Organic Gardening News

If you’re like me, the recent warm weather has spiked the immediacy of getting my food garden underway. It’s mid-April, daytime temperatures are in the teens, and hopefully, we’re past those sneaky night frosts.

I’m choosing the sunniest spots in our garden and using raised beds and containers for extra warmth in the soil so I can include a wider variety of cool-loving, early plants. My goal is to enjoy the earliest crops possible, as well as spacing out subsequent plantings for continuous harvesting, so I can still harvest late vegetables for Thanksgiving and beyond.

I will plant early seeds like radishes, peas, onion sets, and early potatoes now but mostly rely on pre-started transplants for other varieties, which will save me waiting weeks and months for harvest times.

I love pre-started lettuce and other salad greens because they grow so quickly this time of year. Butterhead and other Bibb lettuces like Buttercrunch are favourites, both for flavour and ease of harvest. Red leaf lettuce is perfect for adding colour to salads and sandwiches and Romaine varieties, like Green Towers, are the heart and soul of Ceasar salads. I’m also a fan of the blended lettuce mixtures like City Garden Mix, which has a good range of flavours and continues to produce all summer long.

It’s important to get greens like arugula started early as they will tend to bolt or go to seed when we get those sudden bursts of hot weather. The same is true of all those remarkable Asian greens and mustard greens. If you can find them already started in a four-inch pot, they will likely be ready to harvest just a few weeks after being transplanted.

Speaking of bolting, spinach is another crop that needs to be set out early. Fortunately, spinach varieties are all fast cropping, maturing anywhere from 30 to 45 days from transplanting started plants. The old standby is Bloomsdale Savoy, but there are many other varieties available today. It’s ideal to harvest as soon as the leaves begin to size up, because long days with higher heat will spark the bolting process.

Although not a true spinach, the well-known New Zealand Spinach or tetragonia tetragonioides, is a heat lover. It takes longer to produce, often taking up to 60 days, but will produce soft, tender spinach-like leaves all summer long.

Swiss chard is one of my favourite greens, not only for longevity in the garden and for the beautifully coloured foliage but also for the wonderful flavour. Both Celebration and Bright Lights are blends of red, yellow, pink and white stems, making them a garden showpiece.

Of all the brassicas, broccoli has always been a favourite. Purple-headed broccolis, like Summer Purple, are nice to spice up your salad plates. Most broccoli varieties will produce smaller side shoots if you cut out the central head when it’s young, providing a longer harvest. Now, the mini-head varieties like Aspabroc and Artwork, commonly called broccolini, have really become very popular.

Kale is still a hit in our younger gardening community. Not only are they the hardiest brassica, but they also perform well in hot summer. I love the Bor series, like Redbor, Winterbor and Darkibor. The latest trend is to let them grow large as garden specimens, which are especially attractive in fall and winter, while remaining edible.

Pure white cauliflower is a prized culinary specimen, and by making sure you have self-wrapping varieties you’ll be sure to achieve this. They also now come in vibrant purple, green and gold heads to add flair and flavour to any charcuterie board or veggie tray.

Cabbage is still popular, with smaller heads and faster harvesting varieties, like Fast Vantage, available today. Savoy types, with their wonderful, ruffled leaves, are the go-to favourite for cabbage rolls, and red cabbage is perfect for slaws, pickling and mixed salad plates.

Many growers are now starting beets, carrots and other root crops for transplanting. Beets produce wonderful greens for early harvesting, and as they are a fast crop, you can lift the younger “baby beets” to enjoy both the foliage and the smaller roots.

Onions are an early must-have. Multiplier sets will produce green onions only weeks after planting, and then all summer long. Although not huge, Dutch sets will produce medium-sized onions in early summer, so they’re great for a wide range of recipes.

If it’s the giant sweet Spanish onions you’re after, setting out transplants that have likely been started in January will be the fastest and best way to enjoy those spectacular giants in late August. Walla Walla is an all time favourite, but probably the best is a variety called Riverside Sweet Spanish. They are the most productive and have the best keeping quality of all the varieties. If you would like to show off just a little, then try either Ailsa Craig, or the biggest giant of them all, Kelsae. Not only are they sweet and wonderful, but they can reach the size of a soccer ball. In fact, Kelsae, which was developed in Scotland, holds the Guiness World Record for the largest onion — weighing in at 6.8 kg.

