Monday, April 28, 2014

Carpentry Sheds for sale

It's shed time again!The ACSS ACE-IT Carpentry Apprenticeship students are finishing up the construction of 6' x 8' garden sheds and they are for sale for $850.00 –our cost of materials.This price includes delivery and setup as well, so it's a nice and easy thing for you!Delivery can be arranged for the 2nd and 3rd week of June.Take a look at the attached photo to show you the details as follows:(attached photo is a slightly smaller shed at 4' x 8', everything else being equal)Comes with a framed floorSolid 2 x 4 constructionReal plywood sheathing – no cheap substitutesLarge double doors: 4' wide x 6'-6" highMay be placed against a house/wallFeel free to pay us a visit in room 166 and see them for yourself, or forward this email on to anyone else you might know that would appreciate this offer.Thanks for your support,Andy Gaumont



Sunday, April 20, 2014

Gardening Tips for April & May


  • If you are adding peat moss to your acid-loving plants, soak it with warm water first. Otherwise it has a tendency to remain dry and unabsorbent. An easy method is to empty the peat moss into a wheelbarrow or bucket and pour the warm water over it until it is damp. Mix it well into the top few inches of soil so that it doesn't have the chance to dry out again.
  • It is time to plant peas and beans, spinach and lettuce. Choose a shady spot for the last two: otherwise, if we get a warm spell, they'll go to seed very quickly.
  • Do you have a shrub that hasn't leafed out yet? Not sure if it died over the winter? With your fingernail, scratch down the side of a stem. If you see green tissue underneath, that stem is still alive; if it looks hard and brown, it's dead.
  • Have you forgotten the name of a plant in your garden? Or seen one in someone else's garden that you'd like to get for your own? Take a photo on your smartphone or netbook, and bring it to the next meeting. One of our experts will help to identify it for you.
  • The annual Plant Sale at VanDusen Botanical Garden is on Sunday, April 27, 10:00 - 4:00. This is a great chance to find all kinds of plants, common or unusual, at very good prices, including the Melliodendron tree that Egan Davis spoke so enthusiastically about at our last meeting. If you are on a tight budget, there are always great bargains in the Pot Luck section. Take a cart, tray or box (your blue box works well) to carry your purchases.
  • As a bonus, entry to the Garden is free on that day. Park your purchases in the Plant Hold Area and take a stroll through one of Vancouver's most beautiful gardens before you leave.
- Christine Allen

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Garden Club members get 10% discount at Figaro's Garden Centre and Magnet Hardware on the Drive

Wonderful news! If you are a member of the Grandview Garden Club and show your card at either Figaro's or Magnet Hardware, you will get a discount on your gardening supplies.
Magnet will give you a 10% discount on everything garden related except for Sea Soil, which they already sell at their cost as a loss leader.
Figaro's will give you a 10% discount on everything except seeds.
It's lovely that the garden-supply places in Grandview are supporting our gardening efforts!
Cheers,
Penny

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Fantastic First Meeting!

Hi Grandview Gardeners!
We had our first-ever meeting tonight and it was a grand success! Sixty or seventy people were there to hear our guest speaker Egan Davis give us some good ideas about how to tackle seemingly impossible tasks in the garden. Everyone enjoyed it immensely.
Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 21st, also at Astorino's Hall (on the corner of Venables and Commercial). Everyone is welcome, of course. Membership for the year is $20 or you can pay $4 per meeting if you prefer to drop in occasionally.
We welcome suggestions of topics or interesting speakers.
Cheers,
Penny Street

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Our Second Meeting! Wednesday, May 21st!

“CONTAINERS AND HANGING BASKETS”

The featured speaker for our May 21st meeting will be Pat Logie, who will talk about preparing and planting containers and hanging baskets. Pat will also demonstrate how to plant a moss basket — which one lucky member will take home at the end of the evening! 

Pat Logie is a member of the Great Plant Picks Perennials Committee and a former president of South Surrey Garden Club. Pat was raised on the prairies and moved to the west coast in 1965. In 1985, after raising her family, she decided to pursue horticulture, and obtained a certificate in Basic Horticulture from Douglas College in Langley a year before it became Kwantlen College. After working in garden centres for two years, she started her own greenhouse growing operation in Richmond. She grew mostly annuals & some perennials for a variety of Garden Centres in the Vancouver area, and created containers and hanging baskets for businesses such as Steveston Landing and Morgan Creek Golf Course. In 1994, she moved to an acre of property in South Surrey and continued to grow for contracts until 2007, when she retired to concentrate on her own garden. She still grows annuals and baskets in her Victorian-style greenhouse, both for her own enjoyment and for the South Surrey Garden Club's annual sale.