Update

Dragonfly in a nearby garden

It's been a few years since the last post! Lots has happened in the garden, but I'd rather show you by inviting you to join us on Friday, August 26 at 6:30 pm in the garden. We will swap some seeds from this year's harvest, dig up some of our potatoes and chat about the upcoming winter gardening season. So come with interest and you may leave with a bounty!

Spring potato harvest

About Our Logo

The logo for Esquimalt Community Gardens Society was designed in 2010 by a local artist and resident of Esquimalt, Juan Ramirez. The logo represents diversity, sustainability and unity.

Diversity is illustrated in the logo using different house sizes, while the asymmetry of a house roof highlights the inequality of skills and inequality of access to fresh produce experienced by members of the community. The Society works towards reducing inequality by providing residents with a space to grow food and develop skills through a series of workshops and community events throughout the year.

The different shades of green represent a variety of sustainable practices, such as composting and organic mulching, that are strongly encouraged by the Society. This is important in working towards developing a sustainable and healthy community in Esquimalt.

The stems are central in the logo and they illustrate community growth and unity. They also highlight the important role that community gardens have in developing community relationships. 

This season the ECGS is proud to share 'Gardeners' Tales' written by members of the Anderson Park Community Garden.  This week's feature gardeners are Hulitan Family and Community Services Society:

Many hands made light work during the Anderson Park Work Party this October.

Hulitan Family and Community Services Society provides social and emotional support to Aboriginal children, youth and their families living in the Capital Regional District. Access to healthy, affordable food is a major concern for many of the families we work with, so having a community garden plot is a great opportunity to grow healthy food that the families we work with can have access to. We have partnered with Makola Group and Societies, so that families living in Makola units near Anderson Park can come and take part in the gardening. We manage our own plot as well as a Grow Row Share Row plot where about 15 families so far have been able to enjoy in the harvest.

We had a very successful growing season and an amazingly abundant harvest of lettuce, carrots, beans, peas, potatoes and a ton of tomatoes! Our staff took part in a number of workshops the Esquimalt Community Garden Society offered including square foot gardening and planting raspberry bushes and potatoes. A definite highlight was harvesting the potatoes with the determination and boundless energy of a one and a half year old gardener and his mom. 

Halitan volunteers get their hands dirty at this year's Potato Workshop!

Our next steps and vision for the garden is to be able to use our produce in a community kitchen that we are currently developing for the New Year. We are looking for interest and support from the community in the form of volunteer time and monetary support to start up the kitchen. If you are interested in supporting our community kitchen or learning more about our programs and agency please feel free to visit our website at www.hulitan.net or call us at 250-384-9466 - Contact Colleen or April. Thanks ECGS for the great opportunity!

This season the ECGS is proud to share 'Gardeners' Tales' written by members of the Anderson Park Community Garden.  This week's feature gardeners are Patrick, Sandy and their two children:

"We became members of the Anderson Park Community Garden in May of 2012.  This season we planted a variety of vegetables and were able to harvest lots of produce that made our salads healthy and delicious. Our kids, age 2 and 4, enjoyed watering the plants, eating the strawberries and raspberries, helping with weeding and playing in the nearby playground. It’s a project we all work on together and we were able to teach them the importance of locally grown food while eating yummy fruits and vegetables."

Thank you GOERT!

We would like to thank the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT) for donating the newest version of The Garry Oak Gardener's Handbook to our garden's library! In that book you will find tips on attracting pollinators, removing invasive plants, propagation guidelines for 75 native plants, and a useful list of updated nurseries that sell native plants. Please pick up a copy and, if you enjoy the read, consider making a contribution to the GOERT to cover publication and printings costs at www.goert.ca/donate

Gardeners's Tales

This season the ECGS is proud to share 'Gardeners' Tales' written by members of the Anderson Park Community Garden.  This week's feature gardener is Jennifer Medd:

This year ECGS members donated 28 kilos of tomatoes to Victoria's Rainbow Kitchen (http://www.rainbowkitchen.ca)

"Anyone else renting in Esquimalt? With no place to garden where you live? That's been my situation for a while now so I am really pleased to have a plot at the Anderson Park Community Garden. It's a good place to garden because the raised beds have really good soil, there is water and there is a deer fence. The veggies are great to have - I even think that I'm saving on my food bills although the fresh full taste of home-grown veggies probably can't be valued in dollars.  And at first that was it - I went there a couple of times a week and had good food as a result. But gradually I am meeting some of my fellow gardeners, learning from them some better ways to grow food, and enjoying the work bees when we can work together. I'm looking forward to being part of this small community within Esquimalt."

Oh the sunny days of August make you forget that fall is just around the corner...

Join our upcoming workshop "Planning Your Winter Garden" on August 11th 9-12pm at the Esquimalt United Church (500 Admirals Road). Here you will experience hands on leaning on how to prepare your garden for the winter and install row covers over garden beds.
The workshop is rain or shine and we hope to see you all there! Register now, space is limited.

For registration please contact Esquimalt Parks and Recreation.