NEWS
Blog Posts
Celebrating 10 Years!
In 2023, we are excited to be Celebrating 10 Years as your community garden and arts society!
Volunteers Needed
We’re looking for volunteers. Please have a look at the positions descriptions below. Don’t hesitate to reach out for more info. See https://growingacadia.ca/volunteer/ for more info!
Important Announcement
We need your help to save the food forest!
Please take 5 minutes to help your community and make your voice heard
Reason: Development permit application in review with The City of Calgary to pave over the food forest for 6 parking stalls
What can you do? You can help by writing an email or letter to The City and our Ward Office.
Summary of the issue: The school next to the garden has applied for a development permit to pave over the food forest to create parking stalls and a place for their dumpsters. Their motivation is to address safety concerns with picking up and dropping off children before and after school and to provide additional parking for their staff.
In the spirit of a friendly solution, ACGAS board has researched and proposed several alternative solutions, such as amending parking bans on the street, installing traffic calming measures, and starting a crossing guard program.
If you would like to share your thoughts about the community, trees, food security, pollinators, climate resilience, access to green spaces, and the well-being of residents of Acadia by keeping the food forest as it is, please join us in opposing the paving of the food forest!
We have the following documents available to help you create your letter, know who and where to send your comments, and understanding the situation in greater detail:
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Email template and contact addresses
- Sample letter points
- Letter template
If you would like access to these documents please send an email to our acting President, Melissa Paquette at president@growingacadia.ca and she will send you the package!
Thank you,
Your board of directors
Hello Acadia! – October 2021
As summer turns to fall, we have the opportunity to reflect on the growing season.
What went well.
What didn’t.
It’s the time of year when I say, why on earth do I keep trying to grow cauliflower? I’m terrible at growing cauliflower! And because I’m not much of a journaler, by next year I’ll have forgotten that cauliflower doesn’t respect me and I’ll try it again, because gardening is ultimately about optimism.
You start out with a teeny, tiny, little seed, and with luck, you get a whole plant in return.
Take carrots for example. Carrots have some of the ittyist bittyist seeds. There are about ten million of them in the package and if you have the patience of a sloth or a saint or whatever, you can get ten million carrots for your trouble. Or six. I say six because you were probably tempted to just pour your seeds in a row like a stream of sand through an hourglass thinking, oh, I’ll just thin those later. But of course you didn’t. And now you’ve got six carrots with about a hundred legs each, all clumped up like an orange knot with a green hat on top. What’s the upside? You can Instagram the carrots, then eat them anyway. You can even eat the greens! Amazing!
Ah yes, there’s plenty to be positive about. How about the heat? We certainly had some heat this year. And before you tell me that climate change is nothing to be excited about, I’ve got four words for you: ripe tomatoes in July. That’s right. Nevermind that the spinach bolted in days, the peas were sad & shrunken, and the wild strawberries cooked on the vine. I had ripe tomatoes in July! Without a greenhouse! In Calgary! Amazing!
The critter population looked a little different this year too, wouldn’t you agree? I think I saw about five ladybugs, a few dozen aphids, a hundred slugs and about 800 million wasps. Now normally I’m battling slugs and aphids with all the tools of the trade. I wield a garden hose and a scraping trowel with the best of them. But this year I really didn’t need to. I think the wasps ate everything that moved in that garden. Me included, on occasion. They flew sorties through the plants like bats through a mosquito-laden swamp (another species I rarely encountered). They were incredible! If I’d dared to grow cabbage this year, it would have been picked clean. Too bad I didn’t. Still, an impressive year for the wasps.
Of course, even the most interesting of summers come to a close. It’s hard to say what’s in store for us. Though it’s early September as I’m writing this, my upbeat inner-gardener thinks we could still be growing in October. Maybe that lone pumpkin near the compost bin will turn orange one day! I may even get my potatoes out without digging through fifteen centimeters of snow! There’s still so much to look forward to when you garden in Calgary. It’s easy to lose track of all the blessings.
Joanne Klein
President
Acadia Community Garden and Art Society, Calgary
Acadia Community Garden & Art Society is committed to providing an environment free of discrimination and harassment, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, can contribute fully and have equal opportunities. If you experience any discrimination or harassment, please contact us on our phone or media sites.
Hello Acadia! – June 2021
BASICS OF COMPOSTING
Hello Acadia Neighborhood!
As we become more environmentally minded, perhaps composting comes to the minds of many. Last year Acadia Community Art and Garden Society started composting in our rotating compost tumblers which were generously donated to our garden. (A huge thankyou goes out to our valuable donators!)
It was the year of the learning curve – wrong things and some things right. We have since visited other community gardens who have been composting, watching composting webinars and YouTube videos and are learning lots! We hope to have a lovely pile of finished compost by the Fall for use in our garden!
