New community gardens are sprouting in the West Shore.
Colwood’s newest community garden, located next to the City Hall parking lot on Wishart Road, will be home to roughly 40 four-foot by eight-foot plots that will be rented out for residents to grow a variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers in an effort to help build community.
“There’s so many benefits to community gardens,” said Barbara Sibbald, vice president of the Colwood Garden Society, who has lived in the municipality for the past 15 years. “When a community works together for something, they tend to bond. Every time a community can bond a little more you have a safer community.”
The garden will also be used as a teaching garden for students at Wishart Elementary school, and some of the produce will be donated to the Goldstream Food Bank. A number of plots will also be wheelchair accessible.
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Plans for the garden have been in the works since 2014. Sibbald said with more people moving into condominiums and apartments, there’s less opportunities to set up their own garden.
For Sibbald, her home is heavily shaded and doesn’t allow enough sunlight for fruits and vegetables to grow.
When she heard about the garden society, she jumped at the chance to be a part of it so she could grow beets, beans, strawberries, kale, butternut squash, broccoli and brussel sprouts.
“I enjoy the peace and working with the soil and the peacefulness that you get when you’re gardening,” Sibbald said. “I’m just amazed I can put a seed into the ground and add a little bit of water and it will grow. To me, that’s an amazing part of nature.”
As part of a work party organized recently, a handful of volunteers came together to dig the holes needed for the garden. The next work party is on Saturday, June 9, when volunteers hope to put up an eight-foot-high fence to keep deer out.
While the society plans on having the garden ready for use by late summer, Sibbald said there are already big plans for it.
She also hopes to add a little library and a bench one day.
Plots will be leased annually from January to December for $45. For more information on the Colwood Garden Society visit colwoodgardensociety.wordpress.com.
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The Highlands Park and Recreation Association has also been busy getting its first community garden off the ground. The garden at 729 Finlayson Arm Rd., will feature a number of garden boxes and irrigation. The association has been working on bringing a garden to District residents since 2015.
Last year the site was excavated and work parties built a fence. Initial garden boxes were completed and filled with soil in March, and a grand opening is scheduled for June 24.
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