|
Another week has come and gone! It’s been another busy one at the CCG, with winterizing in full swing, plot renewals and garden tours ongoing, and the new accessible bed being built! On Tuesday we started advertising for our SAGM (Semi-Annual General Meeting), which will take place on Tuesday, November 19th at 3pm! This will be a potluck and meeting, where garden staff come together with our board and our community to share food, recap our year at the CCG, and discuss some of our plans for the next year! If you are interested in learning more and/or getting involved with the CCG, please join us! We’re asking folks to bring something to share for the potluck, as well as their own dishes/containers and utensils for eating with. We would love to see you there!  We also held our biweekly board meeting on Tuesday this week, where we chatted about what’s gone on over the past two weeks, and discussed some upcoming projects and events. We also voted to adjust the time of our board meetings, from 3:30pm to 3pm, so that we can still have a little bit of sun when we’re leaving the meetings (now that it gets dark at 4:30pm!). On Wednesday afternoon our accessible bed building team met in the garden to start the process of building the bed! This project has been the biggest, longest project that I’ve ever taken on (we started working on it last spring!) and I’m really looking forward to seeing how all of our work turns out. Most of our team is volunteers, so it’s a longer process to build than it would be otherwise. We’re planning to finish with building next week, and then make adjustments and finishing touches as we prepare to plant in the Spring! Once the bed is complete, we’ll have a proper celebration - keep an eye on our Instagram for information about that :) Friday was another busy day in the garden. In the morning, a few of our staff and board members got together to harvest veggies and flowers to give away at our pop-up farm stand outside of the SUB, where board members gave away treats from the garden and chatted with folks about our work. We’ve had two of these pop-ups so far, and they’ve been going super well! We’re really excited to keep connecting with new folks and giving away food for free! Make sure to follow us on Instagram to keep updated about when we’re out next!  We’ve also been running garden tours over the past couple weeks for ES200 classes. Lyndsay ran a bunch on Friday morning, and then also ran the volunteer work party in the afternoon! This week’s work party was another winterizing-focused one, with mulching, sewing cover crops, and general bed prep going on! And we had some new faces come by, which was so wonderful!  The first half of this week is reading break at UVic, so we’ve mostly got garden-focused work going on - continuing with winterizing and building the accessible bed! On Thursday, we’re planning to do another pop-up giveaway outside of the McPherson library, and on Friday we’ll have our volunteer work party!
I hope everyone has a good long weekend, and enjoys the reading break! Happy gardening, Jessi
0 Comments
It’s November! Halloween has come and gone, and I’ve already seen my first Christmas decorations of the season. The last week of October was a busy one at the CCG, with multiple fun things planned for Halloween, and working to make sure everything is in order for the building of our new accessible garden bed, which finally starts on Wednesday! It’s taken some time, but we managed to track down all the materials we need (and for less than budgeted!). The past week has been a whirlwind of ordering and picking up materials, locating things in our staff shed, and working together to reach out to our networks to track down harder to find and/or expensive materials. Scheduling the build has also been tough, because everyone’s schedules are so different and the bulk of the work is being done by volunteers! But we’ve decided to plan for a 3-day build, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoon. This way we’ll have some flexibility and everyone who’s been involved with the planning can hopefully make it out for at least part of the building :) We had a couple of things happening on Thursday, for Halloween! First, we had our candle making workshop, led by our board member Elyse, from 11am-12:30pm. This was such an awesome workshop - we had such a sweet time hanging out and chatting with everyone, and the attendance was way more than we’d expected! Luckily, we last-minute bought some extra wax as a just-in-case, which we definitely needed! Thanks to everyone who came out, it’s always great to learn more about what kinds of workshops our community wants to see from us - if you ever have an idea for a workshop that you want to see happen, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected]!!   