The Friends grow organic vegetables, including summer and winter squash, sugar snap peas, spinach, lettuce, leeks, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, cucumber, garlic, beans, beets, and perennial fruits here. Proceeds from vegetable sales to members contribute to the Friends operating funds. A weekly selection of seasonal produce is allocated to the Lieutenant Governor and salad greens are provided to Rudi’s Tea Room.
The garden yields about 3,300 pounds per year. The Friends donate 10 percent of this to a volunteer-run organization that provides nourishing meals to community members in need.
Our Vegetable Garden’s Radishing Gift
The vegetable garden volunteers with their latest donation of 82 bunches of radishes to the food bank at the Anglican Church of St. John the Divine in Victoria. Says Mary, Vegetable Garden co-ordinator, “Our goal is to provide nutritious, organic, freshly picked produce at below market value for Friends members as a thank you for being a volunteer. When we have extra, we consider our local community’s food security needs. St. John’s clients usually don’t have access to fresh produce and we consider it a privilege to be able to offer ours.
“We select the food bank/charity kitchen based on need and our own volunteers recommendations . “Once or twice each year, we send produce to charity. It amounts to about 300 pounds or 10% of our total production.”
Not All Volunteer Gardeners Get the Glamorous Jobs
Intrepid vegetable gardeners seen here tackling tree stump remains. Iris Thompson-Glen (in background), from left: Patricia Hultman, Patricia Bluemel, Dorothy Pitt, and Charlene Graham.
Putting the Beds to Bed
Winterizing the Vegetable Garden
For the 10 to 12 vegetable garden volunteers, their work days for two to three weeks in the fall consists of ensuring the beds are ready in the spring to once again produce 3,000 pounds of vegetables for sale, donation to a local food bank, or for use by Government House chefs.
Brian Dallamore lifts one of the many wheelbarrow loads of aged cow manure as Patricia Brach lets him start away first before they both return to the beds
Mary starts the last crops or fall crops no later than the first week in August as most of the fall crops need from 30 to 60 days to mature.
Says Mary, “As each row is harvested for the last time, we start putting it to bed by doing one last weeding, then we put down a layer of aged cow manure compost. Next, we use a spading fork (like a pitchfork, only with short tines) and pull some of the soil up through the compost.
“This brings the compost and soil in contact, spreading the microbes so they can begin to break down the compost into usable nutrients.” As each area is finished, the volunteers pull large sheets of black plastic over the entire area and anchor them.”*
Mary says, “I enjoy working toward nurturing and sustaining our community. I’ve been at the vegetable garden for 11 years and treasure the friendships we build while doing this really physical work.”
* “We use the black plastic to preserve the nutrients in the soil and the biology by keeping the beds drier and warmer, so when we start in the spring the compost has become our new soil,” explains Mary.
