Wednesday 29 October 2014

Growing Food in the City - Knowledge Swap


"Growing Food in the City" Knowledge Swap:


Who: Presented by Greenest City & Toronto Urban Growers.


What: Come meet other growers to share gardening tips and new ideas on urban agriculture initiatives. Learn what other growers are doing around the city and share your experiences! - Free registration. Snacks provided. Register or get more info by emailing urbanagriculture@greenestcity.ca or calling 647.438.0038


Where: St. John's Polish National Cathedral, parish hall – 186 Cowan Ave., Toronto
When: Saturday, November 29th1-4pm
Why: To strengthen urban agriculture in the GTA.


GrowTO is a new partnership between Toronto Urban Growers (TUG) and Greenest City that taps into
the power of community-based urban agriculture to engage diverse residents in environmental
actions.

We invite you to register for our upcoming “Growing Food in the City” Knowledge Swap on Saturday, November 29th from 1 – 4pm. The event is free and will take place in the parish hall of St. John's Polish National Cathedral at 186 Cowan Ave.

The knowledge swap is an opportunity for you to meet other growers to share gardening tips and new urban agriculture ideas. This is the time to learn what other growers are doing around the city and to share your experiences!

Please pass this information on to others you think may be interested.

For more information or to register, please contact Monique Kelemen at 647.438.0038, or by email at communications@greenestcity.ca





Monday 22 September 2014

Parks Drawing of Project Development



Hi Folks!

We haven't heard much from Parks over the summer, so I apologize for the lack of available information.  This is what came through today as firm plans from Parks to be implemented by them over the next few weeks.

To relay the fine print:

Top left:

New asphalt pavement/ramp

Bottom left:

New post and paddle fence (in front of planting bed)

Right (top to bottom):

New perennial planting bed

New seating / gathering area

(1) New raised signature BUFCO garden beds (4' x 8') 4-tier, 6" cedar logs (20" height)

(11) New raised signature BUFCO garden beds (4' x 8') 3-tier, 6" cedar logs (15" height)

New double shredded cedar mulch over limestone screening surface

New perennial planting bed


I realize there are some flaws in their design and I'd like people to send in their comments as soon as possible.

I am also working with Greenest City, our wonderful trustee, to set up a meeting between the garden members, Parks, and Live Green.

Please let me know who would like to be a part of this meeting and we'll start setting up dates once we have the list of people who want to attend.

Cheers,
Joelle

Friday 18 July 2014

We Need You

Hello Friends of the Garden,

The Ravina Community Garden would like to extend an invitation for community members to step up and take on a variety of leadership roles within the garden.

We all know there is a lot of behind the scenes work needed to create a community garden from scratch, and that the work is indeed a labour of love!   We also know there is no garden without community involvement.

The garden is currently seeking community members who are willing to lead the following areas:
  • Governance and Gardening Agreement Manuals
  • Beauty and Design
  • Bed Installation and Work Days
  • Community Outreach
  • Construction
  • Fundraising
  • Maintenance
  • Shoppers


Please come to one of our bi monthly meetings and stay up to date via the blog or our facebook page.

The next meeting will take place on July 22nd @ 7pm and we will meet at the site on the corner of Clendenan and Glendonwynne.

If you cannot offer time to the garden, please consider a monetary donation.  The bulk cost of the garden is the planter beds, as the site requires that all edibles must be grown in containers due to pesticide use over time.

Accessible beds cost $2,000 each and the regular beds cost $1,000 each.  We also would like to build an outdoor oven and host weekly community meals at the garden.

Please help make this a wonderful community space, where plants and people grow!

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Meeting Schedule and Location

Hi Garden Folks!

The weather is so nice, we'll be meeting at the green space instead of the library.

Weather permitting, all future summer and fall meetings will be held at the site. 

Rain location will be the Annette Library.

Meetings continue to be in the same format, alternating Tuesday evenings starting at 7pm.

June 10th
June 24th
July 8th
July 22nd
Aug 5th
Aug 19th
and so on!

Special meetings and garden outings will be announced here as well as on the forum.  Please note that mass emails will no longer be sent.  Stay informed by joining the forum (garden members only), or by visiting this blog and our facebook page.


Wednesday 4 June 2014

Garden Tour - June 5th

Join the garden crew on our first Bicycle Garden Tour!

Thursday, June 5th @ 6pm

Meet us at the proposed site for the Ravina Community Garden (corner of Clendenan Avenue and Glendonwynne Road) and bring your bicycle.

From there, we will visit three other gardens in the neighbourhood: Perth Dupont Community Garden, The HOPE Garden, and The Garden Party, which is coordinated by a fellow Ravina Gardener Louis Gris! The tour will be done by 8:30 pm.