Also on Halloween, we were around campus doing some giveaways! We had trick-or-treating going on in our office, where we gave away treats to folks who came by. We also had a table set up outside the SUB to give away veggies and flowers! This is based on an initiative that the CCG used to do (before covid), where we would have little pop-up giveaways, which some of our board members have been spearheading bringing back! Keep an eye out for the CCG table setup around campus, we’ll be giving away produce and flowers as long as we have things to give<3  On Friday afternoon we were in the garden for our weekly volunteer work party. It was great to see some new faces, and the grey day managed to get a bit sunny while we were together! This week we were getting ready for winter with weeding, pruning, and emptying hoses. We got a lot done and had a lovely time with everyone! Coming up, we’ll be starting to advertise for our Semi Annual General Meeting (SAGM) this week. The SAGM is going to take place on the afternoon of November 19th, and we’d love to see you there! Keep an eye on our Instagram and/or our website for more details. We’ve also got a board meeting this week! On Tuesday afternoon at 3:30pm we’ll be meeting with our board in SUB B025 to discuss everything that’s going on with the garden. If you’re interested, you’re welcome to join the meeting to learn more about the garden, about being a board member, and just to chat with some rad folks! On Wednesday afternoon we start building the new accessible garden bed, so it may be a bit loud in the garden on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon! We’re planning to put the finishing touches in on Friday, and have the new bed ready before reading week starts. We’ll definitely be having a celebration of sorts once it’s all done, so keep an eye out for information on that! And, of course, on Friday we’ll have our usual volunteer work party from 2-4pm! Come join us in the garden to learn some new skills, ask any questions you might have, meet some fun people, and spend time in the lovely garden space! No experience is ever necessary, and we love having new folks joining our community :) That’s all from me for this week, I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend and that you have a great new week!
Happy gardening, Jessi Happy Friday! October has almost come to an end, which means winter is on its way! In the garden, the end of the season means there’s lots to be done in terms of preparing the garden beds for winter and getting any final in-garden tasks done before we shift our time to be more in the office and preparing for spring. One of those tasks, which happened this week, was cleaning out the greenhouses! They’ve now been hosed down to clear out any buildup, and are ready for winter. If you see Kate or Lyndsay around, say thanks to them for getting this big job done! Another exciting thing going on is that our two new work-studies are now hired! You may have already seen them helping out around the garden, they are Lucy and Henry and they’re both super lovely :-) We were also out in the garden this week to do some harvesting and continuing to work on disassembling pallets to reuse the wood in future projects! We had our biweekly board meeting on Tuesday, where we chatted about what we’ve been working on and what’s coming up! We always have lots of administrative tasks and whatnot going on in the background of the garden, and it’s so great to have such a dedicated team this year to work on these things with! This week we also worked on the 3rd edition of Sundew, the garden journal! We spent Wednesday afternoon collaging to put this one together, and I’m soooo excited to see how it turned out! This one’s supposed to be out on Friday, November 1st (but might even be printed a bit sooner, in time to come out on Halloween!). Keep an eye on our Instagram to see confirmed dates. This afternoon we had our Friday work party, a dedicated afternoon every week where we invite volunteers to come help staff with various tasks depending on the week! This week we focused on cleaning up and winterizing garden beds. The weather was chilly but it didn’t rain, so we’ll take that as a positive! We had a couple mini working groups doing some weeding, raking, and trimming. Thanks to everyone who joined us, the garden always feels a lot warmer with pals around<3 Coming up next week, we’ve got our Candle Making workshop (+ trick or treating) happening on October 31st! Join our board member Elyse on Halloween at 11am-12:30pm in SUB B028 to learn to make your own candles, and/or stop by our office anytime during the day until 4pm to grab a piece of candy! We can’t wait to see your costumes!   That’s it from me for this week, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Happy gardening, Jessi Happy Sunday! This week, after the unseasonably warm long weekend we had, has felt noticeably more like fall - the leaves are changing colours on the trees and starting to become crunchy under my shoes, the air is cooler, and the sun is going down earlier! It definitely is also feeling like midterm-season. The stress is palpable around campus, and I’ve been especially grateful for the escape of the garden whenever I can get it. The blog is out a bit later this week because I have a midterm paper due tonight that I've been working on. Thanks to many cafe and library hours it is almost done! Reading break is around the corner, and I think everyone is looking forward to it! This past week at the garden was pretty focused on a couple bigger tasks: working on plot renewals, accessible bed planning, and harvesting!  We also ran a garlic planting workshop on Wednesday, where our Coordinator, Lyndsay, showed us her tips and tricks for planting garlic and readying it for the winter months. We were lucky with the weather - it was a sunny afternoon before the rain started about an hour after we’d finished the workshop! We had a great time meeting new folks and seeing some familiar faces :) We ran our usual Friday volunteer work party in the rain this week! We focused on salvaging wood from old pallets to be used in upcoming projects, like the accessible bed and new composters, and got a lot done! Thanks to everyone who came out to lend a hand - we appreciate our dedicated community so much!!
