STRATHCONA COMMUNITY GARDEN
Some of the things that got done at the garden in the summer of 1997,
by the gardeners, Environmental Youth Alliance and E-team
garden house
- built greywater system, got solar system and composting
toilet functioning
- learned how the systems work
- made system signs and installed them
- built gravel path to house and washroom
- cleaned up building rubble, rocks
- broke up large piece of concrete
- finished drywall and woodpaneling
- built window seats and drawers
- painted non-wood exterior
- began landscaping around the building
- house committee worked out decisions about security,
insurance, design, furnishing, landscaping, lighting
- found cabinetmaker for the Beautiful Cupboard
- house had its first use hosting women and children's
No to APEC conference
berm
- scythed grass on the street side
- removed blackberries and dead broom
- planted edible chestnut trees
- cut grass on garden side
- found a berm coordinator at last, worked out berm plan
funding, publicity, education and politics
- MP, MLA and mayor came to open house,
- people visited
- funders, dignitaries and us folks, probably twenty people,
cut ribbon to open garden house
- honey sales
- plant sales 1200.00
- house fundraising by EYA (this spring alone)
- fundraising committee set up
- afternoon childrens' group did crafts and looked after
orchard trees
- raycam summer camp group took on a plot
- vietnamese gardener Phuong Tu on nationwide broadcast
of The Canadian Gardener
- hosted small workshop for the international convention
of Critical Geographers
- usual abundant Sun coverage before open house
- new newsletter editor
- EYA publications about the house project
- a lot of supervising and welcoming with e-team crews
from abbotsford
- made and set up name signpost at main entrance
wild area
- planted saskatoons, hazelnuts, viburnum, salmonberry,
cornus mas, hawthorne douglasii, highbush cranberry, caragana, thimbleberry,
dove tree
- cleared blackberry and thistles
- cut back path edge and weeded path
- cleared dead underbrush
- mallards raised chicks to adulthood probably for first
time
- built up path and leveled it
orchard
- woodpiles cleared to the bottom of the field, wood sorted
into burnable and junk, burnable wood kept for sweatlodge group
- all trees kept weeded and mulched with grass clippings
- construction rubble cleared away from around green shed
- smoothed out earth dumps from construction
espalier
- set new section of posts and wires
- removed strawberries and weeds in espalier, planted rubarb
- rebuilt edgeboards on three sections of path next to
espalier
- pruned and manured extensively -- best crop ever
compost
- planted dove tree beside the signboard
- cleaned up massively for open house
- turned and finished containers of compost
paths and water
- paths got weeded for the open house that had never been
weeded in eight years
- water source on south path got investigated and rerouted
- broken pipes fixed
fences and vinewalk
- planted clematis on vinewalk post next to garden house
- weeded bindweed on fence
- repaired section of vinewalk edgeboard
toolshed and tools
- bought new handles and repaired spades and rakes
greenhouse and nursery area
- brick paths rebuilt (edges need to be finished)
- plants potted and tended for open house sale
- greenhouse cleared out, potting table built
- rose cuttings taken for berm planting
- seedlings grown out for herb garden and plant sale
- nursery area meticulously weeded for open house
- fig tree managed to ripen a lot of figs
herb garden
- planted fifty? kinds of seeds and raised them in greenhouse
- major pruning and clearing among the pines
- dug in water jar behind north side seats
- collected twenty kinds of seeds
- repotted selfseeded plants for plant sale
- took rose cuttings
- usual tank-cleaning, path weeding, manuring, weeding
- hosted a wedding with bagpiper
- new coordinator learned two hundred plant identities
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