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Hello Lakeside gardeners!

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Kingston Area Seed System Initiative (KASSI) http://seedsgrowfood.org/. They manage a collection of local heirloom seeds. They have a partnership with Lakeside Community Garden to grow out and save their seeds. They are also looking for donations because their main fund raising event (Seedy Saturday) was cancelled this year!

KASSI is looking for volunteers who will manage one or two or more of their eight plots at Lakeside. Anyone interested please email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com

Cathy is holding two orientations and planting sessions this weekend: 10am on Saturday May 23rd and 4pm on Sunday May 24th. If these times don’t work for you, we can arrange another time.

This task has been added to the Membership Task List 2020 as item 15, and please add your name to the Task List Sign up Sheet too!

Check out these details from Cathy:

• The Kingston Area Seed System (KASSI) has eight beds at Lakeside that we grow out for seeds. We plan to grow out one crop in each bed so that we have enough plants to ensure genetic preservation. One variety of tomatoes will take two beds.
• Attached please find the instruction sheet that Cathy made to help anyone who is growing seed in the KASSI beds at Community Gardens and the varieties that we hope volunteers will grow out this year.
• It might be easiest if people volunteered to take care of a bed or two or three or more 🙂
• With the exception of the tomatoes, we grow all of the other crops out for seeds so there wouldn’t be any food to share. But we are always willing to share KASSI seeds with KASSI volunteers without asking for the usual sliding scale donation as long as they are willing to grow them out for seeds and food. And we can coach them about that too!
• Volunteers tending the tomatoes can harvest them for food and seed. I’m hoping that we can share the tomatoes with everyone in the garden as long as they are willing to collect seeds to give back to us! Or to keep and share with others!
• Of course KASSI is willing to provide support and coaching to anyone who needs it!
• And it would be good to get other gardeners at Lakeside growing open-pollinated seeds that they can save. I would be happy to do a workshop to help people learn how easy it is to save seeds. KASSI could provide seeds for those gardeners without requiring a donation for anyone who is helping out with the KASSI seed gardens.
• For anyone else- KASSI really needs donations this year because Seedy Saturday -our major fundraiser- was cancelled as you know!

-Dan

Hi gardeners!
Welcome to the 2020 gardening season!

We are officially opening the garden Saturday May 9th. However, given the current state of emergency in the province, we won’t be allowed to operate as we normally do and must comply with restrictions and preventative measures developed in consultation with the Kingston Community Gardens Network, local garden representatives and KFL&A Public Health. 

BEFORE entering the garden, you MUST read and ANSWER THE QUESTIONS in the Lakeside COVID-19 Safe Operating Guidelines & Agreement. 

New Members: Welcome to the garden! A board member would be happy to meet you on site to give you a tour, show you your plot and show you where everything is. Just email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com we’ll set up a time to meet.

Plot Assignments: Here is a map of the garden with plot assignments. If you have any questions about your plot assignment just email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com.

Volunteer sign up: We won’t be able to hold work bees this year due to COVID-19, but Dan has put together a wonderful list of volunteer tasks. Please READ the task list and SIGN UP here for tasks you’re interested in helping out with. If you have any problems with the sign up sheet, just email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com.

Hand washing station: Tom built a hands-free hand washing station for you to use when you enter and before you leave the garden. You can find the station next to the shed. 

Bathroom facilities: With COVID-19 restrictions, Sharing Centre is closed and so we have no bathroom facilities this year. 

A few reminders

• Compost is available at the North end of the garden. Please limit compost use to 4 wheelbarrows/plot/season. A new load is being delivered Monday.
• NO personal vehicle access or deliveries are allowed. Occasionally delivery vehicles access the site. If there are any vehicles on site, please ensure you & your children stay safely away.
• Lots of woodchips available at the North end of the garden. You can use these on the pathways or to mulch your plot.
• If there are any broken or missing tools/hoses/nozzles, please email the board. 
• All motorized devices (ie lawn mower, rototiller) requires a waiver. Email the board for more information.

Happy gardening!
LCG Board

Community gardens recognized as essential source of local food

On Saturday the provincial government announced that “[community] gardens are an essential source of fresh food for some individuals and families, including those who face food insecurity.”

