November 3, 2024

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 :)
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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