Sandown Hub Site Update June 2025

Posted on Monday, 30 June 2025 under Stories

We are delighted to report that all the beds at the Sandown Hub Site are planted!

With some help from Amy at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, we prepped the beds with compost and paper mulch to get them ready for planting the KPU dry farming trial vegetables. A few weeks later, on May 30th, we planted tomatoes, squash and beans for the dry farming trials alongside Naomi and Mike from KPU. Soil moisture instruments were lowered at 1,2,3, and 4 foot depths to better understand how the plants will access water with the soil moisture available. So far, the vast majority of the plants are thriving!

Amy raking out a bed in preparation for beans.

We also planted a variety of crops for this year’s medicinal crops project. Like the lettuce starts, they are still acclimating to their new home, but it’s always a joy to grow a new crop and get to know a new plant.

Freshly transplanted marshmallow for the plant medicinals project.

We have some beautiful beets that are going to seed from an overwintered bed of “Stripes ‘n Gold,” a diverse beet variety that’s bred from chioggia and golden beets. Their wild growth and heavy pollen musk are a nice mature contrast to the young plants that have just been planted or are just emerging on the rest of the site.

Beets going to seed.

On June 16th, we had our first harvest of a variety of collard greens. We learned about the Heirloom Collards Project at the Organic Seed Alliance conference earlier this year and are delighted to see how the different varieties perform in our climate. Our first harvests were delivered to the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, the Iyé Creative, and the Good Food Cultural Boxes.

Delivery of collard greens and some ashwagandha and tulsi starts to Ariel at the Iyé Creative.

And finally, the CANOVI heat-tolerant lettuces have also just been planted and are getting used to their new home in the soil after the summer solstice. We are looking forward to comparing this season’s results with previous years’ data and with findings from farms across the country.

 

Some freshly planted lettuces for the CANOVI heat-tolerant lettuces trial.