Still plotting...

Last Saturday saw an enthusiastic crew descend on our two newest plots to till the soil and add copious amounts of manure. The work was made easier by the use of Mr. Langille's tiller, as the machine ate through sod to leave us with healthy (and hopefully fertile) soil.

Now that the beds are formed, there's just one more important thing to do... plant something! The next step is to plant seeds and transplants at three of the four gardens on Saturday June 13 at 9:30am , starting at the garden on the corner of Church and George.

In light of this project being a learning experience for many of us first-time gardeners, it's only appropriate to share some of the lessons learned.
Among the lessons learned:
1) The benefits of gardening do not extend to immunity from sunburn. Wear sunscreen.
2) It's okay to be knee-deep in sh!t, so long as you're gardening. (Your vegetables will thank you for it.)
4) Roto-tillers save many hours of (wo)manual labour. Try to make friends with people who own roto-tillers.
3) A long day is best finished drinking a cold beer with friends.

As for next Saturday, we'd love to see you out! Even if you've never joined the Landless Gardeners before, you're welcome to meet us at the corner of Church and George to dig in and get planting. We've got the equipment, just bring yourself.

Plot One: Up and Running!

Greetings from the garden!

The Landless Gardeners have found land! We spent our first Saturday on the Church Street plot with shovels and pitch forks turning over sod to prepare the ground for a summer of growing food.



As the old saying goes, many hands make for light work, and that certainly has been the case over the last couple of weeks. Gardeners have been showing up in droves to get their hands dirty and now we've got something to show for all of that digging. The plot is now planted with a variety of veggies--cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, carrots, onions... (check out our garden map).

We had a lot of fun experimenting in the garden and getting some helpful hints from a veggie guru. We learned a few things:

- Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant (and other veggies, we're sure) need to be started early indoors.
- It is too late to start indoor plants now for our climate in New Brunswick so we're going to have to plan our other plots accordingly by planting veggies that can just be started in the ground.
- Transplants (we did aquire some tomatoe, eggplant, and pepper plants) need to be heavily watered after being planted in the ground
- ... and Alpaca poo is a great fertilizer to pump up the soil!



After our day in the dirt on Saturday, a few of the Landless Gardeners headed over to Renaissance College to take part in a "round table" discussion on food security in Canada. Alex Atamanenko, agriculture critic for the NDP, has been travelling the country talking with communities and getting input on what food and agriculture issues are on the minds of Canadians. There was discussion on GMO foods, the biofuel industry, international trade, food labelling, conventional and organic farming. Afterwards, Mr. Atamanenko took time to visit our plot and hear about what the Landless Gardeners are doing in Fredericton.

Overall, it was a great weekend for food growers!


We would like to invite anyone interested to our next meeting: Tuesday May 25, 7:00 p.m. on the lawn at Renaissance College (811 Charlotte Street). If its raining, come meet us at the Lunar Rogue. Hope to see you there!

The Landless Gardeners

Fredericton, meet the Landless Gardeners

This post is going to end by talking about building a community of local citizens. A networked group of people to have fun, share their experiences and knowledge about growing food in the city. One of the many purposes is to share efforts and create a welcoming atmosphere where people can learn while doing. The benefits--in terms of exercise, participation, nutritious food, friendships and fun--are all easy to talk about and important points.

But we are going to start by talking about our name.



Names can be important and we wanted ours to be informal, informative and relevant. We wanted to suggest two things when hearing it: That there is a number (we hope large) of people who want to grow food and that there is a shortage of land set aside for the purposes of growing food. With all of the land (lawn) space in the city, our thinking went, perhaps some people in the community would, if they thought the idea to be good, allow a portion of their lawn to be planted with food?

The basic setup we propose is:

1. Allow us a small plot of your front yard
2. At harvest time, you as provider of the land, get 10% of the food grown.

There is absolutely no requirement for the person who donates the land to do any of the gardening work although of course it is not prohibited!

What we provide is:

1. All of the materials and labour.
2. A rain barrel positioned under a down spout to collect water.
3. Beautiful vegetables!

Our hope at the end of the season is to have a block party where we cook the food and invite the neighborhood to celebrate with us a successful grow season. We want to have as much involvement of people as is practical. We are an all ages, all levels of experience group. We have people participating who have tended gardens their whole lives as well as those who are have never grown any type of plant at all! So if you walk by and see us at a plot and have suggestions, advice, or just want to check on what we are doing please feel free to stop and talk!

Of all the things we want to do -- have fun, grow food, learn skills, exercise -- it is the community of people that we hope will form and the friendships made that will last longer than any of the produce we grow.

For anyone curious about our plans or has an idea for us please contact us a landlessgardeners@gmail.com or post a comment on the blog.

Happy growing season,

the Landless Gardeners