Succession Planting Resources and Spring Activity Schedule

Developing a garden plan using new skills and the West Coast Seeds catalogue.

Last night's workshop on garden planning for all seasons was lots of fun! It was a great opportunity to learn from each other, and practice our new skills. Using the handy dandy (and FREE) West Coast Seeds catalogue as our "textbook," we learned to read a planting chart, demystified some common abbreviations, talked about different maturity dates, micro-climates, succession planting, crop rotation, and simple cold protection methods for gardening all winter.

Sharing our gardening tips/frustrations/observations was really useful, and I'm looking forward to future gardening workshops. The group identified organic pest management, vertical growing strategies, and greenhouses and hotbeds as potential future topics. Stay tuned for announcements about gardening workshops this summer.

Meanwhile, if you couldn't make it to the workshop but are still interested in different strategies to maximize your harvest, here are some of the resources I used to put the workshop together:

1. Handy West Coast Seeds vegetable planting chart.

2. West Coast Seeds Herb and Flower planting chart.

3. ATTRA's simple guide to succession planting, including a chart template that can be adjusted to your growing space. ATTRA's got some pretty great free publications and webinars, so definitely visit their general site for additional resources.

4. West Coast Seeds Winter Planting Guide.

5. Oregon State University's guide to winter gardening in the Pacific Northwest.

Spring 2012 Activity Schedule

Wed. March 28
5-8:30pm
Community Kitchen
Collingwood Neighbourhood House

Sat. March 31
10am-2pm
Seed Swap/Sale and Raffle
Collingwood Neighbourhood House

Wed. April 4-
Wed. Oct. 10
5-7pm
Every Wednesday
Rooftop Garden Volunteering
Collingwood Neighbourhood House Rooftop

TBA – check back
(weekday)
9am-11am
Pruning and Spring Fruit Tree Care
Slocan Park Fruit Tree Circle
(Slocan Park***)

Sat. April 7
11am-2pm
Pruning and Spring Fruit Tree Care
Norquay Community Learning Orchard****

Sat. April 21
3:30-6:30pm
Introduction to Permaculture
Collingwood Neighbourhood House

Wed. April 25
5-8:30pm
Community Kitchen
Collingwood Neighbourhood House

Sat. May 5
2-4pm
Cultural Food Exchange and Dialogue Panel
Collingwood NH
(co-hosted by City of Vancouver)

Mon. May 12
1-3pm
Diabetic-Friendly Desserts
Renfrew Park Community Centre

Thurs. May 17
5:30-8:30pm
Potluck and Movie Night: Food Inc.
Collingwood Neighbourhood House

Wed. May 30
5-8:30pm
Community Kitchen
Collingwood Neighbourhood House


*Collingwood Neighbourhood House: 5288 Joyce St.. 604 435 0323
**Renfrew Park Community Centre: 2929 E22nd Ave.. 604 257 8388
***Slocan Park is located right next to 29th Avenue Skytrain Station.
****Norquay Community Learning Orchard: 2732 Horley St..


Flax seed sprouts and pizza production, together at last.