Hollyhocks from Seed!

Thanks, Mr Smathers, for sharing your windowsills TWO years ago - yes, that's right.  Hollyhocks, collected from neighbours along Ontario Street and James Street near 29th are bi-annuals.  That means they take two years to bloom.  When the seeds were collected, we didn't know what colours the bloom stalks would be.  See for yourself the variety that  made it through their baby seedling stages!

Thanks also to the watering families - that watered these tiny things last year.  There are so many people watering this year that everyone only has to do a little bit.  You can sign up for a day, a week or a day of the week, but we think Lisa has it covered!  Even when it rains, those planter boxes get thirsty.  Any Sparetime parents are  most welcome to join in the watering routine (since its so close!)
generalwolfegardens@gmail.com  Thanks to Lisa for scheduling.

Pollinator Boulevard

The bees are a buzzing... we counted over 200 bees on one boulevard by Ontario at 26th!

and we have two new yellow flowers that are bee friendly

Did you know we need our pollinators?  Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, Mason Bees, Lady Beetles, flies, many different insects are needed to keep our plants fertilized.  In fact, we couldn't grow many foods without them!  Jerry Seinfelds'  The Bee Movie is a fun family film about pollination told by the view of a bee played by Jerry.  For a rainy day (which won't happen very very soon - the sun, we promise, is coming soon to this neighbourhood!)

On that note, watering families are needed to help fill out the summer schedule.  If you have a half hour and a day or a week or a day of the week you'd like to water around wolfe, please email generalwolfegardens@gmail.com

Gardens Around Town

Check out some interesting planter box projects around Vancouver.

• Brock Elementary - with help from SPEC - Society Promoting Environmental Conservation
• Cambie @ 2nd - look down from the Cambie bridge by the police station
• Rogers Arena Sole Food - 100's of vegetables growing
• Mt Pleasant park - where the former community centre was - new gardens popping up
• Emily Carr Campus orchard - along Great Northern Way

Some good summer camps:

• The World In A Garden 57th and West Boulevard, by Choices in South Kerrisdale
• Southlands Farm 'Young Farmer' camps Southwest Marine Drive with all the horses, its such a gentle place transported into a world full of beehives, orchards, gardens, berries, pizza ovens and the new BCAA covered picnic area.  Frogs, dogs, ponies and ponds!Young Farmers - southlands farm

What's growing?

Potatoes (getting very tall now!), Beans, Corn, Hollyhocks, Fennel, Wild Bee Balm, Sunflowers, Catmit, grasses, horsetail, Oregon Grape, Wild Rose, Lupines and of course, Sunflowers.

Sunflowers popping up in the neighbourhood,  Fennel in the planter boxes

SUNSHINE is just around the corner... the last 2 summers when the high system moved in, it stayed and we are almost there!  The watering families remember :-)!

Kindergarteners get to work

With our classroom set of trowels (thank you to our funders!), two kindergarten classrooms from the Annex got to work and planted the seedlings they had so carefully grown in their windowsills.

Thank you to all the parents who came out and helped protect the 'babies' while being planted!  Any family wanting to help water this summer please contact us at info@generalwolfegardens.com

When those Grade One's return in September, there may be sunflowers taller than their teacher!  They also planted the popular 'Teddy Bear' variety and tasty nasturtiums.

When one boy was asked to move along, he stared at the seedlings and said "But we like them so much!"

This Just In... (the planter boxes!)

Speedy Grade Seven's filled 20 feet of planter boxes in 30 minutes!

 They will be Superstars to the Kindergarten class that will plant on June 1st!

 They even had time to protect the circle bench seedlings

Getting some hands-on experience with the classroom learnings about soil composition, we made a mix! Mature compost, lawn clippings, boulevard trimmings, mushroom manure, potting soil and top quality soil from West Creek Farms was combined to create nutritious organic soil.  These planter boxes will be able to support plant life for years to come.  Glacier Rock Dust is one of the ingredients.  westcreekfarms.com

Moving Mountains

Grade 7's will load the parking lot planters applying their knowledge about soil ingredients.  We will combine soil, lawn clippings, mature compost, potting soil, and leaves so those planters will yield nutritious foundations for gardens in the future.  Two years ago we unloaded a dump truck full that was spread around the back garden to nourish the 'naturalized' play area.

Two Kindergarten classes will plant their seedlings into the planter boxes that the Grade 7's filled.  These boxes are similar to the ones they have been constructing at Tupper Tech to leave a legacy project behind.

The soil photographed here is from West Creek Farms.  They sell quality organic soils.  We even had to wash our tires coming into the facility - to keep foreign weed seeds out of their products!  www.westcreekfarms.com