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NOV 2011: OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE MORE VILLAGE GARDENS
Community Garden Expression of Interest 
It's anticipated that there will be another EOI cycle in Fall 2012.

OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE MORE VILLAGE GARDENS!

Community Garden Expression of Interest

The City of Vancouver is asking residents to send in expressions of interest to help identify potential new community garden sites. For instance, a potential site could be vacant land at the end of a block, land parallel to streets, areas of park, etc. The list of potential community garden sites will help prioritize community garden support for upcoming years.

Find out more and fill out the form (WORD, 354KB)

Deadline is November 30, 2011.

View the Operational Guidelines for Community Gardens (PDF, 48KB)

Starting a new community garden

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May 2011

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

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Oct 2010 

KITS VILLAGE OCTOBER POTLUCK -- TUESDAY, OCT 25 6-8 pm.

Bring something yummy to share. Near Cornwall and Arbutus. RSVP herefor address.

Next Potluck in NOVEMBER. Date TBD.