Don't sleep the summer away! Come out to the engaging and informative talks at the Means of Production Garden! This summer MOPARRC has partnered with Evergreen to give some fabulous talks at our garden. We've had two so far and there are two more to come. They are informal, in depth talks with plenty of opportunity for dialogue, so to tempt you to come to our August talks, I will present some sneek peeks at what's gone on so far.
(BTW this is a mystery plant that's popped up in one of our beds. Anyone have any idea what it is? It's sprawling and over five feet tall.)
Erin, a student intern from Evergreen presented a talk on growing your own sprouts at home and she brought us some tasty treats and the recipes.
This is the correct angle to tip the jar while growing your sprouts.
This was a delicious sprouted hummus we got to try. We also sampled some incredible bliss balls made with sprouted almonds. Helen from Evergreen is going to be blogging in depth about the talks, so I will post a link to those blog posts soon.
The talks are from 6-8 pm in the garden and people are encouraged to bring a picnic supper if they like.
Those who come early can pick ripe berries from the garden!
You can watch the summer mason bees carry mud and pollen to their condos.
You can relax to the sound of the honeybees in the blossoms.
Last week we had a fantastic presentation by Todd DeVries who is an accomplished cedar weaver.
Todd told us about his journey of discovering his art through a special vision and meeting other weavers and Haida elders.
I gave him some New Zealand flax from the garden and he quickly braided it and twisted it into a small rope.
Hats take about a month to make, and are finished in unique ways that are a part of the artisan's and the tribe's signature.
This hat was made with two contrasting tones of cedar.
I love this contemporary application for an ancient skill--the water bottle holder.
As I walked home from Todd's talk I took some photos of the linden trees blooming on Broadway while a crow warned me away from her nest.
There you go! Now don't miss our final two talks:
August 4, 6-8 pm, MOP Garden
Travis Warren Landscape designer Travis Warren will be discussing ways of increasing habitat for birds through plant choices, what different bird species add to biodiversity and how to foster a variety of birds in backyards and community gardens
Aug. 11, 6-8 pm, MOP Garden
A Greener Vancouver – Native Plants and Creative Restoration: Stephanie Levy, Project Manager at Evergreen, will give a presentation on the native plants of Lower Mainland, the creative solutions Evergreen has used as part of its restoration work, and provide some thoughts on how to make Vancouver a greener city.
A couple of years ago I discovered this plant at VanDusen Gardens. It was tucked way in the back west and I was thoroughly charmed by the brown and yellow variations in the blossom heads. I finally figured out that it is elecampane, or Inula helenium. It was one of the featured flowers at VanDusen Gardens last week and so I was able to identify it. They have planted a stand of it near the front entrance along with a bunch of other plants that bees love.
In looking for information on elecampane I discovered a website from the Pagan Rights Coalition that gives very detailed information on the medicinal benefits of this plant. Elecampane has been used to treat skin problems in farm animals, and bronchial, heart, and blood sugar ailments in humans.
The name elecampane comes from the belief that Helen of Troy carried a bouquet of the flowers when she was kidnapped by Paris. Some of the other names such as scabwort and horseheal come from its treatment of skin diseases in sheep and horses. Some other olde worlde names include elf wort, elf dock, velvet dock and wild sunflower.
Since it is in the sunflower family, one might expect that the leaves and flower heads can be used as a yellow-green dye. I have a pot of flower heads on the boil right now. A few plants ended up in the MOP garden as a wee gifty from the fairies. We don't know where they came from. Since the bees love them, I collected flower heads that were fading and wilting and left the more robust heads as a source of nectar and pollen. Some sources suggest that the roots were used in traditional Scottish dyes, perhaps as a mordant to be used with "blaeberries." Another source, digherbs.com cites using the roots as a dye with "whortleberries" and ash. I will have to experiment with that after we've collected some seeds. The plants seem to thrive here, so if you have a large garden, it would be worth trying to grow these. Nicholson's Herb Farm has a good blog post on propagation tips for Inula helenium. In the mean time, please look for the flowers at VanDusen Gardens or the MOP and have fun watching the bees!