Next week, we’ve got a board meeting on Tuesday, October 22nd at 3:30 in SUB B025. If you’ve ever thought about getting more involved with the CCG, come chat with us! We’d love to tell you more about the board and what being a member means :) Also coming up is our Candle Making workshop (+ trick or treating!) on October 31st!! Keep an eye on our Instagram for details! I hope everyone had a great weekend! Happy gardening, Jessi Happy Friday, and happy long weekend! The weather is supposed to be pretty nice this weekend, and I’m really looking forward to being able to spend some more time outside! This week was a bit more relaxed at the ccg, with midterms going on and some staff away right now. My week was mostly spent working to get ready for building our new accessible bed! We’ve been meeting to go over plans, taking inventory of what materials we already have and what we still need, and working on finishing up the removal of the old bed as well as salvaging wood from old pallets! We’re almost ready to start building, and I’m getting very excited to finish up this project. There are a few things that need to happen first though, mostly involving materials that we don’t already have in the garden. One of those is that we are on the hunt for 16 cinderblocks! If anyone knows of anywhere we might be able to find some cinderblocks for free, please reach out! We’re also looking to source some fabric, which will go on top of wooden slats and chicken wire to provide a base for the soil in the tabletop-style garden bed. We’ve reached out to some cafes about using some of those big burlap-y coffee bean bags, but are open to other possibilities! If anyone has any ideas, let me know!  On Tuesday we had our biweekly board meeting, and even added a few new members to our board! We discussed what we’ve been working on, voted on some upcoming projects, and reviewed our budget for this year with our new board members! If you’re interested in getting more involved with the garden, becoming a board member is an awesome way - feel free to come out to board meetings even if you aren’t sure about being a member, they’re open to everyone and are a great way to get to know the behind-the-scenes of our work at the ccg :) On Thursday we had the first of our biweekly collab events with the Society for Students with a Disability (SSD)! This week we focused on seed saving, and in two weeks (Oct 24th) we’ll be doing a tea making workshop! Join us between 1-3pm for a chill afternoon of chatting, learning, and hanging out!  This afternoon we had another weekly volunteer work party! This week’s focus was on transplanting potted plants into their forever homes in the garden! If you’re interested in lending a hand in the garden, come out to one of our Friday work parties! They’re drop-in style, usually held between 2-4pm, and are the best way to get familiar with the space, meet others who are interested in gardening, and learn new skills - there’s no experience necessary, and everyone is learning together so the vibe is very relaxed! If you have any questions about volunteering, reach out to us! Coming up this week, we’ve got a garlic planting workshop on Wednesday! For this one we’ll be in the garden planting some of the garlic we’ve saved from our harvests this season. We’ll share our tips and tricks, answer any questions you might have, and have a lovely time together in the dirt! No sign-ups are needed, just show up for 2pm ready to learn!  That’s all I’ve got for this week :) I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!!
