Garden Club – Farmers on 57th

Bird’s nest in the raspberries

sarah June 30, 2021 August 13, 2021Garden Club

At the Pearson’s residents Garden Club we have a robust thicket of raspberries which brings us great berry joy. One day whilst picking we heard a ‘pip, pip’ bird sound from the bush. Turns out it was the parent bird trying to draw our attention away from its nest, which was balanced in the bushes, about chest height. Such pretty coloured eggs. It is a white-crowned sparrow nest. We all gathered round, and showed pictures and videos to those who couldn’t see the nest from their wheelchair. Sharing such discoveries make them even more special!

Pandemic pivoting

sarah July 13, 2020 August 13, 2021Accessibility, Community, Flowers, Garden Club

It has been awhile since we’ve reported from the Garden Club at the George Pearson Centre the long term care facility site, home to 114 residents with disabilities (and abilities, such as green thumbs!) As we all know, 2020 was a very different year, after about mid March. It was tough. We at Farmers on 57th were poised to run another glorious season of therapeutic gardening in partnership with Pearson….when everything stopped. Pearson was locked down to outsiders that weren’t considered essential. At first, family and friends could only visit their loved one through the window. In the end, despite…

Accessible Pathway Renewal Complete!

sarah February 5, 2020 May 14, 2021Accessibility, Community, Garden Club

Hello! Sarah here, reporting from the Therapeutic Gardens at GPC. I’m pleased to share that the pathways around the gardens here have been renovated so they are once again smooth. Farmers on 57th built these gardens in 2009, and the pathways were last renewed in 2015. In 2019 we noticed they were getting reallllly bumpy, and some residents felt uncomfortable and unsafe when going around the gardens in their wheelchairs. It wasn’t exactly an easy job, with our accessible surface being heavy rubber mats that don’t shift when wheelchairs grip them. They were all lifted up, the ground re-leveled, and…

Hiring Summer Horticulturalist

karen June 24, 2019 June 24, 2019CSA, Garden Club, Get Involved, Growing Eden, Opportunities, Summer Student

Farmers on 57th|Assistant Urban Farmer & Horticultural Therapy Program Coordinator Vancouver, BC Name of Facility: Farmers on 57th: A Community Integrated Urban Farm Location: Main location at 57th @ Cambie Street; second satellite location at 7710 Nanaimo Street Start Date: Flexible start date, 8 weeks of full time employment (30 hours/ week). Start by July 1, 2019. Hours offered: 30 hrs/week Compensation: $13.85/hour. This is a 30 hour/week position for 8 weeks. This is a Canada Summer job posting, so the successful applicant must: be between 15 and 30 years of age at the start of the employment be a…

I just want to grow Flowers

sarah October 24, 2017 October 25, 2017Garden Club, Programs, Volunteer

We asked him if he wanted to grow carrots. NO. Beets, NO. Peas, beans, zucchini, no no no…parsley, tomatoes…the list went on. To each he shook his head, almost imperceptibly – but definitely a no. We begin Garden Club each year with a seed starting gathering at the end of March. We try to figure out what each Pearson resident gardener wants to grow from the vegetable and flower seeds that we have. Having exhausted our list of vegetables, I went through the flower options: Calendula, Cosmos, Sweet Peas…and here, the brightly coloured pictures of the promised flowers appeared to…

Green Monster & Fruit Punch Season at Garden Club

August 4, 2016 August 9, 2016Garden Club

The gardens are in full swing at George Pearson Centre. This week during Garden Club, in the Pearson Resident’s therapeutic gardens, we harvested multiple heirloom varieties of apples, beans, peas, mint, kale, zucchinis, and carrots. We tested out two new harvest smoothie recipes: Green Monster and Fruit Punch. Green Monster won best colour. Fruit Punch? Best taste, hands down! See recipes below. Pearson residents have flowers blooming everywhere in the garden here, from sweet peas to verbena, roses, cosmos, double cosmos, and many more! It’s a joy every Tuesday 1-3pm throughout the growing & harvest season making bouquets, sipping smoothies, and…