Newsletter

When Vancouver’s leaves start turning, autumn is right around the corner. Summer may be gone, but we’re not looking back. After all, Vancouver has enough fall activities to keep you busy with fun-filled days of action-packed events, apple cider, Halloween frights — even a chocolate festival. Check out these 10 must-see fall activities in Vancouver this autumn and renew your love for autumn.

1. Take a Hike
If the colours are changing, then the best way to see them is to get outside and immerse yourself in nature. Whether you’re huffing and puffing up the Grouse Grind or leisurely strolling through Stanley Park, the crisp air and sweeping views will keep your body active and provide only-in-autumn photo ops. Check out outdoorvancouver.ca for hiking trails this fall.

2. Soak Up Colour at VanDusen Botanical Garden
Heathers, autumn crocus, hydrangeas and more bloom during the fall at VanDusen Botanical Garden, giving visitors the simple pleasure of soaking up picture-perfect fall landscapes. Make sure to visit the Alma VanDusen Meadow Garden and stand before the fiery red Japanese maples.

3. Get Cultured at the Vancouver Art Gallery
It will get colder in the fall, but that’s exactly what art museums are made for. Vancouver Art Gallery’s 10,000-piece permanent holdings include works from historical and contemporary Vancouver artists and other contemporary art leaders, making a trip here a welcome cultural change from sunbathing at Kits Beach. Plus, the museum boasts one of the city’s top cafés, and chatting with friends over coffee is one fall activity you just have to partake in.

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GROWING your own vegetables is both fun and rewarding. All you really need to get started is some decent soil and a few plants. But to be a really successful vegetable gardener — and to do it organically — you’ll need to understand what it takes to keep your plants healthy and vigorous. Here are the basics.

“Feed the soil” is like a mantra for organic gardeners, and with good reason. In conventional chemical agriculture, crop plants are indeed “fed” directly using synthetic fertilizers.

When taken to extremes, this kind of chemical force-feeding can gradually impoverish the soil. And turn it from a rich entity teeming with microorganisms insects and other life forms, into an inert growing medium that exists mainly to anchor the plants’ roots, and that provides little or no nutrition in its own right.

Although various fertilizers and mineral nutrients (agricultural lime, rock phosphate, greensand, etc.) should be added periodically to the organic garden, by far the most useful substance for building and maintaining a healthy, well-balanced soil is organic matter.You can add organic matter to your soil many different ways, such as compost, shredded leaves, animal manures or cover crops.

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NOVEMBER 19TH – DECEMBER 24TH

Visit Highstreet’s oversized Holiday Gift Box, home to Santa and his beloved elves for the best Santa photos experience around. The private experience allows each family to have a perfect photo moment with Santa without waiting in line.

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