Images from the Garden on Earth Day 2014

The garden today, Earth Day, April 22, 2014

mint

fennel

rhubarb

kindergarden potatoes

potato planting 2014

Gardening is cyclical, and once again, it is potato planting time.  A lot of divisions planted up tubs of potatoes in their classrooms, so that they can get a head start, and hopefully the harvest will be bountiful in June.

Pear tree planting

On March 14 Roger Philips brought us a Sierra pear tree, that had been specifically grafted for the QE Orchard Garden.  Green School came out to help plant it.

the 2013 harvest festival

Harvests from our gardens

The Great Potato Harvest

June 18 every class who had planted potatoes came out to harvest.  Organized chaos!  The tubs were dumped out, potatoes gathered, counted and weighed.  The results put on a beautiful chart, created by our UBC Education Practicum Students.

This year yields were low - approximately 25kg, of mainly small potatoes.  There were a number of probably reasons - poor soil, growing conditions, watering issues, weather issues, and timing - a few more weeks and the crop would have been much better.  Catriona Gordon from SPEC often says that one of the greatest challenges for the school garden program is the short growing season of September to June. 

Still the potatoes will taste great roasted up by parent volunteers for the harvest festival on Thursday June 20.

Garlic Harvest

On June 5, Green School, and the UBC Practicum Students harvested most of the garlic.  The crop was great, big juicy bulbs, which were headed for the kitchen to be made into delicious garlic bread by Claudio and his team, for the upcoming harvest fest.