The topics on this page include:

• Market Garden Potential
• Culinary & Medicinal Herb Production
• Arboretum, Botanical and Ornamental Gardens

MARKET GARDEN POTENTIAL

The community at large on Saltspring supports market gardening in a variety of ways as long as the produce is easy to procure -

• by preferring organic or naturally grown produce (although not necessarily Certified Organic) when it is easily available
• regular brown box programs (not widely available)
• local items in the food stores - Natureworks (health food store) and at Thrifty's and Ganges Village Market (both supermarkets)
• roadside stands
• Saturday market (very popular and trendy)
• Tuesday organic market (not yet very visible)

An "U-pick" enterprise probably wouldn't work because of peoples' perceived need for easy access and picking. You can't give apples away if they are still on the tree!

Community gardens are everyone's dream. No one has brought the dream into action, yet. With leadership and actual plans, the proposed market garden could be a well-loved community garden. One way would be for people to "buy" in to the market garden up front (shares), and then receive all the vegetables and fruits they help to grow and pick. Another way would be for a community group to take the leadership and planning aspects over and "supervise" the gardening and teaching (for self-sufficiency) and sharing of tools and equipment.

Through experience it has been found that some vegetables and fruits thrive on this land; others don't, even when planted for the utmost synergy. It has also been found that the intermixing of everything is beneficial for increasing crops, and produce sizes.

Market garden vegetables & fruit best planted together on this land (synergetically, energetically speaking) -

apples, artichokes, beans (some), beets, blackberries, Brussells sprouts, cabbages, cut flowers, daikon radish, eggplant, geens (of all kinds), grapes (table), hazelnuts, kale, leeks, parsnips, peas, pears, peppers, plums, raspberries, rhubarb, squashes & pumpkins, sunflowers, tomatoes, turnips (rutabagas), walnuts

Crops that do not do particularly well here (and/or are already well covered by other Salt Spring Island farmers) -

asparagus, basil, beans (some), broccoli (sometimes), cauliflower (sometimes), corn, cucumbers, garlic, radishes (sometimes), spinach (bolts too easily), onions (green o.k. but others don't mature enough to dry), potatoes (to sell, although great for home use)

Although statistics and projections are hard to find, it is thought that there is a new trend in consumer buying that may be beneficial here. There is a trend to buying ethnic vegetables, such as oriental vegetables. According to one Canadian study it s possible to earn $6,000 to $8,000 per acre doing this.

For market garden development assistance, the Government of Canada has a Business Assistance program for Community Market Garden Development. The purpose of this program is to support development of small scale market gardens production by offsetting specific developmental costs for individual producers, groups, community organizations or businesses. The program will pay up to 100% of the cost of capital and initial operations to a maximum of $5,000 per operation.

CULINARY & MEDICINAL HERB PRODUCTION POTENTIAL

Herbs--both culinary and medicinal--grow particularly well here, intermixed with flowers and vegetables (synergetically, energetically speaking). Very large specimens have been grown that would make good nursery stock, while others make good deer-proof gardens, incubators for species generation and restoration, sanctuary for birds, and would do well dried to serve an ever expanding herbal tea and medicinal herb use markets. There are enough of some native herbs growing in the wild on the property that wild crafting could be carried out. All of the top 20 medicinal herbs for farm production for the future grow well here in quantity.

These herbs are currently grown here—

agrimony, angelica, bearberry, bergamot, birch, borage, burdock, buttercup, calendula, caraway, cascara sagrada, cat mint, chives, cilantro/coriander, cleavers, clover(s), colt's foot, comfrey, cornflwer, corydalis, costmary, cress (land and water), dandelion, dill, echinacea, elder tree, elecampagne, evening primrose, fennel, feverfew, fireweed, foxglove, fringe tree, gentian, golden rod, herb Robert, horsetail, hyssop, lady's mantle, larkspur, lavender(s), lovage, lungwort, mallow, marjoram, meadow rue, milk thistle, mint(s), mosses, mullein, mustard(s), nasturtium, nettles, oregano(s), Oregon grape, orris, parsley, plantain, rose campion, rose hips, rosemary, roses, sage(s), salad burnette, savory (winter & summer), sea buckthorn, self-heal, skullcap, soapwort, sorrel, speedwell, st. johnswort, sumac, sweet cicely, sweet gum, tansy, thyme(s), valerian, violets, wild ginger, willow(s), woodruff, wormwood, yarrow, yellow dock, and many others.

