West End Residents Association

A plot in the Mole Hill Community Garden (which was built and jointly managed by the West End Residents Association) is a finalist in the “David Suzuki Digs My Garden” organic garden contest. The plot belongs to former WERA directors Terry and Sharon.

The Mole Hill Community Garden was created in the winter of 2001-2002 by volunteers from WERA and the Mole Hill Community Housing Society. It consists of more than 60 3×6 feet plots in the Mole Hill laneway, occupying land reclaimed from parking spaces.

Terry and Sharon’s  plot is entry 6D in the “Starting Over” category. If it wins, the publicity for the Mole Hill Community Garden and for activists reclaiming streets for green spaces would be great.

You can enter the contest here

Residents of Mole Hill celebrated B.C. Day with a barbeque and festivities in the laneway, which was closed to traffic for the event on August 4.

We've set aside Saturday, July 21st from 4pm – 6pm (cooler time if a sunny day), as a work party for those of you who are able to participate! Access to the large garden tools, compost bins and garbage area will be available at that time.

We're hoping to focus on the common beds and the pathways that need a clean up, but if you need assistance with something in your garden- this would be a good time to show up and recruit some willing gardeners! If you can't make the work party, please take some time and put in some work when it's convenient for you – the common beds always need weeding and pruning and there is always some area of the pathway that is not being tended to …….

Gardener's Meet & Greet

Saturday, July 14 2007
1:00-3:00 PM

Share seeds, look at gardens, thin out and give away transplants, trade produce, learn what in your plot might be a weed, look at gardens, share growing tips, and meet your neighbours.

Bring some snacks to share if you like. There will be a prize for best food made from something grown in the garden!

No agenda; just fun. Drop by, and meet your fellow gardeners.

If you have questions, contact
Lisa lmighton@latitudemedia.ca or Adam flintadam@gmail.com.

A 2002 television piece about the saving of Mole Hill is available on YouTube:

The West End Residents Association and the Mole Hill Community Housing Society formally dedicated the laneway artpiece, “LOOK”, by nicole may, on June 16, 2007. The dedication was followed by cake and stiltwalkers. Click here for photos.

WERA president Brent Granby said it was a fabulous community event that brought the West End and Mole Hill communities together.

Click here to see more photos from the garden on a hot spring day.

Hi Gardeners!

Finally, we have some consecutive days of sunshine and more to come!

As we have permission to allow some gardeners on the waiting list to garden in the vacant lot area for this season, we have scheduled a work party for May 19th from 1pm to 5pm. The primary reason for the work party is to prepare this lot for garden plots. However if any of you have repairs to make on your box, want to help with communal bed weeding or just want to stop by and see what needs to be done- come on out – there always seems to be something to be done and it's fun when you're working with another gardener! This is also a great time to share excess seeds you might have or any other excess gardening materials you might have….Access to the large tools and the compost will be available at that time.

We are also in the process of soliciting donations from companies for materials for the garden- our main one being wood to replace/repair boxes. We've decided to put together a wish list of sorts and see what we get. Any ideas pass them on to the garden committee.

Who's on the garden committee? The following people have volunteered their time to help facilitate the activities of our community garden:
Katherine Barkley, Adam Flint, Darrell Michaud, Lisa Mighton, Benoit Richard, Richard Smith, Jill Weiss, Cathy Burton and of course Jim Mitchell and myself.
The committee is an open committee, anyone who wants to help out is welcome, just let us know.

All for now, see you on Saturday, May 19th, or out in the garden!
Happy Gardening,
Mardel

We had a very successful gardener work party today- so much got done!!

I want to say thank you to everyone who was able to get out and participate, especially on such a rare sunny afternoon!
We are planning our second Garden Committee meeting, hopefully to happen in the first week in April. I would like to encourage anyone who would like to come out to the meeting to please do so – ideas, input and the extra helping hand is always welcome!

Remember the compost will be arriving on March 28th. If you are accessing the compost, please try not to be messy- cover the compost with the tarp after use and try not to drop compost all over the laneway. Use a pail or plastic bag to transfer the compost to your plot if the wheel barrow is not available.

Happy Gardening,
Mardel

For more photos click here.

Greetings Gardeners!

First of all I want to thank all of you who showed up at our annual general meeting on March 3rd. At the meeting I informed the gardeners that I will be stepping down as coordinator this year. Although there will be a “garden liaison” for the Mole Hill residents as well as a one for the West End residents we are in the process of distributing the work load that current coordinators do, to a garden committee. This garden committee will help organize work parties, ensure that we meet our responsibilities and obligations to the garden and in general aid our community garden to be the best it can be! continue reading…