However, in order to reopen, we must wait for local public health guidance and agree to adhere to their public health and safety measures.  “Local medical officers of health will provide advice, recommendation and instructions that the gardens must meet in order to operate, such as physical distancing, and cleaning and disinfecting commonly used equipment and surfaces.” Stay tuned!

St. Mary’s Cathedral adopting the donation garden

St Mary’s hot meal program is expanding their free meal programming and will be growing food in the plot formerly managed by Lunch by George. They have a team of 10-12 volunteers, all experienced gardeners (including some experts) who will be working on this project.

Food forest planting Welcome Garden this spring

Continuing with our Phase I food forest plan, this spring we’ll be planting the Welcome Garden in the SW corner. We’re expecting an order from Whiffletree to be delivered after the May long weekend. If you’re not yet a member of the garden, you can get involved in the food forest by emailing lakesidefoodforest@gmail.com.

We also received a grant from Tree Mobile/Orchard People. We’ve postponed delivery of the fruit trees until Spring 2021, but one of the food forest volunteers will be taking the Orchard People fruit tree masterclass and sharing what they learn here on this blog.

Gardening for good (#Garden4Good)

Loving Spoonful, KASSI and Rideau 1000 Islands Master Gardeners are launching a Garden for Good campaign. On their new Facebook page you can make a pledge to #Garden4Good, sign up as an ambassador to support novice gardeners or share your your #MyGarden4Good story on social media.

Lots of learning opportunities

To support Gardening for Good, the master gardeners have created a vegetable gardening resource page and a list of local gardening resources on where you can get seeds, soil, plants, cover crops and soil testing.

Janette Haase, local organic gardener and author of Seed to Table, is hosting small group coaching on vegetable gardening every Monday. Register on Eventbrite.

Rideau 1000 Islands is hosting a weekly Ask a virtual master gardener. Each week master gardeners and their guests will answer questions on different topics. You can also ask questions on their Facebook page. This week Harris Ivens, a composting expert who gardens at Oak Street, is answering all composting for healthy soil questions. Watch his video to learn two great ways to compost right in your plot!

Yesterday the province of Ontario announced that all community gardens are closed due to COVOID-19. We are asking that Community Gardens be declared exempt as they are essential services for food production. Here is what you can do:

1. Please DO NOT VISIT THE GARDEN, it is closed until further notice. 
2. Sign the Open Letter asking the government to identify Community Gardens as essential community food services which must be exempt from the recently announced closure of recreational spaces by the Province of Ontario.
3. Email, call, write or tweet your MP, MPP, City Councillor & Mayor (contact information included below). Just Food in Ottawa has a suggested template.

The Board met last night and we are still planning for the gardening season. In fact, we will be opening up 10 new permanent plots. We will be reaching out to people on the waiting list. 

Mark Gerretson, MP

• (613) 542-3243
• Mark.Gerretsen@parl.gc.ca
• @MarkGerretsen

Ian Arthur, MPP: 

• Email: IArthur-CO@ndp.on.ca
• Phone: 613-547-2385
• Twitter: @IanArthurMPP

Wayne Hill, City Councillor for Lakeside:  (if you’re in a different district, you can find your councillors contact information here)

• Email: whill@cityofkingston.ca
• Phone: 613-328-5718
• Twitter: @WayneHill_YGK

Bryan Patterson, Mayor

• mayor@cityofkingston.ca
• Phone: 613-546-4291
• @MayorPaterson

Get ready for the 2020 gardening season & for Seedy Saturday by learning why seeds matter & how to be successful starting your own seeds.

Every garden, every wildscape, every forest starts with a seed. Starting your own plants from seed is a lot of fun and allows you to grow a wonderful variety of heirloom, unusual or locally adapted seedlings for your vegetable garden or wildscape. And it’s a great way to save money!

Learn how to:

• Read a seed packet (and why it matters)
• Start vegetables, herbs, edible flowers and fruit
• Save and share seeds
• Create your own soil mix
• Start seeds in soil blocks

Hands on:

• Making soil blocks

Handouts/resources:

• 5 quick takeaways on sourcing & starting seeds
• Make your own soil recipe
• Seeds from KASSI to plant and share

Facilitator: Cate Henderson from Kingston Area Seed System Initiative (KASSI)

Bring a supper dish to share!

Register on eventbrite to let us know you’re coming (we have a limited number of spots).