Here are a few of the basics we have gleaned.
- The perfect compost ingredients are 1) greens, 2) browns, 3) air and 4) moisture.
- Ratio of 2 browns to 1 green seem to work well.
- Greens are the nitrogen part which help heat up the pile as they aid the microorganisms in the pile to grow and multiply quickly.
- Greens include grass clippings, fruit and vegetables peels and scraps, weeds (without the seeds), plants, tea leaves and tea bags, coffee grounds, and chicken manure (excellent compost ‘activator’). Do NOT use diseased plants.
- Browns are the carbon part whose main job is to be a food source for all the soil-dwelling organisms that work with the microbes. They also add bulk and allow air to filter through the pile.
- Browns include woods materials (wood chips, etc.), straw, sawdust, corn cobs, cardboard, and shredded paper. This is the biggest challenge – finding enough browns.
- All ingredients added need to be broken or cut into small pieces so there is more surface area subjected to air and moisture.
- Do NOT add meat, dairy, cooked items, fats and oils (which would cause the compost to smell) or evergreen tree parts. Also, avoid twigs and pieces of bigger wood as they take too long to break down.
- If your mixture smells sour or rotten, you have added too many greens or it is too wet. The compost should not be “stinky” smelly but should have a slightly sweet smell! (Who would have thought that!)
- Turning your ingredients often introduces more air and speeds up the decomposition.
- Add some water every few layers. You want moist – NOT soggy.
- As the microbes break the matter down, they give off heat. Temperatures can reach up to 65 degrees C. After the mixture cools, worms will move in to finish the process.
- Any large bits when composting is near finished can be sifted out and put in your next compost mixture.
- Composting can be done on the ground in a 3’ x 3’ space or using the rotating compost tumblers.
Composting is fun and the satisfaction of turning table scraps, grass clippings, and fall leaves into something which looks like amazing nutritious soil is well worth the effort. If anyone would like to join our composting committee, please contact one of the following emails: secretary@growingacadia.ca OR treasurer@growingacadia.ca. We would love to have you on our team!
Melody Plummer
Secretary of ACGAS
Acadia Community Garden & Art Society is committed to providing an environment free of discrimination and harassment, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, can contribute fully and have equal opportunities. If you experience any discrimination or harassment, please contact us on our phone or media sites.
List of Plants Native to the Calgary Area and Alberta
To learn more about plants native to Alberta, please visit the Alberta Native Plants Council’s website – https://anpc.ab.ca/
Hello Acadia! – May 2021
Hello neighbours
Joanne Klein is President of the Acadia Community Garden & Art Society and a 9-year resident of Acadia. Following is story about what attracted her to our Garden:
“The funny thing is, I thought I didn’t like politics.
That’s what I always said, anyway.
I didn’t want to get into the mix.
I didn’t want to do the homework.
I didn’t want to have another debate, argument, or fight.
From the sideline, those negatives outshone any positives.
So, I didn’t get involved. In anything. And it stayed that way until I moved to Acadia.
When I arrived in 2012, I had a three-week-old baby that required all my energy. My milk had come in sparingly and I struggled to get him fed adequately. He didn’t want the bottle, I couldn’t pump, and as a result, I spent the better part of the year rocking in my chair with a dozy baby who needed to feed for hours at a time. For someone who liked to be busy, I finally learned how to relax.
I noticed the movement of light through the days and nights.
The wind rocked the spruces across the street and the flickers found the ants in the yard.
Neighbours walked their dogs, rode their bikes, and took up jogging.
Still I rocked. And I rocked. And I rocked.
Maybe I was lonely, though I don’t remember feeling that way. What I do remember was the feeling of connection that was created that year. Connection to my child; connection to the neighbourhood I was becoming a part of. The baby, the neighbourhood, and I all changed and grew together.
When I finally left my rocking chair, we strolled through the streets we’d communed with all those days and nights. My molecules mixed with my neighbours. We shared a pulse. We’d become intertwined. There’s an alchemy that takes place in meditation and without anticipating it, my new neighbourhood and I were one.
I joined the Acadia Community Garden & Art Society because I’m a gardener and an artist. It’s a vibrant organization full of passionate people with whom I share interests. They’ve become my friends and together, we move mountains.
All community organizations have the power to move mountains. It’s their superpower. When you gather a group of committed and spirited people who share goals and are willing to organise, their power transforms. Alchemy!
And suddenly that word, the one people say with a sour face, the one I disdained…politics…resolved itself into the ‘relationship between people’ and I fell in love.
Building community is an act of love.
Participating in the community is an act of love.
I love my community.
And I love my role within it.”
– Joanne Klein
Vice President
Acadia Community Garden and Art Society, Calgary
………………………………………
Upcoming:
Please note: Events are subject to change and will be held according to Covid safety guidelines and restrictions.
