With the season underway and the gardens planted, we can turn our excitement to some of the fun and creative events happening at The Mount Community Garden. Check back here often to read about our upcoming garden events and volunteer opportunities or to peruse our list of past events.
For this annual 100-in-1 day, the community garden had a community scarecrow building event. This event took place on Saturday June the 4th as part of a city-wide event to show off everything that Halifax can be. A few people from the Mount and surrounding community came to this building event, and helped turn some stored straw into creative decorations for our garden. The remaining supplies will be used in partnership with the MSVU summer day camp where children will be able to come up to the garden, express their creativity, and learn a bit about growing your own food.
Celebrating the end of the garden season, the Community Garden will host it’s annual garden meeting each year. Normally a silent auction will take place as well as vote for best plot in show, best weeded, most colourful & best use of space.
While this year’s plant swap and ice cream social was a cloudy one, that didn’t stop faculty, staff, students or members of the community from coming out and enjoying the festivities. Many varieties of plants were sold or given away and lots of ice cream was eaten; be sure to come out next season to enjoy another refreshing treat and meet some enthusiastic gardeners from the area.
This annual hike to Susie’s lake in the Blue Mountain Birch Cove lakes area was lead by two of the community garden members. The leaders pointed out various types of plants and flora, talked about the area, it’s history and how it connects to The Mount as well as what the average individual can do to help protect the area. The hike departed from a nearby Kent’s, takes approximately an hour (with stops) and is of mild to medium difficulty; hikers should bring proper footwear, water, food, and weather appropriate clothing.
Miss gardening but don’t have a place to sink your hands in the dirt? Just feel like helping out and meeting some like-minded people on campus? Then come up to the Community Garden to enjoy the sun, and volunteer some of your time making it a more beautiful space for everyone.
The community garden coordinator will be on hand to answer any questions and to direct volunteers into groups that will be lead by members from the community garden itself. Some examples of what you can help with are: Fence repairs, weeding, watering, general cleanup, fertilizing, construction, and maybe even some harvesting!
Come join us while we learn to use our harvest’s for pickling! We will be pickle cucumbers in order to make dill pickles and/or sweet mustard pickles, and perhaps some carrots.
We at the community garden planned a Plein Air (open air) Painting Event for adults and children alike. Individuals were encouraged to bring their canvas and paints (or their sketchbooks) in order to come paint the beautiful garden and it’s surroundings while in full bloom. No instructions or materials were provided for this event. Donations of paintings were accepted to be auctioned at the Annual General Meeting for the Community Garden.
Come join the Garden and Mount Fitness Center’s Melissa Millar as she leads a relaxing yoga session by the garden. Surround yourself in nature, feel the sun on your face and soak up some vitamin D! Make sure to bring a yoga mat or beach towel, sunglasses, sunscreen, a hat and some water.
This workshop was designed to help educate novice gardeners or anyone seeking to learn how to seed start indoors. Join us and learn different germination techniques, ideal growing setup, transplanting tips and more. This informative session is a great way to kick start your gardening season!
Join the Community Garden as we visit our new hydroponics system. Learn about how this device works, how it compares to traditional gardening, it’s benefits and more.
Join the Community Garden in the Garden as we discuss the importance of fruits and vegetables in our diets and more importantly, how to increase our daily consumption. Get tips on simple substitutions, recipe modification and how to overcome common hurdles that limit our produce consumption in this fun and educational event. Please wear a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and bring some water as this event takes place outdoors. RSVP by sending an email to: garden@msvu.ca
Join the Community Garden and resident bee-keeper, Jillian Ruhl, in the Garden for an educational event on how to make your garden a more inviting space for bees. The event will start off in the Community Garden and finish with a short beehive inspection. Make sure to bring some water and wear a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen to beat the heat. Feel free to bring your lunch.
You are invited to join the Mount Community Garden for our lecture-style Health Benefits of Community Gardening Workshop! Come to learn all about how community gardening can impact your physical, nutritional, and mental well-being. Other topics include an overview of what community gardens are, a background on the mental, physical, and nutrition status of Canadians and how community garden can affect these aspects of health.