See you there!


Sunday 25 May 2014

Meeting - Let's Get Inspired!

Join us on Tuesday, May 27th @ 7pm in the Annette Library for a screening of Edible City.

We hope this film will fill you with inspiration and help the creative gardening juices flow!

If you cannot attend, please watch this documentary and if you wish, you can support their cause by purchasing or renting your own copy here.







Friday 23 May 2014

March Against Monsanto - May 24th


Event: The 1st Toronto GMO Free Festival and Farmer's Market
Place: Christie Pits Park, 750 Bloor Street West at Christie Street in Toronto, ON
When: May 24th , 2014
Time:  12:30  to  6 pm

Facebook Event Link
Toronto NON GMO Coalition


 

Tuesday 20 May 2014

Garden Forum is Ready

Hello Garden Folks!

Are you tired of all the emails in your inbox?  ME TOO!

In response to requests for a better form of community communication, the RCG Forum has been created.

Please SIGN UP!

http://ravinagarden.boards.net/

This space is 99% members only, with a volunteer thread open to guests.

I encourage you to set your privacy levels within your own profile. I also encourage everyone to use their real name, so that we can get to know each other better and make that face to face connection in the garden easily.

Team emails will no longer be sent, so be sure to introduce yourself in the thread you've volunteered to help out in and make your connections over there.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the forum and to waaaaaay less time writing and sending emails.

Feedback is greatly appreciated on what works and what needs modified.

Monday 12 May 2014

Meeting - Updates, Planning, and more Actions

Hello Garden Folks!

Please join us for our next meeting on May 13th @ 7pm in the Annette Library.


Agenda:


  • Meet and Greet New Gardeners 
  • Update from Garden Manuals Team 
  • Update from Construction Team 
  • Planning for Market Day
  • Discussion on Garden Design 
  • Discuss Actions for Members

Sunday 27 April 2014

Meeting - Team Actions

Hello Garden Folks!

Please join us at the Annette Library on Tuesday, April 29th @ 7pm.


Agenda:
  • Meet and Greet New Gardeners
  • Team Sign Up and Actions​
  • Update from Manuals Team
  • Finalization of Agreements List for Voting
  • ​Discuss Creation of a Team to work with complaints and disputes
  • Open Discussion and Planning​

​There is also an opportunity for up to 4 (four) garden members to attend a Garden Design and Soils workshop lead by Jane Hayes.  Please come to the meeting for more information and to sign up for this great opportunity.

Friday 11 April 2014

Meeting - Voting

Hello Garden Folks!

Please join us on Tuesday, April 15th @ 7pm in the Annette Library downstairs.

Agenda:


  • Meet and Greet New Gardeners

  • Update and General Information Discussion

  • Membership Sign Up

Members who have signed up online will have an opportunity to sign a Member Agreement form.

  • Finalize our Voting Structure

Please be prepared to vote on the proposed:  Member only voting and a 75% majority rule

If you cannot attend the meeting and wish to vote online, please send an email prior to the meeting date and we will include your vote.  We need a 75% vote to implement this or we will go back to discussion.


  • Finalize our Proposed Garden Agreements

We will briefly go over the existing list and add to/remove agreements.  Once the list is complete, we will create an online voting system to determine our collective Garden Agreements.

  • Open Discussion on Our 3 Year Plan

We will collectively discuss moving forward and creating a solid 3 year plan for the garden site.



Cheers!

Thursday 27 March 2014

Meeting - Governance

Our next meeting is Tuesday, April 1st @7pm in the Annette Library.

Our focus topic is Governance (aka deciding to decide!) and we hope to develop and finalize our governance structure this evening.

If time permits, we will move on to the Garden Agreements list which we started at the last meeting.  Emily has kindly written up what we discussed in the following list:

Content to be included in the Ravina Community Garden Agreement:

1) Voting Practices and How decisions are made
 * Do we have voting members and non-voting members? What is quorum?
 * What is the communication process when a vote/decision is being made? How are people notified?

2) Harvesting - schedule and distribution
 * Is there a cap on membership to ensure garden shares aren't too small?
 * Will harvesting happen on specific days/times? How will harvests be divided up?
 * Will shares of the harvest be contingent on volunteering a set number of hours?

3) Conflict Management/Dispute Resolution Practices
 * Suggested Policy: Any time someone provides a complaint to the garden coordinator, they should offer at least 2 possible solutions
 * How will disputes between gardeners or issues with garden agreement be resolved?

4) Gardening Practices
 * Can we all agree on organic? Does that need to be further defined (ie what amendments are and are not permitted)?

