Edible Landscaping at the Municipal Hall
A food garden in front of the municipal hall is being harvested this August. The garden, along with the nearby hedgerow of native plants, demonstrates a variety of plants that can be grown locally. The garden will eventually be comprised of sunflowers, kale, green and purple lettuce, French and English lavender, artichokes, black and red currants, chives, rosemary, daylily, Echinacea, gooseberry, purple potatoes, rhubarb, sage, loganberry, blueberry, pumpkin, thyme, thornless blackberry, raspberry, tomato, borage, fern, grapes, huckleberry, nasturtiums, Oregon grape, salal, scarlet runner beans, strawberries and goji berry. See page 27 of the
Whole Community Agricultural Strategy
for more local food producing plants.
An orchard of 40 apple trees will be planted next spring. Two of the varieties, johnigold and king, have a long local history. The apple trees, including Chehalis and liberty varieties, will be 2 year old branched trees on M26 root stock. Some fruit is expected in 2013 but the full crop of potentially 50 pounds of fruit per tree is expected by 2015.
Be mindful of the motion-activated sprinklers that defend the garden outside of office and meeting hours. The senses of rabbits and deer will also be assaulted with foul smelling Plantskydd Deer Repellent.
The District’s policy for allocating the harvest prioritizes donation to the food bank. Staff are also selling the garden’s produce to raise money for United Way. If you have an orchard you are not planning to harvest, you may contact Lifecycles’ Fruit Tree Project, which runs teams of fruit pickers to send neglected produce to food banks.
Beautiful Food is on Display at the North Saanich municipal hall. Backyard gardeners and hobby farmers –practitioners of non-traditional agriculture- are an important part of life in North Saanich. The District hopes that passion and knowledge for agriculture is shared among citizens and transferred to the next generation.
The Peninsula News Review
"North Saanich Blooms Eternal" article
has more on this topic.
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