Farmhouse Farm Summer Permaculture Workshops and Courses

Permaculture Water Conservation Strategies – July 18th

This one-day workshop will focus on Permaculture concepts for water conservation in the home and garden. Participants will learn foundation concepts and strategies for reducing water consumption, and will have the chance to work on one or all three of a series of water conservation, filtration, and recycling systems that we’ll be building.

July 18th, 10.00 am to 4.30pm.

Pay-What-You-Feel, suggested donation $75 – $120.

Introduction to Permaculture

A two-day (12 hour) course that will present the ethics, principles, and strategies of Permaculture as a design methodology for creating self-sustaining human systems. Topics will include Permaculture ethics and principles, the importance of design, climate and landscape factors, site analysis, closed-loop system design, input/output analysis, functional analysis, forest gardening, and Permaculture in social and economic systems.

Two separate sessions will be offered, July 25th-26th, and August 22nd-23rd.

Pat-What-You-Feel, suggested donation $135 – $285.

As always, workshops are offered on a pay-what-you-feel basis and trades/barters are always welcome. Mutually supportive relationships create abundance for all.

TO REGISTER EMAIL: farmhousefarm (at) gmail (dot) com.

www.farmhousefarm.wordpress.com

Sunday, July 12th, 11 am - 1 pm: FREE Tours of Community Gardens

Join gardeners at 16 different community gardens on July 12th, between 11 am and 1 pm, as they tour you through Vancouver's hidden gems. These free personalized tours have been developed to supplement a new brochure outlining self-guided walking or biking routes created by the City. The brochure encourages people of all ages to discover Vancouver’s rich network of community gardens through 8 individual self-guided routes. With 44 gardens to see, the walks lead you from the oldest gardens to the newest, the smallest to largest. Each route is less than 3 km one-way, and takes in 3 to 6 gardens, all with their own unique character. Some routes are close enough to one another that you can combine a few in one day.

On the July 12th, between 11 am and 1 pm, you can find personalized guides at the following 16 community gardens:

* Strathcona (Hawks & Prior)
* Cottonwood (Hawks & Malkin)
* Hastings Street Folk Garden (117 - 123 East Hastings)
* Jacob's Well (449 East Hastings)
* My Own Backyard - MOBY (East 11th, east of Commercial Dr.)
* Cedar Cottage (Hull & Victoria Dr.)
* Means of Production (St. Catherine & East 6th)
* Sahali ((Fraser & East 8th)
* Grandview (Grandview Hwy & Woodland Dr.)
* City Hall North Lawn (West 10th & Cambie)
* Tea Swamp (East 15th & Sophia)
* Nelson Park (1100 Comox St.)
* Cypress (West 6th, Burrard - Cypress)
* Pine (West 6th, Burrard to Fir)
* Urban Acres (West 1st & Fir)
* World in A Garden (West 57th & East Blvd.)

Brochures can be found at libraries, community centres, garden centres, City Hall rotunda, and Vancouver’s farmers markets. For more information about community gardens and the walks, visit www.vancouver.ca/gardens. You can also download tours directly by clicking here.

Original notice came from,

Andrew Pask
Social Policy | Social Development Department
604-871-6864
vancouver.ca/socialplanning

Vancouver Fruit Tree Project: Request for Volunteers

The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project is looking for both volunteer pickers and volunteer pick leaders. Climbing trees is not required! Come meet like minded people, have fun and make a difference. Read below for role descriptions.

Volunteer Picker

Volunteer pickers will receive weekly emails regarding the upcoming picks they are invited to participate in. They RSVP with the pick coordinator about any that they would like to attend. There is no minimum requirement for participation, it’s just whatever you can make it out to. At the picks the pickers will use picking poles and orchard ladders to work in a group to pick the tree, sorting the fruit into boxes for delivery to our community partners such as daycares, neighbourhood houses, food banks, and community centres. Volunteers can help with equipment set up and take down as well. Picks usually take between 1-3 hours and happen mostly on weekends and week-day evenings and sometimes during weekdays.

Volunteer Pick Leader

The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project is looking for pick leaders who can commit to leading one pick per week. The pick coordinator will try to schedule you for picks in your neighbourhood but you may be asked to lead a pick in another area of town. The pick coordinator will arrange a team of volunteers and will set up a community partner for the fruit to be donated to. The pick leaders are responsible for coordinating transportation to and from the pick, bringing and returning the equipment, delivering the fruit to the community partner, and of course, leading the volunteers in a fun and safe pick. Having your own transportation (with a roof rack for ladders) a benefit but is not required, as we can set you up with a car sharing membership through the VFTP.

Contact Liz Perkins
Coordinator of Picks
Vancouver Fruit Tree Project
604-708-1987
liz(at)vancouverfruittree.com

This Canada Day, Say "Hi"

Our conversation started simply enough, I was walking by and she was weeding. After exchanging "hellos" I learned here name was Kerry and that she had recently moved from Alberta.

“I’m so surprised at what grows here, like these grapes.” Since April she has tended her MOBY Community Garden plot on 11th, just off Commercial Drive. The gardener before had planted grapes which are now nearly four feet high. Other green shoots are sprouting up too. After I took her photo she laughed, “Maybe someone can tell me which ones are the weeds”.

Community gardens, children and dogs; I’ve begun to feel that these are the essentials for a convivial neighbourhood. Dog owners group around while their dogs run, strangers talk to babies and then, maybe, their parents and gardeners with a bit of dirt on their knees seem like easy people to smile at. The small act of weeding near the sidewalk or in a community garden can be the beginning of a whole new friendship. My tomato plants came from 2 different neighbours, both of whom I met while passing the time, talking about gardening.

This Canada Day, say “hi” to a neighbour. You never know who you’ll meet. Erin Nichols

Spring Fling

The big red A at Victoria Drive and Hull was even more lively than usual on Saturday May 23, as the Cedar Cottage Garden launched its annual Spring Fling fundraiser.

Cease Wyss, a member of the Skxwu7mesh and Sto:lo Nations and an active participant in the garden, opened the event with a traditional song of welcome.

Visitors were invited to tour the garden accompanied by Jill Dalton, who pointed out over-wintered spinach with leaves as big as your head and red clover brighter than a Pantone colour. Local musicians played on the plaza stage. Faune fired up audience creativity with a poetry contest. A friend bought several tomato plants at the plant sale and there were kids activities too, like the simple art of chaining daisies.

It's hard to imagine that just over a year ago this vibrant green community space was a place of trepidation; hidden from the road and littered with trash and needles. New garden plots have just been built, bringing the total to 59. Contact us if you live in the neighbourhood and need a place to grow!

Pictured from top left going clock-wise: Cease Wyss, garden plot, Whitney Peterson of the band Soft Serve, a young gardener, Spring Fling MC: Leslie Kemp a garden member, Jil Dalton, salad greens, the new beds and young apple tree, red clover. Centre: the big red A, gateway to the garden.