1921 Gardening on a City Lot in BC: 35 cents per day or $127.75 per year

Life is so complicated now, because of the internet. It's all about security, including Tomatoes.

Biosecurity Guidelines for Post - harvest Greenhouse Tomatoes: Prevention of Post - harvest and Storage Rot  - March 27, 2013

 

Link to Ron Finley Ted Talk Plants vegetables garden south central LA

Updated 2024-03-05  via the WayBackMachine 

https://web.archive.org/web/20130527105459/https://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html

 
In earlier days, like the 1920's, there were more important objectives.... SURVIVAL of the fittest and we're not just talking about Tomatoes alone.

The City of Vancouver was incorporated on April 6, 1886, the same year that the first transcontinental train arrived.   There was no Costco or Safeways, maybe a "corner store" here and there, but if you had land, and there was lot of that around per capita, for the taking, then you could have your own source without depending upon California and a link via a Skagit River crossing.

All you needed was a 50' X 50' plot of land dedicated to your garden... Another 50' X 100' for the house and stable.

Gardening on a City Lot in BC

January and February, kale, parsnips, leeks, lettuce, and parsley;
March,spinach and broccoli;
April,  radish, onions, rhubarb, and broccoli;
May, asparagus and peas;
June, early cabbage, carrots, and beets;
July, early potatoes, parsnips, and beans;
August, tomatoes, cauliflower, onions, cucumbers, and summer squash;
September, cabbage, salsify, and herbs;
October, celery, brussels sprouts, leeks, and winter squash;
November, fall lettuce and early spinach;
December, same as for January and February.

Besides the fresh vegetables which may be had through the winter months, the gardener can have a large variety stored, including potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, celery, squash, and turnips.

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In 1921 the BC Government pegged the costs of food shopping at Thirty-Five cents a day  One Hundred Twenty Seven and 75/100 Dollars per year.

2013, taking into account Inflation.... that works out to  $1,536.76 ..... per year.  Does that sound about right?

Or does it mean that the Bank of Canada Inflation bean counters software is out of whack, has been out of whack for a long time.

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The early settlers but later than 1886, following the First World War, were encouraged to come to Canada, to British Columbia where they had to clear the trees, the stumps, plow the land, seed the fields, tend the fields, harvest the field, and have the resources, FOOD to last until the next year ..... like these Links to previous Posts here at the BBC.

Soldiers and Raspberries,  Stalwart Peasant,  Oats, Wheat and Barley Grows. Firsts for Women, Taxes and Tolls, Pigeon Phones, 125 year old Vancouver,  Tom Carter Gallery, Len Norris, Warner Loat, Trutch

Were City Lots dimensions determined by the need of its residents to fend for themselves, wholly dependent upon the land?   Were the backyard buildings still housing stables for horses, soon to be replaced by cars... which didn't create manure for the garden?  Up until 1950's Dairyland delivered their milk by HORSE... the manure was fantastic.... so Mr. D (our neighbour) used to say.... D is for Davis....

Today's residential Front Yards, now they could be used for a vegetable garden..... 26' setback X 50' wide or 33' wide... as long as there are not Horse Chestnut Trees growing on the front street ....  would the southern facing street front yards have more daylight than the their Northern facing front yards .... all depends on the size of the house, not by today's standards, but pre 1921.... is there an inflation counter for buildings...

A greenhouse would help....

"I think a stalwart peasant in sheepskin coat, born on the soil whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife and a half a dozen children, is good quality."

OUCH, what a Title, but that search on Google, garnered a lot of hits, 14,300 in 0.65 seconds.


This morning I was down at the Vancouver Archives, adjacent to the Vancouver Planetarium, where the latter is Pay parking, the first has FREE parking, as long as you're doing business at the Archives, researching.

Vancouver Maritime and its Library, is a block away, where their parking is PAY, unless you park wayyyyyy to the West, adjacent to Kitsilano Park, and do it on the street, seaside of the block.  Everything else is Windshield Displayed Permit Only.


"How Vancouver Grows!" 1934 is from the "Sun Directories", there's a multitude of other Directories of Greater Vancouver available at the Vancouver Archives.  There's also a newspaper clipping section where the data is cross-referenced on the old, and I mean OLD catalogue system (library style) where they are then linked to a Micro-fiche database,  TONS of them, AND, if the micro-fiche is not good enough, then the ORIGINALS are in the cavern, neatly glued to a cardboard backer,  and only accessible by the staff, ........ for you.

The Archives "bunker" green roof is undergoing a major refit that covers the cavern that holds all of their records.   The Reading Room, where the open data work is done, where you can really spread all of the information out, has two computers for accessing their website AND free internet for those who have their laptops with them, as long as you're researching.  No coffee (liquid) or food permitted, at any time for visitors.   Plus, or maybe its a minus today, the HEAT was off in the Reading Room, something to do with the Re-construction.  There's Four Micro-fiche readers, spooler capabilities too, along with what appears to be a digitizer hook up.

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Assistance by the Staff, phenomenal!  but leave your back packs and other sundry items in the open storage racks or the lockable variety.   There's also a Gallery area for OLD photos, which, while I was there, was being rearranged by two staffers.

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I took one look at this particular page of the Directory and was amazed at how the population in Greater Vancouver didn't "spike" altogether, Vancouver did though in 1912 -  122,100, the year before (1911) it was 100,409, so I asked myself, or rather I asked Google....."what happened in 1912 that drove the population higher" and realized that I had to refine my search to "what happened in 1912 that drove the Canadian population higher" and found well over 8 million hits.  The Fourth hit down caught my attention....   5. The Immigration Boom 1895-1914 - Canadian History Portal - HCO

From the Sun Directories 1934

Before going to the "Immigration Boom" link, I went here which is the photo below, to reinforce my suspicion that Greater Vancouver, that is Vancouver, South Vancouver and Point Grey, did have a spike in its population... I was half right...... Vancouver alone had the spike, the three "municipalities" weren't amalgamated until January 1, 1929.

The link to the "Immigration Boom" suggests that the Brits weren't sturdy enough to withstand the cold weather of Canada, and that they either went back to the old country, or went South, to the United Stated of America.

But what caused the "spike", again from the "Immigration Boom", it was someone called Clifford Sifton, Laurier's Minister of the Interior.  He was a "PULL FACTOR"
NOTE: whoever wrote the information on Clifford Sifton, goofed, just a touch: 

"Clifford Sifton

However, perhaps the most significant pull factor was Clifton Sifton,...."  Clifton Sifton????

Initially, Sifton and his agents sought immigrants from the British Isles, thinking that they would have the least problem adapting and also brought the additional advantage of helping to distinguish Canada from its southern neighbour. That strategy proved to be unsuccessful as many of the British immigrants found life too difficult in Canada, and many left to return home or migrated south to the U.S.

Sifton therefore changed his thinking. British immigrants had proven not to be ideal. He desperately wanted immigrants with farming experience who also had some familiarity with the rough climate on Canada's Prairies. His new ideal immigrant was best captured in his own words. 'I think a stalwart peasant in sheepskin coat, born on the soil whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife and a half a dozen children, is good quality.'

As a footnote here, its Sir John A's 197th birthday today, he was our First and our Third Prime Minister and in recognition of him, the Federal Government renamed the Bank of Montreal building across from Parliament Hill ........