With the spectre of the swine flu lurking, I thought it was high time to grow our own vegetables. The kids would love seeing the food growing, learn about food production, and I could avoid paying $5 for five organic blueberries. I was going to follow Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening methodology, a way of increasing yield for a small space that would require minimal garden maintenance. Last November I received a quote from Ward Teulon of City Farm Boy for a raised garden bed, 6 inches deep, made of treated red cedar, 4 feet by 8 feet, for $685 plus taxes. This would include everything. I wouldn't have to lift a finger. The bed could be built from pine (much cheaper) which would last around 3-4 years, or oiled cedar, which would last around 10 years.
I spoke to a very helpful person at City Farmer http://www.cityfarmer.org/ and found out that I had missed all the seminars on urban gardening in the month of March. She tipped me off that seeds are sold out everywhere in Vancouver. Oh boy. I'm part of another trend. She directed me to two online seed order companies. She also told me that I could find blueberry bushes at David Hunter Garden Centres. In a frenzy, I snuck off to David Hunter while my daughter was in her drama class and bought four blueberry bushes and a kiwi plant. I didn't even have a garden yet. I figured I could just plant them in my rosebush beds. When I got home, I discovered that the kiwi plant was female and needed a male to produce fruit. Doh! I called David Hunter and put a male kiwi plant on hold for pickup later.
I researched how to build my own raised bed, and found that they are easy to build. Just cut up lengths of lumber, put together with deck screws, put in landscaping cloth to stop weeds, and load it up with soil! It wouldn't cost much, maybe $42 US per 4x4 box: http://allaboutsquarefootgardening.com/?p=9 I found great instructions at http://www.sunset.com/garden/perfect-raised-bed-00400000039550/ for a 4x8 box for $187 US. I still could not envision myself cutting the wood and loading it into my car at Home Depot. I decided to go the easy way and pay Ward to set up the thing for me. I sent off my cheque for a $300 deposit, and he picked it up the same day.
Crazy impulsive person that I am, on the same day I also ordered $27 worth of seeds from http://www.westcoastseeds.com/. Beets, celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes, spinach...
While checking my emails, I got a spam from Costco.ca directing me to their summer savings event. There, to my horror, I discovered that Costco carries an 8x8 raised garden bed kit , made with composite wood (60% recycled plastic, 40% wood flour), from Scenery Solutions for $360, delivered. It has a flexible configuration, with 4 foot sections and hinges that can be bent in any direction, so it seemed. This way I could get a 4x12 bed with a 12 inch depth. I called Ward immediately to call off my order with him. I ordered the Costco version on a Saturday night. By Monday, the item was no longer available at Costco. Maybe I bought the last one? I could find very little written about the Scenery Solutions bed, although I spent quite some time searching for reviews.
I picked up the boy kiwi from David Hunter, and also grabbed five strawberry plants at $3.50 each. I did some further research on kiwis only to find out that they really need an arbour built above them for the vines to climb up, and the kiwis would hang from the overhead beams. It would also take 3-4 years for fruit to be produced. Sigh. Also, since I did not buy hardy kiwis, the plants would need to be protected every winter should the temperature drop below 0F. This was more trouble than I had bargained for.
I am now waiting for the delivery of the package from Costco and the seeds. In the meantime, I need to look into how to get 48 cubic feet of mix into my backyard. The mix suggested by Square Foot Gardening is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost, and 1/3 peat moss. I need to figure out where to buy these amounts in Vancouver.