Happy gardening, Jessi The first week of October is already almost over! The temperature has noticeably dropped, the trees are starting to change colours, and there’s a certain spooky-ness in the air. Fall is a great time in the garden, because there is sooo much harvesting to do! There are lots of people around the garden, and lots of people encouraging others to take some of their abundant harvests! We love to see everyone using and enjoying the garden space, and as is probably obvious, seeing folks sharing food warms our little hearts<3 Speaking of sharing food, my first update is that our annual Harvest Party is this afternoon! It’s rainy this morning, but the forecast for the afternoon is dry and we are hoping to maybe even see a bit of sunshine (but even if we don’t, we have tents that will be set up to keep everyone dry and comfy). I picked up a bunch of pumpkins this morning (shoutout to Country Grocer in Esquimalt for giving me a discount on these!!), we’re picking up the zucchini racetrack this afternoon, and we’re meeting volunteers in the garden at 2pm to get everything set up! Starting at 3pm, we’ll have a potluck, pumpkin carving, zucchini racing, seed saving, crafting, games, and more going on in the garden. Join us anytime from 3 ‘till sundown!!  This week was a little different for us - with some staff away and some special projects going on we had to shift our focus a bit. One of the main things going on in our office this week was our hiring committee hard at work conducting interviews for our two open work-study positions. We had some really amazing applicants and the decisions have been tough, but we are so excited to welcome some new members to our team! If you interviewed with us, you should hear back either today or early next week (just because of approvals needed before we can send out our emails). On Tuesday afternoon we were supposed to have our beekeeping workshop with Barry, but because of a miscommunication with the scheduling the beekeeping workshop pivoted into an edible fower workshop and garden tour! We’re so grateful to our community for their understanding and their adaptability, and we ended up having such a fun afternoon meeting new folks, trying new things, making bouquets of flowers, and learning more about the garden! The beekeeping workshop will be rescheduled for another time this year (probably in the Spring!), so keep an eye out for that if you are interested! Things settle down a bit event-wise over the next week, which is great because it gives us a bit more time to focus on all of the other things we have going on! The new accessible bed is going to be built this month, the third issue of Sundew comes out November 1st, we’ll have two new staff members joining us, we have SO much harvesting to do, and we’ll be working to get the garden ready for winter very soon! Of course, we do have some more events coming up this month - we’ll be doing a garlic planting workshop in the garden on October 16th, and on the 31st we have a candle-making workshop and trick-or-treating! Keep an eye on our Instagram for details about those :)
That’s it for me today - I hope to see some of your this afternoon at the Harvest Party! But even if I don’t see you this afternoon, I hope you have a wonderful weekend<3 Happy gardening, Jessi Happy Friday everyone!! The end of the month is around the corner, and I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone! Fall is a busy harvesting time for us, and it’s such a great time to be in the garden. This week we harvested 28lbs 8.8oz of fresh produce to donate to the Food Bank! We also donated some veggies to our friends over at Multifaith, for the first Belonging Dinner of the school year! We had a board meeting on Tuesday and voted in a new board member! If you’re looking for a way to get more involved in the work that the garden does, becoming a member of our board is awesome! We have meetings every second Tuesday afternoon where we chat about what’s going on with the garden and make decisions together. Board members also work on special projects, work with staff on various events and garden tasks, and help to make the ccg the best it can be! If you’re interested, you’re welcome to pop by a board meeting anytime!   On Wednesday we were tabling at the UVSS Night Market, which was super fun!! There were so many awesome vendors (we had to stop walking around because there was too much cool stuff to buy!), the live music was great, and we loved chatting with folks in a more casual environment! We shared some of the events that are coming up, and reminded everyone of the Sundew submission deadline at the end of the month! Speaking of Sundew, that deadline is coming up soon! If you’re interested in submitting any work to the 3rd issue, which will come out in November, send ‘em our way by Monday! You can check the submission info here. Thursday was a busy day, with lots of meetings and progress being made on some projects! Our hiring panel met to chat about the applications we received for our two work study positions, and we’ve got interviews coming up next week! We also chatted with our pal Sona, who’s writing a piece about the ccg for HerCampus UVic - keep an eye on our socials for that in the coming month or so! Finally, we got together with our Accessible Bed team to discuss details for our upcoming build - we’ve just about finalized the materials and the last considerations (drainage, height, etc.) and we are SO excited to get started on the last part of this project that’s been in the works since the Spring! If you’re interested in helping out with building the bed, shoot me an email at [email protected] to be kept in the loop :)  We also represented our journal, Sundew, at This Side of West’s open mic on Thursday night! We had so much fun, and the event was so sweet! Our Assistant Coordinator, Juls, snapped some pictures that I’ll share here because they capture the ~vibes~ (you know, a picture is worth a thousand words :p). Today we held our weekly Friday volunteer work party, and had a great time soaking up the sun with everyone! Volunteers helped out with weeding, fertilizing, and sewing seeds, and picked veggies to harvest at the end. It was such a gorgeous day to hang out in the garden! Coming up next week, we’ve got our beekeeping workshop with Barry the Beekeeper on Wednesday, October 2nd at 2pm! Join us in the garden to learn about bees, what it’s like to be a beekeeper, and even try some yummy honey! Barry will have jars available for purchase as well, if anyone is interested :)  And finally, the one we’ve all been waiting for: our annual Harvest Party is happening next Friday, October 4th! From 3pm - sundown folks are invited to join us in the garden to celebrate the new season! We’ll have pumpkin carving, seed saving, painting, games, and even zucchini racing! This is a potluck-style event, so we’re asking everyone to bring something to share (but if you can’t or can only bring a little bit, that’s okay!). We’d also recommend bringing containers/plates/bowls and utensils so that you can partake! Maybe a cup/mug as well, as there’s often drinks to share and we’ll have tea available. If you have any questions or are interested in getting involved, feel free to reach out to us via email or on Instagram.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I hope to see some of you next week at one of our events!!