According to Conrad Richter of Canada 's Richter Herbs (www.richter.com ), "The 'hot' herbs right now are Echinacea and St. Johnswort, but there are many others that can be very profitable. Even as few as 10 acres can bring in $50,000 per year revenue. If you produce value-added products such as herbal pills, teas, tinctures, etc. you can make a lot more. Sales of $1 million from value-added products made from herbs grown on 15-20 acres are possible."

If this can be translated to 2 acres, then herbs alone can produce an income of $10,000 without value-added processing. This is substantially more than the $3,000 required by the BC Assessment Authority for achieving agriculture land taxation status. Cascara Sagrada is capable of being a profitable item, for example, as it is projected to be a $4 billion dollar business in the United States in the future.

ARBORETUM, BOTANICAL & ORNAMENTAL GARDEN POTENTIAL

Carrying on with the original intent for the gardens to be available for public viewing, there may be potential in further development of the present garden as an ornamental garden and arboretum. The gardens have so-far been successful (although not yet profitable) and well-received in their role within the healing spectrum, and within the tours in which the high tea experience (@ $25 per person) is included. The Hugging Gardens Sanctuary has been aptly named.

The mature sections of the garden are an eclectic mix of ornamentals, hardy perennials, shrubs, trees, native plants and self-seeding annuals--all mixed together for the obvious synergetic effect. Without listing all the plants, it is safe to say that success has been achieved with many thousands of people having had the opportunity to visit, wander and wonder. The garden is easy care (much easier than it looks), looking after itself, with infrequent watering, once a year clearing and mulching, and otherwise casual maintenance for the birds and sanctuary for all species.

Trees that have already been planted (mostly within the past five years) and that are doing well in these conditions include-

Apples (several including a heritage striped Gravenstein - standard), Black Hawthorn, Blue Willow, Cascara Sagrada (4), Cedrus Deodora, Cherry, Copper Birch, Cork Screw Willow (several), Cotinus (Pink), Crabapple (edible), Crabapple (flowering), Dogwood (several), Dove Tree, English Oak, Eucalyptus (2 kinds), Fringe Tree, Ginko Baloba, Golden Ash, Golden Rain, Hawthorn (white), Hazelnuts (2), Hemlock, Himalayan Birch, Holly, Japanese Maple (2 different), Japanese Umbrella Pine, Katsura (2), Laburnum, Lavatera, Linden Tree, Liquid Amber, Magnolia (5 different), Mountain Ash (2 kinds), Mulberry, Nandena, Norway Spruce , Norwegian Maple (2), Pears (2 kinds), Pine (3 different), Plums (4 different), Quaking Aspen (3), Royal Red Norwegian Maple, Scarlet Oak, Silk Tree, Snowball, Spindle Tree, Sugar Maple, Sumac, Tulip Tree, Variegated Willow, Vibernum (various), Walnut (2), Weeping Birch, Weeping Goat Willow (several), White Cedar (3)

Native trees growing on the property include -

Alder, Arbutus, Balsam (Grand Fir), Big Leaf Maple, Douglas Fir, Garry Oak, Hawthorn, Indian Plum , Mock Orange, Mountain Ash, Ocean Spray, Saskatoon, Sumac, Western Red Cedar, Willow(s)

This plan is written with the viewing public in mind so that all extensions and additions for farming become a synergetic delight for all the visitors. One difference will be that the ornamental and arboretum gardens will be basically maintenance free once seeded and planted and mulched--just as in Nature, itself. Another difference is that the orchard will also be an arboretum.

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