Landless Under Attack!

The real dirt: City squashes front yard veggie plot

Published October 22, 2010, The Star

What constitutes a “natural” garden to the City of Toronto?

Grass, apparently. Just grass. Plus, perhaps a few flowers. But certainly not vegetables.

That’s what Sylvie and Vic Oliveira discovered this summer after they turned their Bloor West Village front yard into a vegetable garden.

The Oliveiras live at 26 Deforest Rd., on the corner of Runnymede Ave. It’s a big renovated house, which virtually fills their backyard. So last spring, they thought it would be fun for the family (they have four young kids) to grow some veggies and herbs in the L-shaped space that adjoins the sidewalk out front.

The kids were enthusiastic. The Oliveiras got busy. They planted a cornucopia of crops — tomatoes, eggplant, lettuce, cabbage, corn and herbs. And everything grew so well (the past long hot season was great for veggies) that their little corner-of-the-street experiment became a bit of a novelty in the neighbourhood.

“The neighbours seemed to like it,” says Sophie Oliveira. “No one complained to us. One lady even admitted snitching a ripe tomato and I told her I had absolutely no problem with that. The garden was here for all the community to enjoy.”

Their efforts looked so striking and different, I dropped by one night in August to compliment the family. That’s when I heard about The Letter. The Oliveiras had just received it from the City’s transportation services department — a terse missive demanding that they remove all the vegetable plants immediately and...

To access the full article click here.

Short of Land, but Not Ingenuity

Landless Gardeners in the news! HERE magazine sat down with one of our own, Andi Emrich, to talk about the group and our beginnings.


To access the entire article click here.

Bringing Food Home... De la nourriture de chez nous

More garden Wrap Up: Tuesday September 21 ***6:00p.m.***

We had a great day on Saturday digging, pulling and picking in the beautiful September sun and we are now well on our way to wrapping up for the year. Because of the whispers of risks of frost, we harvested all of the tomatoes, cucmbers, basil and other herbs, and the hot peppers... we even took out the rest of the potatoes as they are easy to store.

This means that there are a lot of vegetables for the taking! Loads and loads of potatoes and tomatoes will be brought to the Grey Street garden on Tuesday evening and are up for grabs!

Hope to see many faces out this Tuesday. here are the details:

When: Tuesday September 21 ***6:00p.m.***
Where: Grey Street Garden
What: a bit of harvesting and a lot of taking of vegetables

27 July 10

Our square-foot gardening is becoming a veritable checkerboard of greenery! Every week brings some changes as crops move from square to square, hopping skipping and jumping their way with each harvest and new seeding. This week's big mover - lettuce!



In a dramatic gambit, fresh lettuce transplants from our greenhouse at Conserver House take up three - three! - whole beds, in near-complete lock up of the entire east end of the garden.




Bravely bracing between the lettuce and the tomatoes, the onions stand ever tall



while the red cabbage just keep getting bigger and bigger, thicker and thicker and menacingly Audrey II-esque - be careful!



while the marigolds seem to be suffering from... something weird. Most flowers shine bright yellow, while others look like they've been hit by some kind of anti-marigold death ray. Zap!

The beauty of gardening, of course, is seeing the stuff you usually get on your plate, in its natural environment. Kind of like the special features track on a DVD, or a "making of" special. To wit - An Apiacean Adventure: The Making of Coriander - from plant



to leaf



to flower and seed



Can't you just taste that coriander goodness - how about a coriander pesto chicken salad whilst waiting for the basil to come out? (Speaking of basil - stay tuned, coming soon!)

Urban Gardening Workshop August 14, 2010

Curious about growing your own food? Ever wondered how a plant a garden? Have a

planting project and want to get advice from experts? Then this workshop is for you!

Falls Brook Centre, in collaboration with Landless Gardeners, will be hosting a workshop

on urban gardening. Farming guru, Shannon Herbert, with many years experience in

gardening and animal husbandry, will be leading the workshop. She will be providing

participants with an understanding of the ins and outs of gardening.

Topics covered in the workshop include: companion planting; urban gardening methods

and projects; backyard composting and vermiculture; beneficial insects; seed saving,

and; urban gardening as building activism. The workshop will provide an opportunity for

classroom discussion as well as hands on applications, so that participants can walk away

with the experience needed to start their own gardening projects.

If you have a garden project in mind, be sure to bring your questions and ask the experts.

This is your chance to get advice on how to make your project a success.

This weekend workshop runs from 9-5 both Saturday, August 14th. Registration fee is

$25 for the day. Lunch is not included, but the workshop will be a 5 minute walk from

Fredericton’s Farmers Market, or bring your own. Space is limited, so book your spot

today!

For more information on this workshop and to register, please contact Greg LeBlanc,

workshop coordinator – by email: greg@fallsbrookcentre.ca or by phone: (506) 375-

4310.

Companion Planting

This year, with a little bit of experience under our belts, we decided to try out some different techniques (like the square foot beds we wrote on in the last post). We wanted to learn about complementary plants before we planned out what crops to plant where. Companion planting "...assist in the growth of others, be it attracting beneficial insects, naturally regulating pests, repelling harmful insects, providing nutrients, part of a biological pest control program, and in some cases simply a shaded microclimate or climbing support" (Wikipedia).

A little research on the web gave us an idea of what to plant with what and as was mentioned in the last post, the square foot beds would be perfect for mixing crops.


Here are some of the companions you might try:

* Lettuce & Carrots
* Onion & Lettuce
* Peas & Beans
* Cucumber & Beans
* Beans & Carrots
* Beets & Sage



This season, we started out planting some of the above companions.. but Mother Nature sometimes has other plans. As the season has progressed, we have noticed a few beds where our seeds were not germinating. Because of this, we were able to put into practice one of the big lessons we learned last year about growing a garden: If it doesn't grow, move on!

Last year, we ended up with a lot of empty spaces because we kept hoping plants would germinate--if only we gave them time. However, as we have learned, the season in central New Brunswick is short and sweet. When something is not growing, a gardener should get in there and replace it. You could call 2010 the Landless Gardeners' "year of being ruthless"--we give seeds the time they need to germinate but if nothing comes up, we put in a new crop! This type of ruthlessness has meant our companion planting plan has definitely strayed a bit. Perhaps next year when we have learned even more about our soil and sun exposures, we will be able to plan even better.