My gardening goals for this year are concentrated on learning more about seed saving and increasing the variety of foods I grow in my vegetable garden. I’d also like to keep extending my perennial flower collection across seasons, eventually having colour in the garden year-round.
I’ll be replacing a few plants, like the thyme that died mysteriously last summer and perhaps building a vertical squash structure if I’m feeling ambitious. Mostly, though, I’m going to try and take advantage of some of the workshops and seed swaps that are happening in the next few weeks. I think it would be great to connect with some Vancouver gardeners.
Here are some of the things on offer around here this growing season:
Garden Basics
Village Vancouver offers gardening workshops across the city
VanDusen Botanical Garden has a range of courses for the budding horticulturalist
City of Vancouver workshops are affordable, basic skill-builders
The World in a Garden has great workshops throughout the season
Farm Folk City Folk‘s Knowledge Pantry is full of wonderful resources
A little farther afield, North Van has GardenSmart Workshops
There are a number of neighbourhood-specific workshops that are tied to food security and food justice: Grandview Woodland Food Connection, Renfrew-Collingwood Food Security Institute, the Edible Garden Project, and Cedar Cottage’s Seedy Saturday and Planting Workshop are a few examples
Victory Gardens’ workshops are well-regarded
Getting the Goods
Treekeepers provides $10 fruit and decorative trees to Vancouver residents
West Coast Seeds is a great source for organic seeds and their website is full of information – they also offer workshops
Salt Spring Seeds focuses on heritage and heirloom seeds
Sharing the Wealth
Advanced Adventures
City Farm Boy is for the ambitious urban farmer
Vancouver Urban Farming Society is a great resource if you want to make growing your business
UBC’s Landscape & Garden Design Programs
Extending the Season
UBC Botanical Gardens’ Year Round Harvest Workshop
Winter Harvest resources
There’s a lot more, but that gives you a sense of the Vancouver gardening landscape. Now, tell me, what’s happening where you live? Are there plenty of resources, workshops, and community connections? Or do you rely on online resources to find what you need?
One Wet Foot 
I’ll be excited to see what you do with the garden this year!
Thanks, Tricia! We’ll have a photo date or two in the garden this year, for sure.
Hi Teresa! I will follow your gardening projects and try not to be too jealous as I will passing on any new planting this year because of our drought ;-( I hope to hang on to the plants in my garden and am in the process of taking my front lawn out- what I will be doing will happen slowly and probably will only be hardscape this year but I love the seed catalogs and can still dream!!!! Please keep us posted with pics š
That’s hard – I hope the drought ends and your plants survive. I’m a big fan of taking lawn out on principle – native plant gardens are beautiful and make better use of water resources, but it’s no fun when you have to do it and you can’t replace it with plants. I promise to take some photos as the season progresses!
Teresa, I am anxiously waiting the planting season! You are so lucky to have so much gardening help in your area. I love the thought of a seed exchange. I always think of Canada as being quite coldā¦sounds like your area is more temperate. I have color from early spring till late fall. However, the only color we have right now is murky snow that is almost goneā¦thank goodness! Spring is just around the cornerā¦I can feel it! Enjoy all your planting adventures!
Our climate is similar to Seattle’s – the coastal region, including Vancouver Island, is milder and rainier than the rest of Canada and most of the northern US.
I hope spring reaches you soon!
I love seeing other people’s gardens š My neighbor across the street keeps a garden – I just like to stare at it…
We still have a foot of snow on the ground, but I know in a few short weeks that those first blades of grass will start to push their way up through the soil.
It’s been such a bad winter back east. The Maritimes just for hit with another storm. Hope it ends soon!
That should be just GOT hit by another storm – I’m clearly no cellphone typist.