Back in June, the gardens of St. Cuthbert’s were among those featured in the Leaside Garden Society’s Magical Garden Tour. On that sunny Saturday afternoon, more than 200 visitors enjoyed sipping lemonade and meandering through the many pollinator gardens and the Community Vegetable Garden.
Kathi Davies is lead gardener of the vegetable garden, and this year, Linda Prue took over as lead of the flower gardens. Together, along with the Gard’n Angels, they managed to cultivate and produce what, I think, is their best gardening year to date.
People power
To continue their outreach operation for the Flemingdon Food Bank, the decaying lumber beds in the vegetable garden needed to be replaced. The team received a generous donation of two large, corrugated steel beds and purchased an additional four. But the labour to dig, move, build, and refill the new beds was intensive, and it wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of help.
“A huge thanks goes to the many volunteers, their regular crew plus the 69th Scouts, high school volunteers, and numerous community families and friends,” Kathi told me.
She also mentioned how a garden of this size always requires many hands, and this year, they got them. “Our Gard’n Angels happily welcomed a few more community folk who aren’t afraid to get dirt under their nails. Our ‘come as you can’ invite allows flexibility for those interested in contributing to this important food bank project.”
A healthy harvest
Our mild spring was favourable for early planting, and with no surprise storms or sudden frosts, the vegetable garden was off to a promising start.
The new raised beds were refreshed with worm casting soil and enriched with organic fertilizer, and then topped with a layer of straw mulch. With this winning combination, they reaped bumper crops of organic cucumbers (15-40/week), tomatoes (up to 20kg/week) along with bags of green beans, kale, lettuce and peppers delivered to the food bank every Wednesday. But it wasn’t easy.
Kathi told me how the recurring rains and record heat this summer were both a blessing and a curse. “Our cisterns were always full, but our volunteers were often wilting.”
The leafy vegetables didn’t like the extreme heat either and required protection with shade cloth.
Plant diseases and insect pests were minimal this year, but the squirrels, bunnies and raccoons loved the squash and melons.
The Angels will continue their maintenance and harvesting through October and will offer (for a small donation) their own organic seeds available in the St. Cuthbert’s lobby.
It’s been a long and demanding growing season for these mighty Angels, but as Kathi told me, the winter allows for reflection, planning, seed sorting and most importantly, a good rest before they begin all over again in April.
We’ll be happy when they do.