5) Sharing Space
 * Who has access to the garden? Members only? Volunteers?  Schools? Anyone in the community?
 * What if damage occurs while members/non members are in the space?

6) Member Responsibilities
 * What is required of garden members (ie participation on a team, minimum volunteer hours, etc)?
 * Are members required to participate in spring/fall cleanup or other group activities?

7) Teams and their responsibilities
 * What are the teams? What do they do? Are people able to be members of multiple teams?
 * Do teams have one central leader? 

8) Gardening tasks and schedules
 * How is the maintenance schedule for the garden developed/implemented?
 * How do people report on work they have completed or work that needs to be done?

Hope to see you there, and hope to see spring arrive any day now!

Friday 14 March 2014

Meeting - Garden Agreements

We are meeting on Tuesday, March 18th @ 7pm in the Annette Library to co-create our Garden Agreements.

Creating and honouring base agreements will provide a blueprint for best practices and a framework for community to grow upon.

Topics include gardening practices, decision making, sharing space, sharing harvest, use of tools, volunteer hours, resolving conflicts and creating the garden environment we can all thrive in.

Please consider what agreements you would like to see put in place and bring ideas to the table.  We will then list the agreements in an online survey to be voted upon.

If you cannot attend the meeting, please send them via email.

One of our first agreements will be on decision making:

How many votes equals a yes? 50%? 60%? 75% or ?
Can only members vote? Can anyone vote?

Help answer these and many more questions on Tuesday March 18th.


** The next garden meetings will also be held at Annette Library @ 7pm on the following dates:  

April 1st, 15th, and 29th.

Wednesday 5 March 2014

LiveGreen Funding - Approved!

Fantastic News!

Ravina Community Garden's grant application to Live Green Toronto has been approved, giving us our first garden project. 

In keeping with the Live Green mandate, the application includes an educational/demonstrative plot, a children's plot, a youth plot, and community vegetable plots.  The main focus of this project is to support local students and educators, and to establish a section of the community garden for their use.

Educational/demonstrative plot:

This space will be dedicated to the creation of a model garden plot that educators may utilize for workshops, new gardeners can learn from to create their own home gardens, and where gardeners are encouraged to stretch their imaginations and incorporate new and innovative gardening techniques.  This plot is here to encourage stewardship vs ownership of the land and the produce from this plot will be donated to local programs in need.

Children's plot:

This space is for the little ones to get their fingers in the soil and learn through experience.  We intend to grow many plants that can be eaten straight from the vine and grow lots of children's favourties plus new, exciting plants.  Local schools have expressed interest in hosting their garden and green clubs at the community garden and we are providing space for this opportunity as well as space for all of the children in the community to design and plant their own garden.

Youth plot:

This plot will be alongside the children's plot and be devoted to older youth's with more gardening experience and slightly more advanced gardening aspirations.

Community vegetable plots:

The remainder of the raised container beds will be devoted to community food production and this produce will be shared amongst the garden members and used for garden potlucks.  Any surplus will be donated.

A great big thank you goes to the wonderful people at Live Green Toronto and to our amazing trustee, Greenest City.   With your combined support, we are moving forward towards our long range goal of creating a sustainable, vibrant, and inclusive Community Garden here in Ward 13.








Wednesday 26 February 2014

Community Meeting

Hello Gardeners and Friends of the Garden,

We are gathering once again at the Annette Library, in the lower level, @ 7pm on Tuesday, March 4th.

Agenda:

Team creation: an invitation for each member of the garden to help move the project forward. 

We'd like everyone to pick an area where they want to contribute.

Suggested Teams include:
 
Garden Agreement Manual - writing and editing
Communications - community outreach, promotion
Fundraising - ideas, grants, private donations
Construction of Garden Structures - research and development
Garden Design - beautification and best utilization of space
Shoppers - sourcing and pricing supplies
Secretary - for meeting minutes


 
Plus brainstorming on other areas of focus for the garden and the members.  
 
Ideas welcomed!

Monday 10 February 2014

Garden Meeting and Member Sign Up


All Members of the Community are Invited! 

Join us to learn more about Ward 13’s
Ravina Community Garden
and how you can become involved.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014 
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm 
Annette Public Library
145 Annette St., Toronto, ON


Agenda:
  • Share the overall vision for the Garden
  • Generate feedback on plant selection and design features
  • Identify volunteer opportunities 
  • Launch membership sign-up for the 2014 season
Sign up at the meeting to take advantage of early bird savings. Now $20 $15 per person!

(PWYC available, everyone is welcome!)



www.ravinacommunitygarden.blogspot.ca
ravinacommunitygarden@gmail.com