Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Edible Winter Wonderlands Project
Through the Cowichan Green Community, a Food Security and Environmental issues non-profit organization in Duncan, 7 of us set up six community demonstration gardens in the James Alexander Neighborhood.
We asked the James Alexander Neighborhood group for advice on what the 6 gardens should look like. Also we held an event for the residents of the neighborhood to choose the specific locations of the gardens.
With a focus on perennial ecologically based gardens we planted edible trees, berry bushes and medicinal plants beside a parking lot at Spotsplex, a local sports center. We also pruned the large hazelnut trees at M'akola First Nations housing to increase the nut production, created wheel chair accessible annual vegetable garden beds at Caulfeild (a residence for people working with disabilities), established a garden specifically for growing food for the Warmland kitchen (a homeless shelter), created a single family demonstration garden on a private lot, and built a forest garden for the Alexander Elementary school.
We tried to establish a boulevard garden, yet we did not manage to get permission from the government within the short period of time that the grant was available to us. There are many successful edible boulevard Gardens in Victoria, so I hope it becomes legal in Duncan as well.
The amazing thing about this four month period is that now the Alexander neighborhood has edible and medicinal perennial garden beds that will provide them with free food for years to come. The gardens created a feeling of community, safety and purpose within the neighborhood. Now it is up to the residents to care for the gardens and we hope they maintain the gifts we have created with them.
We asked the James Alexander Neighborhood group for advice on what the 6 gardens should look like. Also we held an event for the residents of the neighborhood to choose the specific locations of the gardens.
With a focus on perennial ecologically based gardens we planted edible trees, berry bushes and medicinal plants beside a parking lot at Spotsplex, a local sports center. We also pruned the large hazelnut trees at M'akola First Nations housing to increase the nut production, created wheel chair accessible annual vegetable garden beds at Caulfeild (a residence for people working with disabilities), established a garden specifically for growing food for the Warmland kitchen (a homeless shelter), created a single family demonstration garden on a private lot, and built a forest garden for the Alexander Elementary school.
We tried to establish a boulevard garden, yet we did not manage to get permission from the government within the short period of time that the grant was available to us. There are many successful edible boulevard Gardens in Victoria, so I hope it becomes legal in Duncan as well.
The amazing thing about this four month period is that now the Alexander neighborhood has edible and medicinal perennial garden beds that will provide them with free food for years to come. The gardens created a feeling of community, safety and purpose within the neighborhood. Now it is up to the residents to care for the gardens and we hope they maintain the gifts we have created with them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
