Author Archives: Chrystal

Yesterday evening I accepted my friend’s invitation to visit Strathcona Community Garden. This is the third year that she has had a plot at the garden, and her space contains more food than my garden does. She has a green thumb … Continue reading →

A green bean advisory has been issued for the lower mainland. To help mitigate the risks of vegetable abundance, residents are advised to pick all beans and zucchinis as early and as small as possible and to consume immediately. Residents are advised to consult … Continue reading →

Umberto Pasti published an essay about gardening a few weeks ago in T magazine and also on the NYT blog. The line that resonated most with me is this: “The only piece of advice that, after two decades of gardening, … Continue reading →

We are in the raspberry days of summer and have been picking a huge bowl every second day. Many don’t even make it into the bowl – they just go from branch to hand to mouth to stomach. Some days … Continue reading →

I can’t get enough of poppies. Currently two types of red ones are growing next to my driveway – regular red poppies and super-red poppies. I was going to select for the super-red poppies by pulling up  the regular ones, … Continue reading →

A few months ago I wrote about how The Man was going to convert some of our existing lawn to “meadow” as a way to save on water and to hopefully prevent another chaffer beetle infestation. At this point in time, … Continue reading →

My friend Nav came over this Saturday to meet all 40,000 of our pet bees and to participate in the biweekly hive inspection. After putting on the super fashionable bee hat, she helped Bryn by gently smoking the hive to … Continue reading →

On the weekend we decided to take a break from working in our own garden to visit the nearby UBC Botanical Garden. That garden is always a source of inspiration and every time I am there I notice something new. … Continue reading →

I love peas, but normally don’t have much luck growing them. This  year I planted Oregon peas from West Coast Seeds. Every day I have been harvesting a huge handful of snap peas which we’ve been eating raw with hummus … Continue reading →

Raspberries are my absolute favorite fruit. I devote more time and effort into caring for my raspberry bushes than any thing else in the garden. The first raspberries started to ripen earlier this week, but I didn’t see my first … Continue reading →