We define gardening as one of those perfect activities that feed the soul as well as the body because it allows us to become partners with nature as we coax beauty and nourishment out of the earth. As such, our mission is to support and create opportunities for all residents of City of Kawartha Lakes, regardless of circumstances, to have access to garden allotments within their own local communities.

 

~  We value life in all its forms.

To that end, all of our garden endeavours will operate free of pesticides and other harmful chemicals. In that way they will serve to enrich the earth rather than depleting it

 

~  We value clean safe water, food and the earth that sustains us.

To that end, we will use gardening techniques that will minimize our demands on the watershed. These will include but not be restricted to the use of rain barrels, ground cover, the encouraging of no tillage, careful monitoring of watering practices on all sites and careful application of organic fertilizers

 

~  We value the enrichment of lives that clean, safe, healthy gardening offers.

To that end we will provide opportunities for members to participate in community gardens regardless of their age or circumstances

 

~  We value community and the rich, positive dialogue that gardens can encourage throughout the community.

To that end we will encourage and support dialogue through our web site, local workshops, information sessions and special events throughout the communitygarden.ca network

 

~  We value the knowledge and experience that many elderly gardeners bring to the community.

To that end we will endeavour to provide circumstances through which knowledge and techniques can be shared. These could include mentoring partnerships between experienced and novice gardeners, specially designed garden plots that accommodate special needs and minimizing access barriers to gardeners

 

~  We value memories that last a lifetime.

To that end we will endeavour to ensure that every garden member’s  experiences as part of the community gardens network are rich and positive.

 

Description of the project

 

Our project is to encourage and facilitate the building community gardens across the city. We recognize that community gardens may mean different things to different people, so here are our guiding principles:

 

~  Community gardens are first and foremast community builders. They provide the opportunity for all residents of our city to engage in the process of coaxing life out of the ground. Not everyone has the access to land suitable for gardening. Not everyone has the skill or experience to grow a garden of his/her own. Not everyone can afford the time to prepare, plant, care for and harvest a garden alone. Our goal is the support all members of the city that want to be involved in gardening by providing  safe, suitable land at an affordable price, providing support and equipment, mentoring if needed, and a garden manager to oversee the running of the entire project. We believe that gardeners love to share their love of gardening and that through this sharing our varied communities can be drawn closer together.

 

~  Community gardens help individuals and social support institutions to place clean, safe local food on the table. Our member organizations and individuals hope to supplement their food budgets with their own home grown food.

 

~  Community gardens provide a locally sponsored source of healthy activity. Gardening serves both the body and the soul. Studies have established that gardening lowers stress levels, aids in slowing the aging process, helps to provide opportunities for bonds across generations to develop, provides opportunities for youth at risk to serve the community and at the same time learn valuable therapeutic skills as well as social skills, provides value to the acquired knowledge of the elderly and information to the young.

 

~  Community gardens provide a vehicle for all gardeners to learn new techniques while working together.

 

~  Community gardens provide a means of lowering our carbon footprint by using local instead of imported food. In this way we as a community can say that we are doing our part to mitigate climate change.

 

~  Community gardens are a source of growth of understanding of the planet on which we live. As we learn new techniques we develop the skills to expand our environmental activities beyond the garden. We learn to appreciate the value and vulnerability of fresh water. We learn to differentiate between the safety of organically grown food and that of commercially grown monoculture products that have been treated with pesticides.

 

~  Community gardens help low income earners to eat clean, safe, healthy food at much lower cost than they otherwise could.

 

~  Community gardens can provide workshops in organic garden techniques, cooking, preparing baby food, salad making, preserving, floral arranging, landscape gardening, feng shui, therapy gardens, or any other of a myriad of connected interests.