This is a general call out to all gardeners who have a particularly photogenic garden and would like to see photos of their garden and it’s creations in the Vancouver-based GardenWise magazine. I’m looking for 2 types of gardens to photograph this Summer:

1. Vancouver Community Gardens ~ this is pretty self-explanatory; looking for a wide variety of people and ages who have plots in Vancouver community gardens. You don’t have to have the best garden in the group, more interested in capturing a variety.
2. A bountiful, spacious home garden either in Vancouver or on Vancouver Island ~ specifically I need a ‘well forested’ area to set up a scene, colourful garden furniture and decor, porch with container gardening (definitely with florals and edibles could be included as well). You may be ok with being photographed in the background, and may have a dog or cat that wouldn’t mind being included as well!

If you have anything listed here, please email me or call me at 1.866.964.8066.

Thank you!

A short time ago I received an email rom the Food Policy Team at the City of Vancouver, and as the deadline is looming I wanted to make sure you all knew about this possibility for..get ready for it…you to have your own garden plot!

An initiative tied to the Olympics, frown if you must, but only good things can come out of the establishment of 2,010 new garden plots, right? C’mon now! I’m all over this because this year some fellow tenants in my building got together and started our own community/building garden plot, and I’ve been growing my own food since April ‘09 and lovin’ every minute of it.

© 2009 jackie connelly

Here are the details:

“2010 Garden Plots by 2010 is a challenge to encourage the creation of 2,010 new garden plots in Vancouver by January 1, 2010, as an Olympic legacy. The challenge was issued to individuals, families, community groups and neighbourhood organizations in 2006 to help establish more food-producing gardens in the city.”

The email continued on to say that several potential sites for new food producing community gardens have been identified and the City of Vancouver is currently seeking applications from community groups to manage them. If you or your organization is interested in being part of the 2010 challenge by helping to create a new community garden in Vancouver, submit an application to communitygardens@vancouver.ca by October 31, 2009.

So how do you apply?

Applications can be submitted for one or more of these potential garden sites. Please note that successful applicants must be one of the following:

A registered non-profit organization, co-operative or strata council; or,

Sponsored by an existing registered non-profit organization, co-operative or strata council

Questions about the RFP can be directed to Erin MacDonald at communitygardens@vancouver.ca

To download the Request for Applications, please visit www.vancouver.ca/gardens.

© 2009 jackie connelly

The building I live in is awesome in so many ways. To start, Artech is where I live and work, so commuting is a non-issue (yay!) except of course when I have to shoot on-location, but that happens just enough to mix things up a bit. Then, our building has amazing recycling facilities downstairs which was a major plus coming from the old-school apartment we were living in last year. And now, on the heels of Mayor Robertson’s new garden, we’re building one of our own! There is this long and somewhat narrow plot of unwanted city land behind our building, right up against the concrete wall of the building actually, that a bunch of us in the building have decided to figure out how to make this work for growing our own food, and I am totally pumped about it! Divided up into individual plots, possibly as big as 10×10, in the coming weeks we’re going to research, build, plant and grow.

A huge thank you to Megan for taking the reins in getting this going, and I’m sure we’ll all have to put in alot of blood, sweat and tears (are there blood, sweat and tears in gardening?) for it to be successful but I know we can do it! I promise to photo-document the entire process, from the ridding of the blackberry bushes that currently reside there (apparently a rototiller will be needed), to the first sprout of a bean or a squash or a strawberry, to the first home grown meal we’ll have this summer. And everything we learn about gardening along the way I will of course share. First up on the list: this March snow needs to stop.