that changes by the day, with the light, and the hands that tend it.  Flax is such a beautiful, practical and poetic plant in all it's forms (these photos predate Julia's latest 'human forms' on her desks).  Can't wait to see what's next...

CSA: Week One!

 

Garlic scape

 

Calendula

 

The sun came out just in time for our CSA to begin on the summer solstice last week!  We currently have 11 shareholders- 9 full shares and 2 half shares.  Last week the harvest began with greens, turnips & radishes, and potatoes.

This week I had the chance to help with the harvest and what a bounty it was... head lettuce, chard, cilantro, oregano, Asian stir-fry greens, kale, turnips, fava beans, garlic scapes, radishes, peas and calendula.

  

 

Fava beans (recipe to come)

 

Snap & snow peas

 

French breakfast radishes

 

Purple top turnips

 

Scapes...

 

and more scapes...

 

11 shares bagged and ready to go

 

Beautiful job, Jay & Natasha!