Build shift #1 had Modern Kitchen employees helping out. Thanks to their help, the cuts went together very quickly to make everything ready for Build shift #2 to put it all together. EPCOR employees came out for the afternoon and everyone was working together to put together the garden beds. They look amazing (the volunteers and the boxes)!
The progress today is astounding! Things went together quicker than anyone thought they would, thanks to our numerous corporate sponsors bringing years of experience and a lot of the right tools for the job, and our large number of private citizens helping out! Build shift #1 had Modern Kitchen employees helping out. Thanks to their help, the cuts went together very quickly to make everything ready for Build shift #2 to put it all together. EPCOR employees came out for the afternoon and everyone was working together to put together the garden beds. They look amazing (the volunteers and the boxes)! We had the potluck dinner and blessing of the land with St. Augustine's tonight, followed by the community garden meeting and plot assignment. There was a great turnout, with a combination of hopeful gardeners and interested church parishioners. It was great to meet a lot of new faces and meet some of the generous people who agreed to allow us the use of their church land! After we stuffed ourselves with tasty treats and community building, we headed outside to bless the land, the weather was cooperating quite well and it stayed sunny even despite the wind. The neighborhood kids helped up give back to the land as part of the blessing ceremony. The third treat to the evening was the garden meeting and plot assignment. We have been stressing and worrying the last few weeks. Will we have enough people interested?? What if there are too many people interested??? How do we please everyone??? AAH! Panic!!!
The turnout was perfect - 30 available plots, 30 interested people. There were even people interested in the correct heights and sizes of plots so that everyone got what they wanted! We look forward to seeing everyone out during the preparation and build events, along with spending the summer gardening beside new friends! Additional pictures of the blessing and plot assignment can be seen in our slideshow :D Thank you to EPCOR for funding of $3,000 and for organizing EPCOR employees from the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant to come help us build the garden on April 25th. Amazing!
We are thrilled to announce Garant Tools is donating 5 child sized wheelbarrows and 20 sets of hand tools to the garden! These hand tools are wonderful, and can be used by gardeners of all ages. Thank you Garant, for your generous support of our project!
Beginning in the early spring of 2014 Sherry attended community events looking to recruit volunteers with expertise, vision and enthusiasm to join her in this project.
Building a garden requires many steps be taken in the correct order. First you need the will to proceed. Then you must identify the best spot to build. You need to decide on a name, write up a Vision Statement, Terms of Reference, create a budget, Gardener Plot Contracts, and a Statement of Expectations. You must decide on what fees to charge for the plot and who has priority when it comes to renting them. You need a written mandate, decisions on which organization is accountable for what and a committee to co-ordinate the entire process. Finally, you require the funds to provide the materials and the people to do the work. By late summer 2014, the Sunshine Garden group was formed and much of the paperwork was complete. We had approached St. Augustine’s Church as a location and we were fortunate with the variety of expertise found among the community members. Drawings of an innovative design that would reflect the shape of the roof of St. Augustine’s church and combine it with boxes arranged like the rays of the sun. The number of boxes that could be accommodated was 38. Eight of those boxes were designated as ‘communal’. That meant a second level of membership would allow for use of produce by all members. The design also provided a seating area and pathways that could accommodate strollers and wheelchairs. The decision was made to provide for 3 heights of boxes, some ground level, mid-level and some 2 feet tall. Most of the boxes are 4’x8’ rectangles, some are 4x4’ squares, and some are triangles. Committees are what saves volunteers from overload. The members can focus on one aspect of the garden. In our case committees were formed to create guidelines for composting, watering and planting. These guidelines are needed to add to the package of information to be forwarded with grant applications. By our September meeting we had a website, we were close to an agreement with the city and church. We had community support letters, Terms of Reference, and ideas on where to find grant money. A name, logo and preliminary sign design were ready. Due to the fact that the Church has no eaves troughs, rain water collection was being incorporated into a shed design. The remainder of 2014 was filled with getting approvals, writing grant applications, opening a bank account and other legalities. The new year of 2015 opened with a meeting filled with good news on the progress of the many details need to create our garden. Grants had been awarded and money was starting to arrive. Legalities were finalized. The shed design was completed, a volunteer designed and agreed to build the Sunshine Garden sign. Letters acknowledging and recognizing donations were drafted. How to actually build the boxes was discussed and a prototype promised. A work plan was discussed and drafted. Plans for recruiting volunteers for the build days were explored. By February the budget amount had grown and secondary grants applications were being sent. A neighbourhood artist had agreed to paint the Sunshine Garden sign. The schedule for the build was finalized and recruitment started. Teams were established to handle the details. March gave us the details on the composter, the water cubes, the shed, the sign, furniture, tools, plants and lots of details on the timelines. In April St. Augustine’s congregation will host a potluck, they will bless the land and the boxes will be assigned. If all goes according to plan the build will begin April 25 and by May 10 everything will be ready for planting. The NAIT Carpentry Program has agreed to build the Sunshine Garden a shed! NAIT carpentry students have been hard at work, and here are some pictures of what they have accomplished so far:
Thank you Fiskars for selecting the Sunshine Garden as one of the 2015 Project Orange Thumb Grant Recipients! Apparently over 370 applications were submitted across North America, and we one of 30 selected, including one of 6 in Canada! Way to go team! Thank you to Carrie who initiated and organized this application, and to Jocelyn for helping with it as well. This grant provides $2000 in cash and $1500 in beautiful, wonderful Fiskars tools!
We are now up to $24,200. Good work everyone, almost there! Great news! The Sunshine Garden has been officially approved for Neighbourhood Engagement Funding for $2,500! Thank you Barbara and Jocelyn for helping with this grant, and to Lynn Ferguson, our community recreation coordinator from the City of Edmonton, for coaching us through it! We plan to engage our neighbours by building a garden together, and gardening together for years to come.
We have now raised $20,700! We had our January garden committee meeting and it looks like things are rolling forward nicely. We have received 6 of the 8 grants we have applied for, and we expect to hear back from the remaining 2 over the next few weeks!
Carla from Sustainable Food Edmonton attended the January meeting to present us with our Community Garden Grant cheque! We would like to thank Sustainable Food Edmonton for all their guidance and support during this process. We reviewed pictures of what we will likely build for our garden shed; it will be moving forward for construction in March/April, and it is looking great! Thank you to the NAIT Carpentry Program for agreeing to build the shed! The next few steps are working on a game plan for the construction, along with getting a lot more community awareness and excitement surrounding this project! |
Social CommitteeWe want to build awareness of the community garden, communicate with the community and have fun! Archives
April 2022
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