Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society provides grassroots leadership and an inclusive process, with a voice for all community members, to ensure that our community grows and develops in a way that incorporates an environmental ethic, offers a range of housing and transportation choices, encourages a vibrant and cultural life and supports sustainable, meaningful employment and business opportunities.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Community Gardening

Messages from Shannon

A reminder about our exciting workshop coming up this weekend: Luke Kimmel's Wicked Raised Beds. This workshop will give you hand's on experience building a wicking bed and we'll use re-purposed freezers. This technique could, however, be replicated with a number of different materials. The beauty of the wicking bed design is the lower maintenance - in the heat of summer, it turns daily watering duty to once a week. Think of all the spare time that you can dedicate to other things :)

The Workshop is 10-4 this Saturday, April 25 at the Public Produce Garden.
Cost is $45 and includes in-depth hand-outs. Volunteer bursaries are also available if cost is a barrier. Please be in touch with me if you are interested in that option.
A poster and diagram that does a good job explaining the idea of a wicking bed attached.

Registration and more info:

Luke's website:



The Garden is coming alive quickly and looks great already! Stop by and have a wander through if you haven't made it yet. A few things we're looking for this year if you happen to have extras:
- seeds! (pretty much anything that you have in excess)
- perennial herb transplants for the herb spiral (anything you have that could use dividing: we already have a lot of oregano and chives)
- asparagus starts (if you happen to have a huge patch :)
- seedlings (any excess you have as the season goes on - as always, the Garden is happy to take)

You can expect to see a few improvements over the next month, thanks to funding from CBT Community Inititatives (many of which you are welcome to be involved in realizing):
- compost bin transferred and moved along fence
- 2 new gates installed (1 beside playground, 1 beside apartment building)
- shade cloth installed on pergola
- new 'end tables' under pergola
- reinforcement of gravel walkway and edging to slow grass encroachment
- disabled parking sign installed by City directly in front of gate

Sophie will be taking over for me completely at the end of the month and she will keep you up to date on all organized Garden events, including group work bees. We've already got a row of peas in the ground, strawberries transplanted, a new compost built, and a fresh load of manure to top up our garden beds. Thanks to the Boys and Girls Club, KEY program and Leigh Cormier's grade 10 class for accomplishing all that!

Feel free to get in touch with any questions and as always offer up ideas or feedback on what you'd like to see happening at the Garden.

Hope to see you there soon :)

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