It’s at all times a pleasure to talk with our neighbors in Canada, and it’s clear the group backyard motion there may be alive and thriving. Judy Stafford and Naomi Kulhawy are two of Kin Park Neighborhood Backyard’s largest supporters, with Judy as government director and Naomi because the farm director.
The small metropolis of Duncan (pop. 5,045 in 2021), is positioned on stunning Vancouver Island in British Columbia and boasts the world’s largest assortment of outside totems. Situated on the normal lands of the Cowichan First Nation, the Cowichan peoples have lived right here for millennia.
Duncan’s group backyard was first established in 2006, and expanded in 2010 so as to add 1 / 4 acre market backyard. Your complete panorama is dedicated to edible vegetation, together with berry bushes and fruit timber.
Neighborhood Backyard and City Farm
Now with a working city farm on one aspect of the park and a thriving group backyard on the opposite aspect, the backyard welcomes members of the group of all ages and backgrounds. Kin Park Youth City Farm, an integral a part of the bigger backyard mission, is a very distinctive house. The farm is unfenced and open for the general public to discover at any time.
Kin Park Youth City Farm is a program that goals to equip and encourage youth and the bigger group in rising meals. Younger individuals help with caring for the group backyard, and group backyard members share their helpful expertise with the youth.
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Cowichan Inexperienced Neighborhood‘s mandate is to enhance meals safety by growing robust relationships with native meals producers, rising the city’s capability for native meals manufacturing (each city and rural), and empowering individuals with the data, abilities and sources they should feed their group. The vast majority of the backyard’s 35 raised beds are leased out to gardeners locally, along with these developed by the Kin Park City Youth Farm.
The Environmental Stewardship class at Cowichan Secondary faculty has taken accountability for 4 of the beds which can be dedicated to native meals banks. The scholars are within the backyard weekly to prep, seed, transplant and have a tendency the gardens in a self-directed mission that has introduced them a better reference to their group as they contribute to meals safety within the area!
Wanting Ahead
The demand for group backyard plots has elevated considerably through the years. With assist from Gardening Know How’s grant, the lumber, screws, {hardware}, soil and compost are supplemented for repairing the prevailing backyard beds and constructing new ones. College students from a number of faculties go to the park all year long with two highschool courses, Environmental Stewardship (grade 11/12 college students) and Earth Sciences (grade 11) becoming a member of weekly. These college students will help in setting up and repairing the beds.
Go to this unimaginable backyard’s Fb and Instagram pages to be taught extra about how fantastically their system not solely serves the aim of feeding the group, however promotes the training of scholars within the area about gardening, self-sufficiency, accountability and sense of group.
And ensure to take a look at this quick video that highlights the Cowichan areas backyard efforts over the yr of 2022, with a brief presentation from our new buddy, Naomi.
Yearly, Gardening Know How awards $1,000 to twenty totally different, hand-picked backyard tasks throughout america and Canada. In case your group or faculty backyard has a rising, unmet want for extra soil, seeds, fertilizers, constructing supplies, and even simply assist getting the phrase out about your program, we’re prepared and keen that can assist you meet these wants. As group gardens and college gardening applications spring up throughout, we’re joyful to do our half to assist. Study extra about our grant program right here.
Curious about studying extra about faculty or group gardens? Go to our Neighborhood Gardening for Everybody web page right now.