Don’t forget potatoes: Early varieties like Norland, Warba and Caribe can go in now for you to enjoy those fabulous nuggets in late June.

We’ll have to hold off until mid-to-late May to plant our warm-weather loving veggies, meanwhile it’s exciting to see the wide variety of cool, early vegetables we can safely get underway now. It’s a promise of some wonderful flavours, and somehow, when we’ve grown them ourselves, they always taste better.

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When Lauren Webb and Josephina Serra toured a Yaletown condo created by merging two apartments, there were still obvious traces of the divide.

“When we did the walk-through, it was very obvious that it had been two units,” says Webb of the now-2,575-square-foot home.

One side felt under-planned; rushed through design and staging for sale. The other was a bit higher-end. But both lacked cohesion and character.

The new owners had hired Vancouver interior design studio Form Collective to pull the mismatched halves into alignment, redecorate and notch up the style — with touches inspired Las Vegas, where they have another residence.

Principals Webb and Serra realized quickly the place needed more than decor. The project grew into a deeper renovation, reworking parts of the floor plan while unifying the space in function and feel.

The owners’ first big ask was a backlit stone backsplash inspired by their Nevada home — rendered in translucent Cristallo Quartzite for “really wild pop factor.” Web says: “We were worried it would be too in-your-face, but we actually love it.”

For a secondary visual anchor, Webb and Serra extended an existing island with matching stone, adding a curved detail on one end to mimic curved lines of the condo’s outer wall. “We wanted it to be a statement piece and really welcoming to stand around it as well,” says Webb.

Overhead, a dropped wood ceiling panel with a backlit plate sets off a glittering linear light fixture. Stained shinnoki white oak millwork adds sleek storage and houses appliances.

Off to one side, a Samsung Frame TV poses as a painting when not entertaining the cook. This placement eliminated the need for a TV over a nearby fireplace, which backs onto windows.

Around the fireplace, they carved out a small family room. Working with bespoke furnituremaker WD Western Designers, they created a custom curved sofa. To maximize seating and sightlines without overwhelming the space, the company created a template on-site prior to fabrication.

Over the sofa, a print by photographer Gillian Lindsay grounds the space — a slightly gritty and less “Vegas” choice Serra fought for and the homeowner now loves, she says.

Throughout the home, original art and prints layer on character absent in the home’s past life, giving the feel of a collection gathered over time, adds Serra. One standout piece is “Generations” by Victor Goertz, an original acrylic depicting the mossy trunk of an evergreen tree in greens and pinks, hung between the entryway and kitchen. Another striking piece, “City in Pink and Green,” a print by David Tycho, picks up the same colour scheme the end of the main hall.

The homeowner had one other Vegas-inspired request: a home bar. “He kept joking that he wanted to charge cover like a nightclub,” says Webb.

By subsuming the footprint of a former home office, Webb and Serra obliged. The result feels like an intimate speakeasy, layered in leather-textured Black Negresco veined quartzite, against tan velvet stools and gold hardware. One unexpected detail here: millwork doors conceal two 24-inch-wide under-counter freezers where the homeowner, a sport fisherman, stores his catches.

The moody glam esthetic of the bar carries to an adjacent sitting area with leather loungers, and the home’s formal dining area around the corner.

Here, Art Deco-style bench seating complements an oval table and nature-inspired chandelier. The dining area opens to the home’s main living room, set into a corner of wall-to-wall windows. A custom metal fireplace by Vancouver’s New Format Studio adds a flash of brushed gold, against velvet and leather seating.

 

The home’s bedrooms each have their own spin on the Vegas theme. A guest room reserved for the wife’s mother channels a light motif, with a vibrant wall tapestry complementing colourful artwork. Another brings visual drama with a ceiling-high headboard in upholstered black Vant Panels, and punchy black-and-white bedside lamps from CB2. The primary bedroom veers mid-century, with a towering velvet-green headboard against dark metallic wallpaper. Burl nightstands, gold-disc light fixtures and a vintage Otto Bettmann photo of Tropicana showgirls round it out.

As the renovated space came together, a new duality took shape, says Webb. The kitchen side of the space reads “daytime” — light and airy — while a darker, nighttime vibe takes over on the bar-dining side.