- Garden & Art Tour – Saturday, August 14
- Unfortunately, we had to cancel this event last year. We are hopeful that we will be able to go ahead this summer. Everything will be outside, and all safety precautions will be implemented. If you’re interested in getting involved or being a host, please see below for our contact information.
Acadia Community Garden & Art Society is committed to providing an environment free of discrimination and harassment, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, can contribute fully and have equal opportunities. If you experience any discrimination or harassment, please contact us on our phone or media sites.
Hello Acadia! – April 2021
Hello neighbours,
As our AGM approaches, I am reflecting on why we volunteer at our Garden. For some it is to improve their resume, or they’re new to the community and want to get to know others, some wish to share their gifts of skill and knowledge, or maybe they just want to get out and do something interesting or fulfilling. I think most volunteers will agree that whatever the reason, the rewards have been greater than the effort.
For myself, I grew up in a small town in the interior of BC called Nakusp. As much as I love the vibrancy and choice that comes with living in Calgary, I miss that tight sense of community. So, when my wonderful friend, Corinne Sandhurst told me that she and small group of people wanted to start a Community Garden, I thought it sounded interesting. It combined my love of gardening and my desire to be part of a small community. In 2012, we started with seven beds and around 10 people (including some sympathetic friends and partners!) Corinne’s husband, Geoff is a talented artist and we observed that there weren’t a lot of connections for artists in our area. Why not combine them? Gardening is an artform – right?
Even though we didn’t have a lot of people, we were definitely not short on ideas. It seemed that when one idea popped up, it naturally led to the next. Let’s… paint the murals on the bench and the shed, have a community event to paint a street mural, lawn chair theatre, Free Little Library, start a fruit forest, plant pollinator attracting native flowers and mason bee homes, build a community bulletin board, get involved in supporting the needs of our community – oh and did I mention build more raised beds? We now have 42 raised beds, a strawberry planter, raspberry beds and the permaculture-based food forest in progress, not to mention all the artsy things on the go.
Now in 2021, I look back and am amazed how much has been accomplished at our little community garden. It has been so fulfilling and inspiring to see how other people have added new and exciting dimensions to what has already been done. There is a sense of family, friendship, joy, and FUN that has come our way. The vision has taken on a life of its own that has an energy that I have rarely found elsewhere. The depth of knowledge and skill within our organization is breathtaking. We now have 15 Board members, each of whom brings a different perspective or expertise. (Hint – you don’t have to rent a raised garden bed to get involved).
Perhaps you would like to join this synergetic community? We love to welcome new people and one thing we really love is trying out new ideas and activities!
If this appeals to you, feel free to join us at our AGM or contact us. See details below:
Upcoming:
Please note: Events are subject to change and will be held according to Covid safety guidelines and restrictions.
- AGM – Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 6:30
- This will be held via Zoom. You don’t need to be a gardener or member to attend. If you’re curious about what we do, you are most welcome to join us. Contact us at info@growingacadia.ca for the Zoom link.
- Garden & Art Tour – Saturday, August 14
- Unfortunately, we had to cancel this event last year. We are hopeful that we will be able to go ahead this summer. Everything will be outside, and all safety precautions will be implemented. If you’re interested in getting involved or being a host, please see below for our contact information.
- May 11 – Growing Great Garden Soil at Acadia Community Garden – $25
- What is soil?; physical, chemical, biological properties; soil food web- what it is and the critters that we need; our native soil; what annual vegetable gardens need for soil; what perennial gardens require in their soil; soil amendments and fertilizers; growing medium for containers; cultural methods to improve soil- no till, mulching, weeding, cover cropping, composting; when to do what to your soil.
- Everyone is welcome – For more details and to register for a class either search for Garden On! at Eventbrite or use the following link:
Laurie Vanderwal
Vice President
Acadia Community Garden & Art Society is committed to providing an environment free of discrimination and harassment, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, can contribute fully and have equal opportunities. If you experience any discrimination or harassment, please contact us on our phone or media sites.
Hello Acadia!- March 2021
Hello neighbours,
Spring is just around the corner, so we thought I’d share some of our up and coming events:
Please note: Events are subject to change and will be held according to Covid safety guidelines and restrictions.
- AGM – Tuesday, April 20, 2021
- This will be held via Zoom. You don’t need to be a gardener or member to attend. If you’re curious about what we do, you are most welcome to join us.
- Garden & Art Tour – Saturday, August 14
- Unfortunately, we had to cancel this event last year. We are hopeful that we will be able to go ahead this summer. Everything will be outside, and all safety precautions will be implemented. If you’re interested in getting involved or being a host, please see below for our contact information.
- Bird House Making – Date to be determined.
