Free Seed Exchange Everyone Welcome – April 20th 4-6 PM NWPL

This event is free and everyone is welcome! Bring your seeds, tell your friends, bring your kids!

 

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Steering Meeting March 8th – 7PM

First Steering Meeting of 2012

Date: Thursday March 8th, 7pm-9:00pm
Location: Westminster Quay – Conference Room

Steering meetings help organize the society as a whole, including addressing issues that arise in all three gardens as well as non-garden specific activities. Each garden will also have independent meetings outside of our regular steering meetings.

Date: Thursday March 8th, 7pm-9:00pm
Location: Westminster Quay – Conference Room

Tentative Agenda items include:
- Introductions and Welcome
- Potential Intro from KJM Urban Gardens
- Brainstorm for Society Activities 2012 and Beyond
- Organizational Structure 2012
- Budget Allotment for 2012
- Activity Scheduling 2012
- Upcoming Events
- Other items? Bring your ideas.

All members and public input welcome! 

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AGM 6:30pm, Thursday February 16th, 2011

You are cordially invited and encouraged to attend the New Westminster Community Gardening Society’s Annual General Meeting at:

6:30pm, Thursday February 16th, 2011
at the Simon Fraser Society for Community Living (near Simcoe Park – north-east corner of Royal and 8th Street)

Agenda:

6:30-7:00pm Registration/Membership Renewals
7:00-8:00pm Guest Speaker
8:00-8:15pm Snacks and Discussion (Break)
8:15-8:45pm 2011 Summary and Society Director’s Renewal
9:00 Close

Note that there is no need to fill out forms for renewals at the AGM as long as it is clear which plot you are renewing.

Fees:
Membership:
$25 individual / $50 organization
Plot
(different due to different size of plots):
Sanctuary at St. Barnabas = $20
Mary Mount = $30
Simcoe Garden = $40

Hope to see you all there!

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Steering meeting – Thursday Nov. 17th

Hello All Gardeners,

You are all cordially invited to the next society steering meeting. A chance to meet gardeners from other New West gardens and help steer the overall direction of the organization. This will be our last meeting before the AGM, so if you have ideas for the AGM or for policy/organizational changes in how the society is run, or you just want to check it out you are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Date:
6:30-8pm Thursday Nov. 17th
Location: 525 Agnes Street (three blocks from Columbia skytrain) – knock on the meeting room window to the right of the front door after 6:30

Tentative agenda

  • Introductions and Welcome
  • Look back on 2011 season – garden summaries
  • Roles and Working Groups
  • Policies/Procedural change proposals
  • AGM Planning (mid-Feb)
  • more? please send my way in advance if possible

(nwcommunitygarden@gmail.com)

 

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Fall Harvest Potluck – Mary Mount Garden October 14th

Please join us for our last community potluck of the season!

Where? St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church Hall (Mary Mount Garden )                         121 Columbia Street

When? 6:30 – 8:30 pm Friday, October 14th

What should I bring?

  • Soup ingredients from the garden if you can.
  • or… if you prefer:
  • Appetizers to share while the soup is cooking.
  • or Bread, crackers, cheese, etc. – something to go with the soup.

Dessert will be provided by the Society.

Hope to see you all there!

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DocFest – Fundraiser September 28th

Vanishing of the Bees is one of the documentaries being screened at this years Documentary film festival being held at Douglas College.

The New Westminster Environmental Partners, along with The Green Idea’s network, have partnered with Douglas College to bring the first documentary film festival to New Westminster.

DocFest will be held on October 21-22 with five movie screenings, as well as local short films, speakers and local organisations attending.

The New Westminster Environmental Partners will be  hosting a fund-raiser, which includes a burger and beer event, silent auction,  and live music.  This fund-raiser will take place on September 28th at The Heritage Grill from 6-10 PM. Tickets are $20.00 and available on the NWEP website and at the door.

The website http://newwestdocfest.ca/  lists the documentaries.
Some titles are; H2Oil, Vanishing of the Bees, 65_red_roses_, Tapped, and Burning Water.  These documentaries have an environmental or local theme and will raise many questions for discussion and hopefully inspire action.

We encourage everyone who is interested to attend and or volunteer.

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This Week!

Steering Meeting

When:  Thursday, September 15, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Where: Simcoe Park Garden – 8th and Royal (map)
Description: Everybody welcome and encouraged to attend. Updates on all activities, new announcements and activity planning, feedback on previous activities, new ideas or issues always welcome.
These meetings help set the overall direction of the society.
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What’s new in the gardens?

This summer many of the gardeners are taking part in the UNIBUG project. This is a citizen Science project. We are currently running this project in all three gardens in New Westminster.

Citizen Science in Action is being launched this spring by the institute of Urban Ecology (IUE) at Douglas College. UNIBUG, or the User Network for Insect Biology in the Urban Gardens is a research initiative that has two main purposes;

 1) to engage community members in ecological monitoring, and 2) to determine the types of plants that best attract beneficial insects to the gardens. In this case, we are hoping to attract ‘biological controls’, or ‘natural enemies’ of garden pests to help manage these pests and so to reduce the need for pesticide use.

Currently there are up to 100 volunteers from community gardens in Metro Vancouver involved in this project.  Volunteers work as part of a team to develop sustainable gardening practices based on using biological controls, rather than pesticides, to manage garden pests.

After planting a specific type of plant in a small area of their plots we are now in the monitoring stage for the next three weeks, for a total of five weeks this summer.

We are also hoping to have gatherings where the citizen scientists from all of the gardens can come together to meet one another, celebrate their efforts, and learn about the research results. Please feel free to contact Veronica or us at the NWCGS with any comments, questions, or concerns.

 Veronica (Ronnie) Wahl
UNIBUG Project Coordinator
Urban Ecology Technician
Douglas College Institute of Urban Ecology – “linking people and nature”
604-527-5522 Tel
iue@douglas.bc.ca
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For all members!

You are cordially invited to

The New Westminster Community Gardening Societies

 Summer Potluck Picnic!

This weekend!

Saturday August 13th, 2011

1:00 – 3:00PM   Sanctuary at St. Barnabas

1010 – 5th Ave

Bring a dish to share and your own plate, cup and cutlery.

Bring your recipes from the garden and if possible, send them by e-mail to: ipenit@fsgv.ca to add them to our Garden Cookbook.

Meet other gardeners from all three gardens, enjoy homemade food, garden tours, door prizes, and fun for everyone!

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Work Party This Weekend!

Simcoe Park Garden

When: Saturday August 6th 2011 at 10:00 am

We will meet at the Simcoe Garden to install the Pergola posts. If time warrants we may be able to construct more of the structure and if I have all the materials on hand that day.

Hope to see you there!

 

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