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About the Garden

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Just above The Meadows at the top of Seton Road the Mount Community Garden now has over 250 square meters of garden space. Though the garden is surrounded by the peaceful fields and forest of the Mount campus it is a quick walk to the dense urban development s of Clayton Park and Bedford/Rockingham, and only a few kilometers from downtown Halifax. The Community Garden is a meeting place for the Mount Community and its neighbors, drawing its members from the university itself and all around the HRM. The unique position of the garden- an outdoor classroom for university departments, a place to grow food for families and individuals, and a location of research for the academic community, has made the Mount Community Garden a vibrant and productive part of the University.

The garden consists of a Steering Committee made up of university staff, faculty and administration, a Curriculum Committee made up of representatives from various academic departments at the university, and the gardeners and volunteers who participate in the project. The Garden Coordinator, a student works bursary position,  is responsible for the organization of these interests, for organizing workshops and events, for securing funding for the project and for the day to day operations and maintenance of the garden.

 

Applied Human Nutrition Students roll their sleeves up and get dirty! The community garden has become a living laboratory for students. Last summer undergraduate and graduate students planted and tended the garden. In the fall a NUTR 1102 lab was dedicated to the community garden. Students harvested and used veggies that had been growing throughout the summer months.  Dietetic interns working at our Participatory Action Research and Training Centre on Food Security produced the  Mount Saint Vincent Campus Community Garden Video. Once again this fall students in our NUTR 1102 course will be going to the garden, talking about local vegetables and herbs and their uses, digging up, snapping off or pulling out vegetables. They will then take their harvest down to the Foods Lab where they will evaluate the produce, talk about cooking methods, prepare and sample the locally grown produce. As Department Chair, it has been a great experience being involved in the planning and implementation of the Community Garden and especially seeing our students and faculty so interested and involved. The garden has proved to be a fantastic site for both learning and connections.
Daphne Lordly, Chair AHN

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 By learning which vegetables and fruit are grown
in Nova Scotia, I now know what time of year to buy my favorites locally to obtain optimal nutritional quality. The garden has also taught and encouraged me to start my own vegetable garden which was a task too daunting to me before I visited the garden. I’m very pleased, as well, that I am only one of many who use the garden and that months of hard work will help fresh produce land on the plates of students, the Mount community, and participants of the university food bank. I plan to continue volunteering with the community garden and help spread the valuable lessons that it has taught, and continues to teach, me."
Kaela King, Nutrition Student

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It gives me great joy as a member of the Mount Alumni to be back on my favourite campus and, as a retired teacher, to have a sense of renewed purpose through community gardening. It is a wonderful experience to meet other interested and like-minded people through this project... It made me think that this was what it would be like in `-the old barn building days' -  when whole families, or communities got together to build something of value for all.
James Boyer, Community Member

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