- We are still firming up details for this fun family activity. There will be an online component along with the kit for those who wish to make their bird houses at home.
- Garden On Events:
- Feb 21 – ‘Let’s Get Gardening’ Part 1 – Online – $15
- Reflections/lessons from 2021; planning the garden before you sow-what to plant, where and how much; growing requirements for various crops; how to create a planting scheme that works for all that you want to grow; growing seedlings indoors; where to get seeds and seedlings in 2021
- Mar 21 – ‘Let’s Get Gardening’ Part 2 – Online – $15
- Environmental/climate issues as they affect our gardens; how your soil affects when you can get sowing/planting; sowing/planting by soil temperature; succession planting; watering techniques; early protection from the weather and insects; potting on, hardening off and transplanting seedlings;
- April 13 – ‘Re-Wilding the Urban Garden’ –
- Southwood Community Garden – $20
- What is re-wilding?-principles and objectives; designing your garden to be wild; plant species, combinations and schemes; cultural techniques- soil improvement, mulching, overseeding lawns; providing various types of habitats-shelter, food, water, breeding
- May 11 – Growing Great Garden Soil –
- Acadia Community Garden – $25
- What is soil?; physical, chemical, biological properties; soil food web- what it is and the critters that we need; our native soil; what annual vegetable gardens need for soil; what perennial gardens require in their soil; soil amendments and fertilizers; growing medium for containers; cultural methods to improve soil- no till, mulching, weeding, cover cropping, composting; when to do what to your soil.
- Feb 21 – ‘Let’s Get Gardening’ Part 1 – Online – $15
Everyone is welcome – For more details and to register for a class either search for Garden On! at Eventbrite or use the following link:
Laurie Vanderwal
Vice President
Acadia Community Garden & Art Society is committed to providing an environment free of discrimination and harassment, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, can contribute fully and have equal opportunities. If you experience any discrimination or harassment, please contact us on our phone or media sites.
Hello Acadia – February 2021
Aside from gardening, art, and community building, our Acadia Community Garden considers education a key aspect of our organization. We have several like-minded community garden neighbours who agree with that view.
Janet Melrose (Calgary’s Cottage Gardener – calgaryscottagegardener@shaw.ca) is a former member of the Horticulture Society’s Community Garden Program. She’s an author, freelancer in education, designer, and a horticultural therapist. Janet has been an instrumental friend, advisor, supporter, and cheerleader to both our Garden and many other community gardens. She’s also the one that encouraged us to work together with other community gardens in our area which led us to form the South-Central Garden Coalition. Currently, Cedarbrae, CKE, Common Ground, Haysboro, Southwood, and Acadia are involved. We are looking forward to other local community gardens joining us.
Our coalition decided it would be great to pool our resources and offer some educational sessions. We called the series ‘Garden On!’. Janet will be our teacher and facilitator. Previous year’s programs were very popular. Attendees spoke about how much they enjoyed the sessions and were excited to experiment with what they learned.
This year, due to Covid, we will be offering our sessions online or outside. If you would like to join us for some fun, mark your calendars with the following dates:
- Feb 20 – ‘Let’s Get Gardening’ Part 1
- Reflections/lessons from 2020; planning the garden before you sow-what to plant, where and how much; growing requirements for various crops; how to create a planting scheme that works for all that you want to grow; growing seedlings indoors; where to get seeds and seedlings in 2021 .
- – Online – $15
- Mar 20 – ‘Let’s Get Gardening’ Part 2
- Environmental/climate issues as they affect our gardens; how your soil affects when you can get sowing/planting; sowing/planting by soil temperature; succession planting; watering techniques; early protection from the weather and insects; potting on, hardening off and transplanting seedlings;
- – Online – $15
- April 13 – ‘Re-Wilding the Urban Garden’
- What is re-wilding?-principles and objectives; designing your garden to be wild; plant species, combinations and schemes; cultural techniques- soil improvement, mulching, overseeding lawns; providing various types of habitats-shelter, food, water, breeding
- – Southwood Community Garden – $20
- May 11 – Growing Great Garden Soil
- What is soil?; physical, chemical, biological properties; soil food web- what it is and the critters that we need; our native soil; what annual vegetable gardens need for soil; what perennial gardens require in their soil; soil amendments and fertilizers; growing medium for containers; cultural methods to improve soil- no till, mulching, weeding, cover cropping, composting; when to do what to your soil.
- – Acadia Community Garden – $25
- July 20 – Garden Q & A
- – Online – $15
Everyone is welcome – For more details and to register for a class either search for Garden On! at Eventbrite or use the following link:
Laurie Vanderwal
Vice President
Acadia Community Garden & Art Society is committed to providing an environment free of discrimination and harassment, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, can contribute fully and have equal opportunities. If you experience any discrimination or harassment, please contact us on our phone or media sites.