(Carlington Community Health Services Adopt-a-Program)
Warm sun and melting snow bring thoughts of green, flourishing gardens to mind. At the Carlington Community Garden (Merivale and Coldrey) more than 100 gardeners of all ages and levels of experience are getting ready for a seventh season of nourishing food and friendship.
The gardeners produce affordable, pesticide-free food for their families, including special vegetables not usually available in supermarkets. They get plenty of exercise and they can socialize with enthusiastic growers from many countries. The opportunity to garden is particularly welcomed by people who were farmers before coming to Canada but who will never be able to own a house and have their own backyard garden.
Each 10' x 12' plot is free while Carlington Community Health Services provides tools, water, and watering cans. Gardeners who can afford to do so contribute $5 towards the tool and repair fund and each person volunteers 10 hours over the summer to weed paths, clean tools, make repairs, maintain the compost, make phone calls and other tasks . The Garden Steering Committee has worked hard this winter, catering lunches to raise over $500 for general maintenance of the garden area.
But the garden and the gardeners can still use your help: Canadian Tire money; leaves for compost; seeds and flats of bedding plants ($3) - including the extra ones you bought and can't use; spades, shovels, hoes, and small hand tools to replace the ones that wear out ($10-$25); hoses and nozzles ($10-$25); watering cans ($10-$12); a day's rental of a rototiller ($60), and gardening advice (free, from you, at our orientation workshops).
Can you help us encourage good eating, exercise, and environment by adopting our garden? Call Diane Kampen, community garden coordinator, at 722-4000.
(Carlington Community and Health Services is a non-profit community-based health centre which provides health and social services, is committed to the well-being of our community, promotes social, economic, physical, mental and environmental health, and is responsible to the community through an elected Board of Directors. Our staff and volunteers work together to achieve these goals. For information on becoming a volunteer or a member, please call us at 722-4000.)