Quinte West Gardens-Growing Community

Last year we added another 2 beds to our community rental beds bringing the total to 23. Our total harvest for the year was 1292lbs of fresh fruit vegetables and herbs delivered to 5 church kitchens our local food bank and individuals in need. Volunteers put in over 1530 hours during the year to maintain the gardens donate produce and host events. Ongoing community events included our annual seed swap annual spring plant fundraiser sale Wellness Expo and various gardening workshops at our local library. Student volunteers were welcomed once again to the gardens to receive volunteer hours. In May we hosted students from a local public school for our first ever teaching exercise at the gardens. The focus was on ecology and students participated in 4 different workshops. They learned how earthworms and wildflowers contribute to the garden and they created pet rocks and potted up plants as a take-away gift. A Pampered Chef fundraiser was held in the summer which raised enough money to cover the costs of building 2 additional raised garden beds. Additionally a small pollinator garden was started with a focus on growing native flowers to support and bring awareness to our native pollinators.