Community Garden Party at Oswald Park Community Garden – March 24, 2023

Highlights

• 56 community members of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels joined us and contributed 144 volunteer hours total
  • Thank you so much for your hard work and for making this day amazing: Kelly, Chiaki, Kansas, Elizabeth, Bren, Tiago, Rob, Huiqian, Nano, Oliver, Luc, Caitlin, Madeline, KP, Debbie, Rebecca, Taylor, Layanna, Nate, Erik, Kazuki, David, John, David, Gerald, Mark, Shona, Emily, Yvonne, Jing, Yura, Wenqing, Cindy, and all of the folks from the Cridge Center and Victoria Community Connections!
• 10 cubic metres of compost material and leaf mulch were moved and spread over garden beds!
  • Mulch & compost are important for creating healthy soil as we move into the growing season!
• Around 15 signs & decorations were painted to further beautify the space and foster stronger sense of belonging and community connection to this space
• Over 50 pots of seeds were planted and taken home by participants
  • Seeds included organic kale, arugula, lettuce, nasturtiums, calendula, sunflowers!
• We removed about 1cubic metre of weeds from garden beds, pathways, and along the fence!
• 37 participants visited Oswald Park for the first time
• 21 participants were introduced to gardening for the first time
• 16 participants live in the Oaklands neighbourhood

This activity was run in collaboration with Oaklands Community Association. The support of the City of Victoria My Great Neighbourhood Grant made this activity possible, and we appreciate their commitment to empowering the community in carrying out public education and participation in food security initiatives!

Community members enjoyed exploring their creative sides while contributing the larger project—signs and decorations were created for the garden!

An important focus for this activity was to engage the local community to increase participation in the garden by local neighbours! One young neighbour saw the flyer and insisted on joining the garden party! We love to see eager young community members helping out!

Before & After Photos

On Saturday March 24th, 2023, the Greater Victoria Green Team hosted a community garden work party in collaboration with Oaklands Community Association! 56 awesome community members spent the afternoon removing weeds and distributing mulch and compost through Oswald Park community garden.

Community gardens in general play a lot of key roles in local neighbourhoods, from providing a haven for urban pollinators and birds to increasing food security for the people who use them! Most importantly, they are a space where local community members can come together, meet each other, and foster connections with their neighbours. We are so grateful and inspired to have been a part of that process for the participants of Friday’s activity! The folks who volunteered spanned a wide range of ages, backgrounds, experience levels and abilities, and it was an absolute delight to see so many people from so many different walks of life working together and making new friends.

The Oswald Park Community Garden is a project of Oaklands Community Association, and was installed last year after several years of planning. Oaklands Community Association is looking for volunteers who want to help out with managing the communal garden beds on a more regular basis! If you’re interested in learning more about the garden, or helping out at future work parties, send an email to Haneen at haneen@oaklandsca.com.

This big pile of mulch & compost material that was moved and spread throughout the garden beds through the dedicated teamwork of our volunteers! Awesome job everyone!

Volunteer Testimonials

 

“This was my first time volunteering here, and I enjoyed learning new skills!”

– Anonymous

“Fantastic! By providing the opportunity for each of us to get involved, it deepened our connection to helping the environment!”

-Yvonne

“it’s such a good feeling to be able to give back. It feels like really meaningful work and really rewarding!

-Madeline

Community in Action!

Click the arrows on the photo below to see more of our favourite moments from the day!

Thank you to Lush for donating eco-gifts for our hard-working community members to take home!

Our community members took home a thank you gift from one of our in-kind supporters! If you have any suggestions for sustainable/eco-friendly rewards, know of or own a business who would like to provide in-kind to our Green Team, please contact Kaitlin at kaitlin@greenteamscanada.ca

This activity was organized by the Greater Victoria Green Team‘s Interim Program Manager, Kaitlin Warren and Program Coordinator, Maria Varem, along with the Oakland Community Association‘s Food Security Coordinator, Haneen Ghebari!

Thank you OCA for collaborating with us on this amazing project!