Think Like a Forest workshop series

What does our food system taste like? Why should we empathize with earthworms? How does a forest think? Forests are dynamic, resilient living beings connected in community.

During this time of climate chaos, become part of the solution. Forests can become our teachers for new ways of seeing and interacting with the world. As we learn how to think like a forest, we can awaken our senses, reshape our food system and discover new ways of sustainable being and doing that support the long term flourishing of Earth.

This workshop series explores our relationship with food, soil, and the wild beings with whom we share this land. If we learn from the wisdom of wild forests, from each other and from our experiences on the land, we can become wise Earth stewards.

Think Like a Forest workshop series sponsored by Rideau 1000 Islands Master Gardeners and Kingston’s Food Forest Network, including:

• Lakeside Community Garden
• Oak Street Community Garden

Follow up this workshop by visiting our local seed growers and celebrating local seeds at Kingston’s Seedy Saturday. Saturday March 14 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at LCVI.

“I wanted to do something to benefit climate change. Everyone says the best thing you can do is vote, but I don’t think that’s enough. I want to do more. I figured, having something where you’re planting trees and things that are absorbing carbon is a great way to do it.”

Dan Robinson, Volunteer Food Forest Steward

On Saturday November 9th around 20 volunteers, Queen’s students and community members gathered at Lakeside to plant, mulch and water 11 new apple trees, 2 chestnuts, 1 shagbark hickory, 30 berry bushes and 2 grape vines. These joined the 3 sour cherry trees, 3 pear trees and 2 plum trees donated earlier this the fall.

Wondering why we planted in November? Trees and shrubs grow most of their new roots (some studies say 80%) in the fall. Because trees and shrubs no longer have to make leaves, berries, shoots or flowers, all their energy can go into developing their roots until the ground freezes. And in spring, once the soil thaws, they can also put their energy into roots before it’s time to leaf out at which time their energy shifts to developing their leaves.

Eight students from Queens, from Engineers Without Borders, came to help, bringing with them coffee grounds from the Tea Room, inner tubes from bicycles and milk cartons to help plant the forest.

Councillor Jim Neill helped plant

Councillor Jim Neill, who put forward the original motion that made community orchards possible, joined us with his shovel to dig holes. 

We warmed up afterwards over a feast

The press came to see what we were up to

Read the Whig’s article here: Food forest project puts down new roots

Listen to Joyce Hostyn’s interview with Wei Chen on Ontario morning: Ontario Morning – Friday November 8, 2019 – Part 3 | Ontario Morning from CBC Radio with Wei Chen | Live Radio | CBC Listen starts at 3:45 minutes

Global News also covered planting day… they aired it on Saturday evening. I’ve heard it was a great piece, but didn’t see it.

Thank you so much to our wonderful sponsors

Our sponsors, with their incredible generosity and community spirit, made planting day possible. Thank you so much to each of you:

• Burt’s Greenhouses for strawberries and herbs
• Canadian Tire for 10 fruit trees (3 sour cherry, 3 pear, 2 plum, 2 sweet cherry) and 30 berry bushes (blackcurrant, haskap, goji berry, aronia berry and gooseberry)
• Rideau 1000 Islands Master Gardeners for 11 heritage and disease resistant early, mid and late season apple trees (Redfield, Freedom, Greensleeves, Liberty, Norkent, Pristine, Rebella, Sweet Sixteen, September Ruby, Wolf River, Wynoochee Early
• City of Kingston for a $250 donation
• Riley’s Garden Centre for two grape vines (concord and muskat) and a red gooseberry
• Ontario Hydro for keeping us supplied with load after load of soil healing wood chips
• Bread & Butter Bakery for keeping our energy up with a delicious selection of baked treats

Planting day at Lakeside Food Forest

Join us Saturday November 9th at 10:00 am to help plant a food forest at Lakeside Community Garden.

If you’ll be joining us afterwards for a hot lunch, please fill in this poll so we know how much food to have on hand.

What we’re planting

• 11 apple trees: Redfield, Freedom, Greensleeves, Liberty, Norkent, Pristine, Rebella, Sweet Sixteen, September Ruby, Wolf River, Wynoochee Early (we tried to choose a variety of heritage or disease resistant early, mid and late season apples)
• 20-30 berry bushes: blackcurrant, haskap berry, goji berry, aronia berry and gooseberry
• 2 grape vines: concord and muskat
• 4 nut trees: chestnut, shagbark hickory and maybe a black walnut or bur oak

What else we’ll be doing

• protecting our new apple trees (foam insulation or mounding sand to protect the graft then tree guards)
• protecting the larger pear and sour cherry (bring wire snippers as I’ve salved some old wire hardware cloth)
• staking our bare root trees
• working a bit more on the paths into the nut orchard, fruit orchard and the south west welcome garden

Dress warm, the high is zero degrees!

