SWARM12
Join us at the Bulkhead Lab for SWARM #12.
1 metre to 100 mile organic food samples prepared by Alexander McNaughton will be served.
Grow is a public art project situated on the periphery of the Olympic Village in South East False Creek, Vancouver.
Mason Bees at the Bulkhead
Mason Bees are a native pollinator to BC. Unlike honey bees they are solitary so they don’t live in hives and produce honey. To nest they seek out holes in wood where they can lay their eggs. Typically a Mason Bee would find holes produced by woodpeckers, but this form of habitat can be created to attract Mason Bees to certain areas for increased pollination.
Green Graffiti with EYA
Kristina Parusel from the Environmental Youth Alliance met with me on Friday to help build a small-scale living wall at the Bulkhead. The living walls are part of the EYA Green Graffiti program which takes urban agriculture vertical. Using an aluminum unit that contains 24, 6″ x 6″ cubes, fruit, vegetables and herbs can be grown. I was surprised when Kristina told me that they’ve successfully grown tomatoes, beets and cabbages in these small 6″ x 6″ cubes.
Ladybug’s Lunch with Maria Keating
Bulkhead Urban Agriculture Lab (adjacent to Habitat Island in the Olympic Village)
Bring your lunch to the Bulkhead Lab and explore the macro world of our backyard ecosystems with Maria Keating. Learn about our pollinators, processors, native predators and companion planting, the natural approach to pest control for the home gardener.
Grow Workshop: August 13th, 2011
Please join Chloe Bennett, a student of Landscape Architecture at UBC for a lively discussion about mason bee habitat. Mason bees are small blue coloured bees that are important garden pollinators. They have specific needs for nesting and Chloe will be able to guide you in the proper methods of building a mason bee home. She will also share her experience in creating the Vancouver roundabout project Bees Please.
Upcoming Tour: August 6th, 2011
Please join lead artist, Holly Schmidt on a walk through Bulkhead Urban Agriculture Lab; located on the periphery of the Olympic Village. The Grow project has made a light intervention into this remaining section of undeveloped seawall, posing different solutions for growing in the post-industrial landscape while creating an informal space for sharing knowledge and ideas. Holly will share the process of creating the project while discussing what is growing on site.
Canopy/Water Collection
Over the past couple of weeks Kim Cooper and I have been creating a canopy that can also function to collect rain water. We initially met and looked over the site to see how we could take advantage of the natural slope and the different posts and poles already present.
We sketched out some ideas on how to use some of the remaining vinyl material from Eric Deis’s photo mural “Last Chance” to capture and funnel the water.
The Vancooper Hen House at the Lab
Duncan Martin from Backyard Bounty joined us on July 24th to give an informal workshop on raising hens in your backyard. He makes these tidy coops out of cedar and wire mesh. They are made to the parameters set out by City of Vancouver bylaws.
The “Vancooper” was installed at the Lab on the Friday before the workshop.
