Garden Lore

Here is a collection of tips, expert advice, recommendations, and other helpful garden lore contributed by our members.

Winter Gardening

Winter Gardening

A community gardener who has retained their plot for next year gets a wonderful bonus. It's called winter gardening. Here in the Pacific Northwest, with a little forethought, we can grow a great deal of food between the end of September and the beginning of April....

Improve Your Soil

Improve Your Soil

Our Garden Talk guest on September 24, 2017 was Marina Gibson from the Day 1 Urban Farm Community Garden Project. She shared plenty of great ideas to get the most our of garden plots. Here are a few of them. Build up Soil with Lasagna Gardening Marina’s urban farm was...

Maggots, Miners and Bees

Maggots, Miners and Bees

To help up with our knowledge of garden insects, here’s another set of photos from Tracy Hueppelsheuse, our local entomologist and community garden member. The photo above is of a cabbage root maggot feeding on a radish, and shows the boring damage caused.

Beetles and Weevils

Beetles and Weevils

Are you ever curious when you come to the garden and find something has been chewing your plants? Tracy Hueppelsheuse, a fellow ACG gardener who also just happens to be an entomologist, shares these photos of a few afflicted plants and the insects that caused the...

Effective Use of Mulch

Effective Use of Mulch

Since we have an abundant supply of mulch provided by the City of Abbotsford Parks Department, it is timely to discuss the use of this in your garden plot. We have a large pile located on the east side of the greenhouse. The Mulch What is it and what are its...

Potato Harvesting Tips

Potato Harvesting Tips

When are potatoes ready to harvest? Let the tops dry down on their own, and then wait another 7-10 days to allow the skins to thicken. This ensures the potatoes are injured the least from digging, and will store the best. If you want to eat the potatoes immediately...

Vole Trap

Vole Trap

If you've ever seen tell-tale tunnels in your plot, dug up your potatoes to find that most of them have been already eaten or turned over a stepping stone and discovered a nest of baby voles waiting to grow up and devour your produce, you understand why people search...

Garden Design Notes

Garden Design Notes

by Lolita Aumuller, president of ACG Below are some highlights from our Garden Design talk on April 25, 2105, by Nancy Moore, Landscape Designer (including the Q&A). Soil Avoid walking on, or working with, wet soil. Develop pathways to eliminate walking on soil in...

Food Safety in Community Gardens

Food Safety in Community Gardens

As bacteria and viruses are not easily washed off of fresh produce, limiting contamination is the best practice: By preventing the introduction of pathogens into the garden, risks of foodborne illness are minimized, increasing safety of the final product. Here is a...

Garden Talk – Potato Workshop

Garden Talk – Potato Workshop

On Thursday, May 1, potato specialist Marjolaine Dessureault, P.Ag Crop Consultant, gave her Late Blight Education Workshop. Gardeners learned about late blight and other important potato diseases and how to prevent the spread. Marjolaine provided us with a handout...