Thank you to our supporters!

Thank you to our supporters:

• Rideau 1000 Islands Master Gardeners for 11 apple trees
• Canadian Tire for 10 fruit trees (pear, plum and sour cherry) and 30 berry bushes
• City of Kingston
• Riley’s Garden Centre for two grape vines and a gooseberry
• Burt’s Greenhouses for strawberries and herbs
• Ontario Hydro for keeping us supplied with soil healing wood chips

On a beautiful fall Saturday morning at Lakeside Community Gardens, Harris Ivens, from Grounded Business Solutions, a plant biologist and expert in the field, shared his approach to composting.

People with varying levels of gardening experience were on hand to listen, learn and begin a compost pile. As a novice gardener, I have done my best to summarize the key points below in a format familiar to many of us, and hopefully practical and covering the key points.

What is compost

Think of compost as free fertilizer! You take organic material such as kitchen scraps, garden debris, coffee grounds and leaves grass trimmings, build a pile and add a couple of magic ingredients that help beneficial bacteria, fungi, worms and other organisms to turn it into a nutrient-rich fertilizer.

Compost ingredients

• 1 part green matter (chop up large pieces using shovel as you add). Greens include vegetable and food scraps, fresh grass clippings and yard waste, coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells (dry & grind eggshells).
• 5 to 10 parts brown matter (chop up using shovel as you add). Browns include dried leaves, grass, mulch or hay, cardboard rolls, sawdust, shredded newspaper, hair, fur, clean paper and wool or cotton rags.
• Magic ingredient: a generous sprinkling of soil (< 1 part). Soil has the microbes (soil fauna) that will do the work as well as the minerals your plants need to be healthy!!! Soil also helps ensure your compost pile stores carbon rather than releases it to the atmosphere.
• Water: Generous supply of water. You can leave the hose running as you build the pile.

How to build a compost pile

1. Collect and store brown material to use as needed.
2. Plan the location of your compost pile. Ideally it should be in a sheltered area, say under a tree or near a hedge, to retain moisture and so microbes can migrate over into the compost pile.
3. There should be space to be able to turn the pile it at least once.
4. Start the pile with a layer of sticks or woody plant stems like sunflower or corn stalks heavy-duty stems to allow continuous air-flow (oxygen is another magic composting ingredient)
5. Begin to build your compost pile in the ratio described above
6. Depending on the height of your pile, you can occasionally layer in additional woody material to keep oxygen flowing
7. Ensure a good soaking of water. You should be able to pick up a handful of material from anywhere in the pile and when you squeeze it, get about one drop of water. (Water is a distribution highway for microbes in the compost).
8. Monitor the pile: Continue to add water periodically as needed.- Conduct the “smell test”. Place a stick into the middle of your pile. If it stinks it should be turned. (Turning helps redistribute the microorganisms that are doing all the decomposing)
9. Your compost is done when there are no more earthworms and your “smell test” come out sweet

Composting tips

• To avoid attracting rodents make your compost pile unattractive to them by chopping up and spreading out any food that may entice them and keeping your compost pile in “good working order.” Encourage decomposition as described above.
• To manage excessive flies, add more soil
• To help retain moisture (the soil microbiology need moisture to do their work) cover with an old “ratty” tarp, that allows water and air flow
• If your compost is high in carbon because of where, when and how it was built and you think it needs additional nitrogen, mix a nitrogen source like bone meal into the finished compost and then let it sit for a few days, making sure it’s well watered and covered with the “ratty tarp” mentioned above to let the soil biology go to town on them
• To manage weeds which may remain viable in your compost, mulch after applying your compost with woodchips or straw.

Note: If you are working with manure, weeds or other pathogens, heat will be important to creating a healthy compost. This process requires a more complex approach

And the most important tip of all

And one final tip from Harris:

“there are really no rules to composting except that it smells good and you are having fun!”

~Harris Ivens