Our monthly Community Spring Work Parties are on Saturdays, 11am-3pm
April 14 – Spring Planting, Herbal Tea Walk & Community Snackluck
May 5 – Irrigation Installation Work Party
June 9 – Leaf Mulching Work Party
Location: Lekwungen Territory – Banfield Commons and Community Orchard
All are welcome to help out!
Tea & light snacks will be provided for volunteers.
Join in for a fun spring gardening work party day, with a Herbal Tea Walk at 11am, and a Community and family friendly Snackluck at 1pm!
Herbal Tea Walk 11AM
Enjoy a short walk in the garden discussing some of medicinal properties of common aromatic plants. This is a hands-on sensory exploration of plants that will delight children as well as adults. We will harvest from a few plants to make herbal tea.
Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed is an instructor of Phytotherapy (evidence-based herbal medicine) at Pacific Rim College in Victoria, BC. She is qualified with a Master’s of Science in Herbal Medicine from London, UK and a Bachelor of Science in Botany from the University of Calgary. She is particularly interested in reconnecting people to nature to create well-being in individuals and communities. More info: www.latifasherbs.com
Spring Planting Work Party 11AM-3PM
Work party activities will include planting potatoes, transplanting, weeding and seeding. All are welcome to help out!
Community Snackluck 1PM
Light snacks & beverages will be shared amongst volunteers.
Location: Lekwungen Territory – Banfield Commons and Community Orchard, south of the Victoria West Community Centre at 521 Craigflower Road.
Bring: Work gloves, water bottle, garden snips, and a healthy snack to share at 1pm!
The Vic West Food Security Collective acknowledges that the City of Victoria is located on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen Nation.
The Songhees and Esquimalt Nations are part of the Coast Salish family and are descendants of the Lekwungen family groups. They hunted and gathered here for thousands of years before European settlement, carefully managing the land through controlled burning and food cultivation.
Just a few days after the Spring Equinox, volunteers are invited to help the community gardens look their best, and establish a few new beneficial native plants! Activities will include weeding, planting, transplanting, deadheading, seeding and holistic spraying. All are welcome to help out, and tea & light snacks will be provided for volunteers.
11am-3pm, Saturday, March 24th
Location: Lekwungen Territory – Banfield Commons and Community Orchard, south of the Victoria West Community Centre at 521 Craigflower Road.
Bring: Work gloves, water bottle, digging forks, friends, family & neighbours!
Volunteers are also welcome to help out in the gardens on Thursday afternoons. We have a fun group of helpers starting at 1:15pm and the more the merrier! Contact foodgardens [at] victoriawest [dot] ca for more information.
Strawberry tree new leaves, yellow croci, st. johns wort, nettles!
Sea buckthorn, goumi buds, crocus in bloom, young lovage!
Colourful Croci!
Tim Windle from Hatchet & Seed Edible Landscapes will be providing work party participants with the information needed to care for fruit trees with holistic sprays. If you’re curious to know more about compost teas, organic fertilizers, and when to apply them to fruit trees for best results, join us in Banfield Orchard on Saturday, February 24th starting at 11am!
Bring: Work gloves & your own water bottle
Snacks for volunteers will be provided!
The Vic West Food Security Collective is in need of an Orchard Ladder! If anyone knows of a place to find used ones, or knows of a ladder that could be donated, please send us a message. foodgardens [at] victoriawest [dot] ca. We are hoping to find one about 10′ tall. Thanks!
What a beautiful Sunday for volunteers to move all the leaf mulch! Thanks to everyone who came out and made the day awesome. It was fun to eat pizza, cookies and sip chai tea, and get to know neighbours. See you again soon in the gardens 🙂
“I have really enjoyed volunteering to do some gardening at Vic West’s Community Garden this summer.
It was fun to meet and garden with some neighbours. I learned lots about the plants and trees growing there, and enjoyed hanging out with Stephanie and Patti, who are both very knowledgeable about gardening and growing food.
I have a chronic illness, but even on a day I was feeling pretty low they just gave me something easy to do, sitting in the sun, so it was still very satisfying to attend. I would recommend it to anyone who would like to spend a bit more time outdoors and connect with nature and neighbours!”
-G.G., Volunteer Gardener – Sept 28th, 2017
11am-3pm – Sunday, November 5th, 2017
Location: Banfield Park’s Community Gardens – just south of the Vic West Community Association at 521 Craigflower Road
Join in anytime between 11am & 3pm, meet fellow neighbourhood gardeners for a big leaf mulching day! We have 20 yards of mulch to spread in Banfield Commons and Banfield Orchard. The worms and soil microbes will thank you!
Beverages & light snacks will be provided, as well as pizza for volunteers from Fry’s Bakery.
Please bring any extra wheelbarrows, manure/garden forks and hard rakes, as well as your own water bottle and work gloves. Remember to change your clock an hour back the night before.
In preparation for mulching the garden beds, we’re looking for keen volunteers to help out with chop n’ drop mulching on Thursday afternoons.
For more information contact Stephanie at: foodgardens [at] victoriawest [dot] ca
Sunday, September 24th Noon to 4pm
Raynor Street at Craigflower Road
Goumi berries ripening
greens