Yet the whole space feels unified. “Anybody who walks in there now would never guess that it used to be two units, whereas when we first started, it was very obvious,” says Webb. “When the owner first saw it, she teared up, and that’s always a great feeling. She was so happy.”

So happy, in fact, that the homeowners rehired the duo to fly to Las Vegas for a week and decorate their home there — which they’d previously considered finished. Says Webb: “They didn’t realize what was missing until they saw how layered their space could really be.”

Project design: Form Collective

Project construction: Headland Construction

Project millwork: Sofo Kitchens

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Weekly roundup of three properties that recently sold in Metro Vancouver.

9231 Parksville Dr., Richmond

Type: Five-bedroom, three-bathroom detached

Size: 2,000 square feet

B.C. Assessment: $1,493,600

Listed for: $1,399,000

Sold for: $1,422,000

Sold on: March 2

Days on market in this listing: Seven

Listing agent: Adam Pospischil and Alex Wong at Engel & Volkers Vancouver

Buyers agent: Tracy Hu PREC at LeHomes Realty Premier

The big sell: Richmond’s Boyd Park is the venue for this five-bedroom family home that offers a number of reasons that attracted multiple offers when it was listed for sale. Namely, an air-conditioned interior that provides year-round comfort with a newly-installed heat pump, a floor plan that offers four bedrooms upstairs and a fifth on the main level for guests, elderly relatives, or home office use, 200 square feet of internal storage space, and upgrades that include hardwood floors, stainless-steel appliances, stone counters, and two gas fireplaces. The outside holds its own with a west-facing rear garden that backs directly onto the West Richmond Pitch & Putt Golf Course, a location just a few blocks from Hugh Boyd Secondary School and the West Richmond Community Centre, and covered parking as well as additional space on the driveway for larger vehicles.

2 — 275 West 17th Ave., Vancouver

Type: Four-bedroom, five-bathroom half duplex

Size: 1,969 square feet

B.C. Assessment: N/A

Listed for: $2,680,000

Sold for: $2,680,000

Sold on: Jan. 8

Days on market in this listing: 38

Listing agent: Jessica Chen PREC at Oakwyn Realty

Buyers agent: Val Brennan at Oakwyn Realty

The big sell: This newly-finished half duplex sold for bang on the listed price and features a larger layout than many with four bedrooms, five bathrooms and almost 2,000 square feet of internal living space. It forms part of a side-by-side duplex in Cambie Village just steps to shops, parks, restaurants, schools and the Canada Line subway route that connects downtown with Vancouver’s international airport. Built by Vandwell Developments, the home features floor-to-ceiling windows, a built-in sound system, sliding glass doors, front and back patios, air conditioning, radiant heat, and a stylish kitchen with waterfall countertops and sleek cabinetry. A staircase with seamless glass railings leads upstairs where there are two further levels with two bedrooms on each. There is a heated crawl space for extra storage but the piece de resistance is a rooftop deck with panoramic mountain and city skyline views.

201 — 39771 Government Rd., Squamish

Type: Two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment

Size: 1,198 square feet

B.C. Assessment: $797,000

Listed for: $819,900

Sold for: $807,000

Sold on: Jan. 30

Days on market in this listing: 83

Listing agent: Rod Bahari PREC at Sutton Group — West Coast Realty

Buyers agent: Art Power at Stilhavn Real Estate Services

The big sell: Squamish is home to the five-year-old Breeze condominium complex that occupies a convenient location near the many amenities that the town offers. This particular unit is a two-level, south-facing, two-bedroom, two-bathroom end unit with the added bonus of having a 16-foot-long open loft space as well as a penthouse position. Boasting a layout close to 1,200 square feet, the interior features vaulted ceilings, a Scandinavian-inspired kitchen with a streamlined design incorporating an island, quartz countertops, stainless-steel appliances and ample cupboard space, a primary bedroom on the upper level with a custom-built walk-in closet and ensuite bathroom, and a private deck with engaging mountain and Chief views. The unit’s monthly maintenance fee is $583.09 and it comes with underground parking, and a strata that permits pets and rentals with restrictions.

These transactions were compiled by Nicola Way of BestHomesBC.com.

Realtors — send your recent sales to nicola@besthomesbc.com

Want more expert mortgage info? Robert McLister shares Canada’s best national insured and uninsured mortgage rates, updated daily.

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