Happy gardening, Jessi Happy Saturday! It’s hard to believe the third week of school is over, but here we are. It’s definitely noticeable that we’re at the end of the summer, but this week did give us some sunny and warm afternoons! The first thing I want to share is some exciting news! If you follow our Instagram, you may have seen recently that our farm stand was unfortunately vandalized, with one of the wheels being stolen and the other destroyed. This was a pretty unfortunate event, especially because we’d just finished fixing the wheels a couple of days before. We posted about it on our Instagram, to let people know that the farm stand would have to be retired for the rest of the season and to see if anyone might be able to help us find some new wheels. The wonderful Campus BikeHub reached out to let us know they could help us get some, so we’ll be able to fix the stand very soon! A huge thank you to them for their kindness!!  On Tuesday afternoon we got together with our Board to spend some time in our shared garden plot. We did some weeding and some repairing of borders, shared stories, and enjoyed our time together in the sun :-) On Thursday we had our first-ever Friends of the Garden get-together! This meet-and-greet style event was a chance for board members, plot renters, staff, volunteers, and other garden supporters to get to know one another, share food, and spend some time together in the garden! We had such a fun afternoon, the weather was super cooperative, the food everyone brought to share was delicious, and we got to meet so many new folks. Thank you to everyone who came out, and if you missed this one, we’re definitely thinking about doing more of these casual hang-out type of events for our community to come together and connect! Keep an eye out for future get-togethers, and in the meantime, don’t forget about the Harvest Party coming up on October 4th! Speaking of the Harvest Party, it’s only a few weeks away! On Friday, October 4th we’ll be back in the garden for this annual autumn celebration, where we’ll share food, carve pumpkins, race zuccinis, do some crafting, and just enjoy the end of the season in the garden! This is a staple CCG event, and definitely not one to miss. Everyone is invited to the party, so grab your friends and your families and come welcome the new season with us!  Coming up this week, we’ll be at the UVSS Night Market on Wednesday from 5-9pm! We’ll also be representing the CCG’s quarterly journal, SUNDEW, at This Side of West’s open mic on Thursday night at Cadboro Bay Beach! And as always, on Friday afternoon from 2-4pm we’ll have our weekly work party!   Last but not least, I have a few housekeeping updates for you. The first is just a heads up/reminder that it is now powdery mildew season. Second, we’re dealing with a pretty big wasp nest near the entrance gate right now, which we’ve reached out to a professional about. They should be gone by the end of the week, but keep an eye on our social media to hear what day they’ll be removed. Finally, another reminder that it’s time to top tomatoes if you haven’t yet, and pinch buds to encourage ripening of crops!
