| Some keen eyes have spotted new activity left of #7 fairway. The smell of organic fish fertilizer is wafting through the air; long, mounded rows of soil have seemingly popped up out of nowhere! Can you guess? It’s another vegetable garden! The success of our ‘Fairway to Table’ vegetable program has inspired more space for growing food, and another opportunity for us to support our unique ecosystem at Cordova Bay. |
Whispers of additional growing space cropped up a few seasons ago and I’ve had my eye on the plot on #7 ever since. Open and exposed to full sun, flat and well-draining, the area is an ideal location for a garden. Long-time players might remember it was once a sod nursery, which means that important infrastructure like irrigation is already in place and just waiting to water our new garden. |
The gorgeous dark soil we installed is a product of our in-house composting program. To construct our paths, we laid a layer of cardboard directly onto the grass, which had been cut short prior to our project. The cardboard will act as a barrier, preventing the grass and weeds from coming up through the bark mulch we applied on top. The cardboard will break down overtime, and by then the grass will be weakened enough that it won’t be a concern. This method is an alternative to sod removal, spraying the grass, or applying a synthetic weed barrier. |
| So, with the garden constructed the question you’re probably asking is what are we going to grow? Our priority is potatoes. Chef Walter Gurtner loves our garden grown potatoes especially the stunning ‘Russian Blue’ potatoes that are a bold purple colour. We have a whole row of the garden dedicated to the purple potatoes and thanks to the warm weather in March, we already have our potatoes in the ground. Other varieties planted include early ‘Warba’, and classics like ‘Yukon Gold’ and ‘Kennebec.’ Along with the potatoes are four varieties of onions plus flowers like alyssum, borage and sunflowers to draw pollinators to the area. As the weather kicks into higher heat we’ll add more flowers, corn, some pumpkins and maybe even melons to the area. |