SEPTEMBER 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
39 Naturally rich soil, low inputs support Kelowna garden
Even with summer drought, garden still has groundwater
by TOM WALKER KELOWNA – The first thing
you notice as you step through the fields at Morning Dove Gardens is the rich black
That’s when the drainage ditches and the pond at the bottom of the garden went in. “The fields started to dry up
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soil. The second thing you notice are the drainage ditches that criss-cross the vegetable patch. Indeed, the two are related. Twenty Young Agrarians
toured Morning Dove and were joined by 20 more for an evening potluck in mid- August. Owner Matt Hildebrandt led a tour through the rich gardens supported by soil laid into the wetlands for centuries before Mission Creek was diked to control urban flooding in Kelowna. “Our fields flood every
spring,” Hildebrandt, who farms 1.5 of four acres in Kelowna with his partner, Taryne, and two children. “We have creeks on both sides of the garden,” he says. “But the flooding actually comes from groundwater that seeps in from the creeks and a natural spring.”
The water is both a blessing and a curse. Matt says he irrigates as little as possible, usually only on a newly seeded or transplanted bed. For the rest of the growing cycle, the plants rely on groundwater in the soil. But that can be a problem. “With our wet spring, I
couldn’t get the tractor into the fields until May,” Matt recalls. “Every couple of days or so, I’d think that it was dry enough but after one pass, the tractor would get stuck. Again.”
right away,” says Matt. But despite a record dry summer in Kelowna, there is still water in the ditches and pond. There are a
number of ditching systems that interconnect to drain wetlands in southeast Kelowna. “We have one just to the south of our gardens that was built more than 50 years ago,” says Matt. It’s full of wild watercress, which is one of the specialty crops Morning Dove supplies to their CSA, twice- weekly market and restaurant customers. Matt holds that water in the soil using tarps for his transplanted crops like peppers, cucumbers melons and strawberries but direct- seeded beds, like carrots, fend for themselves. Among the more
interesting plants are rogue plots of tomatillos (Mexican ground tomatoes). “They self seed all over the
garden and if we don’t weed them out they will take over the beds,” says Matt. “But we leave just enough to harvest for our customers.” “We also have a 1,000-year- old variety of tobacco,” Matt points out. “We use it for ceremonial purposes. It is illegal to sell tobacco farm- direct in Canada.” “We grow only heirloom varieties and save most of our own seeds,” explains Matt. “We have had some mishaps,” he chuckles. “A couple of years ago, we had sweet and cayenne peppers planted next to each other and they cross
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Matt Hildebrandt (center, grey cap) takes Okanagan Young Agrarians on a tour of Morning Dove Gardens. TOM WALKER PHOTO
pollinated. The next year when I bit into a sweet pepper I got a surprise.” Three hoop houses cover spring and fall seedings of greens and a patch of unirrigated cucumbers on string trellises. A fourth serves as a potting shed and is heated by a wood stove. The surrounding creeks, tall
willows and semi-wild hazelnuts and walnuts create a strong natural habitat that supports the gardens. “We try to keep it as natural
as we can while still getting a garden out of it,” says Matt. “As soon as I turn over the soil,
there are blackbirds gobbling the cutworms.” “We do not use any inputs other than what is grown here on the farm,” Matt explains. “We have 30 hens, seven goats and two sheep. We gather the eggs, and we compost all the manure for our soil.” A former leased property
was certified organic. These fields are not. “My customers know the principals that I follow,” Matt says. “And we don’t sell to retail.”
“I don’t believe in using organic sprays,” he adds.
“Even though they are made from natural products, the spraying itself is an unnatural process. When I worked on an organic farm, it was the worst part of my job to get into the hot suit and wear the mask. I hated it.” “If a crop like cabbage
doesn’t do well here because of pests, I simply don’t grow it,” Matt says. “And we weed as little as possible. With the weeds and low water inputs, I don’t mind the trade-off of perhaps smaller vegetables. Smaller is easier to handle and pack, and I think they taste better.”
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AVENUE Machinery Corp. Barbara Richardson
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