That’s it for this week, I hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy gardening, Jessi The first full week of school is over! Somehow this week felt very long but also went by very quickly. We’ve been meeting lots of new students, doing lots of harvesting, and continuing to plan for the fall:) This was a busy week of tabling for us at the ccg! We were at CCU days on Wednesday and Thursday, and spent Friday at the SSD’s Mental Health Resource Fair. Tabling is so much fun because we’re able to give away free food and flowers while introducing ourselves to so many students and telling them about our programs! We’ve got lots of fun workshops and events coming up this fall, so we’ve been sharing some sneak peaks with students to give them an idea of our work. It’s always great to see the smiles on peoples’ faces when you give them a sunflower or a bunch of kale!  We also held our Welcome Work Party yesterday! All of our work parties are always open to everyone, and no experience is ever required, but today was a special work party tailored to introducing new volunteers to the space and to our work. It was so awesome to see so many new faces out in the garden!! Our work parties are continuing to take place on Friday afternoons between 2-4pm, so even if you missed the one today, we’d love to see you on another Friday! Coming up, we have a special board meeting on Tuesday afternoon! This is our board meet & greet, where staff and board members will spend some time together doing work in our shared garden plot and getting to know the space and each other a bit better :) We’ve also got a very exciting event on Thursday afternoon/evening, the Friends of the Garden get-together! This event is a casual drop-in potluck for all friends of the garden (plot renters, board members, staff, volunteers, community members), a chance to connect with other gardeners, ask questions and learn, share food, and spend some time in the space! This is the first event in our fall events lineup, where this year we’re striving to provide more opportunities to connect as a community. More information can be found here on our Instagram, and we would love to see you there! That’s all I’ve got for this week! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :)
Happy gardening, Jessi Happy Sunday, and a big congratulations to everyone who finished their first week back at school :) I took a little break from the blog last week, because I was busy driving back to Victoria from Ontario! So, this week will be a special ‘end-of-summer’ edition of the ccg blog! The last week of August was another busy one here. We held our last Wednesday work party of the summer, as we’re going back to once-a-week work parties on Fridays during the school year! Volunteers helped with getting plots ready for new renters, because it’s plot renewal season and we have some new renters coming into the space. So if you see anyone around the garden who looks new, say hi! Another exciting thing that happened this week was the Farm Crawl! On Friday, August 30th, we teamed up with the UVic Sustainability Project and the Community Action Bus to put on this awesome event! We traveled around on the big blue bus, stopping at Haliburton Farm, Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse, and the CCG, to learn about farming and food systems in our community. We had an absolute blast with everyone, and we are excited to continue this event in the coming years! This past week was also jam packed for us, as the start of the school year always is! We kicked off the week on Monday tabling at the Residence Move-In Fair, where we gave out flowers from the garden and introduced ourselves to a whole bunch of new students! On Thursday evening we held our last Poetry Picnic of the season, featuring Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi. We had a packed audience for the last one, and filled our open mic lineup too! It’s been so wonderful to see the Poetry Picnics grow over the summer, and this season finale ended the summer on such a sweet note! Thank you to everyone who’s come out, whether to participate or just listen. We love to use the garden space for non-garden events and activities, and it’s always so great to see how vibrant and creative our community is!  On Friday we spent the day tabling at Thunderfest, and we met SO many people!! Some of our staff did some harvesting in the morning, so we had lots of food and flowers to share with folks, as well as a sneak-peak at some upcoming Fall events! We’ve also had our second-edition of Sundew available for purchase at our tabling events for sliding-scale $2-10, and the sales have been going super well!  Speaking of which, I wanted to remind everyone that submissions for our third-edition of Sundew (coming out in November) are open now! They’ll be open all month, so if you have any pieces of writing, or art, or anything really, send em our way! Our website has more information about submitting, so check it out here if you’re interested! We also held our first work party of the school year on Friday afternoon, and had some new faces come out to volunteer. Our official “Welcome Work Party” is next Friday, September 13th, from 2-4pm and we expect to see lots of new people there! If you’ve been thinking about coming to a work party, this will be a great intro one - grab your friends and come spend an afternoon learning some new skills, meeting new people, and getting your hands dirty!  Coming up, we’ve got tons more tabling this week! We’ll be at CCU Days on Wednesday and Thursday, and at the Mental Health Resource Fair on Friday! If you have any questions, want to learn more about the ccg, or just want to say hey, stop by. We can’t wait to meet you!
That’s all from me for now, I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend! Happy gardening, Jessi |
