Kits Village Gardeners

contact: Ross ross@villagevancouver.ca

other Kits Village food related groups: We Can Do the Can Canning (mostly Kits Villagers, plus others), Kits Village Seed Savers/Kits Seed Library, Drop-in Spaghetti Nights, KV Plastic Recycling Depot (Monthly or semi-monthly. See Event postings. Usually on the 3rd Thursday of the month.)

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KIS VILLAGE VANCOUVER COLLABORATIVE GARDEN (at the Billy Bishop)

Kits Transition Village VVers are pleased to be working with the Billy Bishop to create a new collaborative community garden in Kits! Now in our 9th year, we've put a lot of effort into creating a family oriented collaborative garden where villagers can learn from one another,  grow more food, and have fun! VV member Angela Squires (who is very active in the Billy) and Kits Village convenor Ross Moster talked with the Billy in 201-11 about the mutual benefits of having a community garden, and then invited Kits Villagers to participate.

To date, we've built a trellis and several terraces, worked to build the soil up, planted lots of seeds and seedlings, and grown lots of food. City Farmer generously donated a compost bin to Village, and the City of Vancouver has a program which gives free compost to qualified new community gardens, and our little garden got a whole truckload of compost.

That was a lot of compost, but we made good use of it!

We do grounds maintenance, and the Billy and some garden members make tools available, and members have donated seeds and seedlings, as has the Kits Village Seed Library, etc. We've received some small neighbourhood grants which we've used and continue to use to buy more garden tools, including a wheelbarrow, more seeds and seedlings, etc. Gardeners bring varying degrees of gardening experience to the garden. We work together, hope to learn from one another, and will share the harvest.

For further information: Ross ross@vllagevancouver.ca.

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WESTSIDE COLLABORATIVE GARDEN

In 2009, Kits Neighbourhood House indicated interest in starting a Westside Collaborative garden in the parking lot area of the Neighbour House. A number of groups and community memebrs volunteered to participate in getting the garden going - Westside Food Security Collaborative, Canadian Cancer Society (Westside branch), volunteers at Kits House, and Village Vancouver, and Kits House provided a staff person to help with coordination and a small budget for seeds, tools, etc.. Compost was brought in, beds created, and lots of food harvested, some of which was donated to low income food programs. Many Kits Village VV members participated in 2009-11.

With Kits House undergoing a full renovation starting January 2012 (which will last for a couple years), the garden has re-emerged this year as a small balcony garden at  the Kits House temporary location near 4th and Alma.

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PERMACULTURE FOOD FORESTS

A Permaculture garden was created in Kits on April 17, 2011 by 2 dozen Villagers. A second 2nd food forest with a healing focus was created in June 2012 in Kits by another dozen  Villagers. We're always looking for spaces for future projects -- so if you know of any potential locations, please contact ross@villagevancouver.ca

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KITS VILLAGE POTLUCK, VISIONING SESSION  and STEERING COMMITTEE FORMATION: Saturday, May 28 - NEXT GATHERING IN JULY: STAY TUNED!

Join us for an exciting Kits Village potluck and visioning session on Saturday, May 28th!

grow more food? use less energy?  Permaculture design? save seeds? beekeeping? share tools? create more community? potlucks? have fun while living more sustainability? dinner co-ops? chickens? street reclaiming? community currency? book exchange? build benches and community bulletin boards? block parties? movie nights? fruit orchards? soup 'n shares?  dropin spaghetti nights? swap fruits and veggies?  community composting? more neighbourhood self-reliance?

RSVP here.

Agenda:

11-noon Free compost pickup at collaborative gardenOur village collaborative garden received a large truckload of compost from the city last week & we have a couple meters left over. If you'd like some, bring a container. (We'll provide a few shovels.) 1st come, 1st serve.

11:30-noon Billy Bishop collaborative garden open house 15 Kits Villagers (including a number of children) currently participate in this new garden.

noon-12:30 Permaculture food forest open house Last month 2 dozen VVer's (1/2 from Kits) turned a front lawn into a food forest, installing an inexpensive drip irrigation system, building a swale, & planting various perennials, including berry bushes, kiwis, a fig whip, and herbs.

12:15 potluck

1 pm In Transition film screening (potluck continues)

2 pm Overview of Village Vancouver & the worldwide Transition Town movementResponding to peak oil/"peak everything"), climate change/disruption, & economic instability by connecting neighbours to grow more food, build community self-reliance, & have fun!

2:20 Break

2:30 Visioning Kits Village

Discussion of our history & activities, inc. presentations from neighbourhood small grant recipients (Kits Villagers received several grants for beekeeping, canning, seed swapping/saving, fruit tree planting, a Permaculture demo garden, a public bench/book share nook/bulletin board making, tool sharing, neighbourhood movie nights, a car free day block party, etc.). 

Other current projects  -- Be the Change Action Circle, block by block backyard composting, community wide Kits Car Free Day Block Parties, Green Living Wall installation, Westside Collaborative Garden at Kits House, NOW BC Food  Co-op depots in Kits -- & regular activities inc. potlucks/garden parties, movie nights, soup 'n shares, & dropin spaghetti nights  

Kits Village as a Neighbourhood Food Network: How can Kits Villagers with different projects work together to help form a resilient grassroots local food web?

For example, the collaborative gardens could work w/seed savers to collect seeds from the gardens, w/local businesses to collect compostable for the gardens, w/the canning project to can and preserve fruits and veggies for the winter, provide gardening tools to use by tool library users, & work w/beekeepers to plant more pollinators in the gardens.

The Permaculture demo garden could teach other gardens how to incorporate permaculture design principles into their gardens. Information on available garden space in Kits could be made available to people looking for space to grow. Food from the gardens & fruit trees could be shared at the potlucks & movie nights, & we could organize a communitywide celebration featuring food grown mostly or entirely in Kits. Food oriented social enterrprises could be created.

Kits Village as a Localized Economy: How can Kits Villagers with different projects work together to help build a resilient local economy?

For example, the bench building project could donate tools to the tool library. We can talk to VV's Community Currency project about creating a local currency here - Kits Kash? Mapping our assets & resources could allow us to meet more and more of our needs locally. (More borrowing & sharing & less buying new, consumption and waste.)Some monthly village potlucks could be themed to discuss local economy projects.

"Reskilling" DIY workshops could be held to teach basic skills like sewing & mending. We could hold swap, barter & give away gathering & organize work parties to help each other and our community.

Discussion of new projects/ideas: Collaborate w/farmers in VV's Fraser Valley Farmers group to bring food into Kits Village (eg. things we're not currently growing), host one of the monthly VV meetups, form a dinner co-op, create a local currency...what else?

Lots of possibilities! New ideas welcome! What are you interested in? What would you like to see happen?

3:45-4:15 Next Steps: Where do we go from here? Discussion & formation of Kits Village Steering Committee

4:15 Adjourment & Brief KV Steering Committee meetingSo far, 4 or 5 people have expressed interest in being on the steering committee -- there's room for a few more!

Bring your ideas and interests and let's see what emerges. Address will be sent to RSVPers.Kids welcome.

RSVP here.

See you on Saturday,

Ross

Kits Village convenor