Pender Organic Community Garden Society

06/14/2026

After a week or so of cooler temperatures and the occasional period of rain, the temperatures have begun to climb. By 10am this morning it was getting noticeably hot, definitely t-shirt and shorts weather. The garlic is getting ready to harvest, in fact, the soft neck varieties are beginning to flop. The under-gardener has already harvested most of his soft neck garlic, but mine still have a way to go. The speculation as to why…My row of soft necks was planted deeper than his. The first signs of rust have appeared, not a problem as the garlic has done most of its growing and all of it will likely be harvested by the beginning of July. The first tomatoes have appeared on the Paul Robeson variety, a new one for us. Apparently, it is a Russian heritage variety. The history of the tomato and its name made for interesting reading. People’s squash plants have begun to bloom. The lettuce in several plots looks amazing and everyone’s peas are in full flower. Before long there will be peas to harvest, unless they get eaten raw right in the garden.

06/01/2026

This weekend’ weather was perfect for the gardeners in the Pender Organic Community Garden, not too hot for vigorous digging and with the occasional breeze to cool people down. It at this time that the garden seems to come alive. People’s crops are growing swiftly and already some people are harvesting early broccoli. Peas are flowering, some with tiny pods. Our carrots are finally growing vigorously and this weekend they got thinned. Since the smell of carrots attracts the carrot fly, the carrot bed got sprinkled with left over peppermint coffee. The garden smelled better than the coffee ever tasted! My grandfather always used coffee grounds to deter carrot fly and it really seems to work. Everyone’s garlic is looking good. The Under-gardener has already harvested some of his, an Asiatic soft neck which announced that it was ready to harvest by falling over. A lot of the garlic is producing scapes, which most growers snap off so that bulbil formation doesn’t take strength from the bulb. If the soft necks are any indication, it looks as if this will be any early year for harvesting garlic.

05/19/2026

Yesterday in the garden.

05/19/2026

The Victoria Day long weekend is the traditional time for gardeners to get their plants in the ground and yesterday saw a flurry of activity in the Pender Organic Community Garden. A family of new gardeners were busy weeding the plot they had just taken over. They had decided they want to grow peppers and yesterday they put up a mini greenhouse to help give the peppers the heat they like. Other gardeners were planting a variety of seeds, including bok choy, beans and peas. Our plot saw the addition of three more tomato plants and three more cucumbers that the Under Gardener had grown under lights in the basement. There had been a lot of leaf lettuce coming out of the garden as more gardeners have been trying out various kinds. At least one gardener is on her second crop. Our local nursery, Raven Rock, likely still has a good supply of little lettuce plants ready to be transplanted. Seed hybridizers have been working on developing more heat-resistant varieties so we can expect to see a lot more lettuce for a longer period.

05/15/2026

Today in the garden.

05/15/2026

Today was supposed to be the day when our tomatoes got planted in our plot in the Pender Organic Community Garden. But it was a bit cool and the tomatoes looked a bit small, so they are still at home waiting for the weather to warm up again and for them to do a bit more growing. Other gardeners have already put in tomatoes and they are all looking good and are much larger that the ones we have been growing from seed. If you visit local hardware stores, Canadian Tire, in addition to various plant nurseries, you will find various varieties and sizes of tomatoes, some already tall and lanky and eager to get their roots in the ground, while others are small with only two pairs of true leaves. Since it is best to plant tomatoes deep (after removing the lower set of leaves) taller ones allow for a deeper depth of planting, which encourages roots to grow out of the buried stems. Once the weather is more consistently warm and sunny, the tomatoes will start growing rapidly and before the gardener is aware, the tomatoes will be flowering.

05/06/2026

Yesterday in the Pender Organic Community Garden was a scorcher! The temperature reached 26 degrees and it was only May the 4th, more like a hot day in late June. Today was a bit cooler but still well beyond seasonal norms. With it being so warm during the day and with night time temperatures in the low to mid-teens, the first of the baby tomato plants left its pot and got planted. We have others growing under lights which are still a bit too small, but local nurseries have lots and lots of interesting varieties of tomatoes in 4-inch pots ready for people to try. The plants might need to be hardened off for a few days if they are fresh from the greenhouse before they go to the garden. Most transplants will benefit from a bit of shade until they get used to the blazing sun. Cucumbers will be next. The original plan was to put them in a mini greenhouse, but with this kind of warm weather, a mini greenhouse would be more like a mini oven!

04/21/2026

This morning at the Pender Island Community Garden was a lot cooler than yesterday and a better day for any heavy work. Yesterday it was already 18 degrees in the garden by 11am and had reached 22 degrees by 1:30pm. Almost summer temperatures and we are still in April! People are beginning to put in transplants and our local nursery, Raven Rock, already has tomato seedlings! It looks as if we are in for an early start to the year. Five more rows of Red Zeppelin onions were seeded. The first seeding on March 14th re now tiny whisps of green about two inches tall while the white onions, Fortress, planted on April 6th later still haven’t poked their heads out. The beets are up, but there is still no sign of either the first or the second sowing of carrots. Much of the early part of the gardening year is spent watching and waiting. And if the weather gets hot, watering!

04/10/2026

The clouds seem to be moving in today, but the past week in the Pender Island Organic Community Garden has been like a foretaste of summer. Clear blue skies and warm enough to garden in a t-shirt. Time to get out and do some serious weeding. Of course, if you cleaned your beds after harvest in the fall and thoroughly mulched, you won’t have too many weeds to deal with. If you planted garlic, check for weeds in and around them. Garlic is a heavy feeder and weeds compete for nutrients. Speaking of nutrients, now is a good time to fertilize your garlic. Several gardeners already have healthy looking peas. So far, no sign of carrots or beets (except for the overwintering ones) in any of the beds, but it won’t be long. Onion seed can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked, which actually happened in February. There haven’t been any really cold spells this winter and if the warm weather continues without much rain, gardeners will need to come to the plot regularly to water in order to ensure that all their baby seedlings don’t die of thirst. And so it begins…

03/16/2026