The Acadia Community Garden Meeting and Blog

Next Meeting
The next meeting for the Acadia Community Garden is Thursday, Feb 21 at 7 -8:30 pm at the Acadia Recreation Complex. Children are welcome accompanied by a responsible adult.

Agenda:
Logo Contest
The logo contest entries to date will be reviewed and we are extending the contest to the March meeting as we have guests for this garden meeting.

Guest Speakers:
Guy Beavers and Kendra Varoney from the City of Calgary are coming to guide us on the next steps to creating our garden.  We hope to see you there.

Blog
The Acadia Community Garden blog will be going public.  This will create a blog that anyone can subscribe to updates and also unsubscribe when they would like to be off the list.

I will be removing all current subscribers to the private blog this weekend. Please check back and consider subscribing if you are still eager to keep up on our garden news. 

Sincerely,

Corinne
Corinne Sandhurst
Chair
(403) 719-5509 (new phone number)
email:  acadiagarden@yahoo.ca
like us on Facebook:  Acadia Community Garden

Acadia Community Garden Update

Hi Acadia Community Gardeners - Here is the email that went out yesterday to everyone on the email list.

Upcoming Event: 

Celebrating our First Year Planning a Community Garden for Acadia

Date:  Thursday, January 17th

Time:  7:00-8:30 pm

Location:  The lobby at the Acadia Recreation Complex at 240 - 90 Ave. S.E. 

Free Coffee/Tea/Hot Chocolate and Cookies and Info about the garden

Event Details:  You have expressed interest in the idea of a community garden in Acadia over the last year, and on Thursday, January 17th we are celebrating our first year of planning. Please come out for free coffee and hot chocolate and cookies, generously provided by the Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative.  It can take a couple of years or more to start building a community garden. We have learned so much already, and met wonderful people along the way - each and every one of you!  We are handing out lettuce seeds for a play on the words "Lettuce plan a garden together", to the first 50 people that show us their community association membership.   I will also be setting aside a package of seeds for each of you to say a little thank you for being a part of the planning.  The seeds are part of the marketing funds generously provided by the Calgary 2012 gigyyc grant we received.

ACA Membership:  We are proposing this garden with the generous support of the Acadia Community Association and gardeners will require a membership to rent a plot once the garden is built.  Community Association membership is not required to help plan and build the garden, but we do suggest purchasing this membership to show our community association that we appreciate and value their support. They are available for purchase at the Acadia Rec Complex.

Thank you:  It's an exciting and challenging endeavour to create a garden, and each of us is the earth, the water, the nutrients and the sun that will bring the garden to its full potential.   We all have all in ways big and small contributed to this proposal. Each contribution, not matter the size, is vital to helping the garden become a reality.  Thank you for your support over the last year.  It means a great deal to have this email list and watch it grow as more and more people in the community find out about our garden proposal. Please share the news about the garden and invite your friends, neighbours, family, and all that live/work/play/go to school in Acadia to the gatherings.

Meetings:  We meet every third Thursday, from 7-8:30 at the Acadia Rec Complex. (except July and Aug and Dec.)  All are welcome - children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.  The garden is being built with the intention of welcoming the wide community of Acadia in.  If you live/work/play/go to school in Acadia, come help our garden grow.  We propose rental plots,  educational sites for schools and other groups to utilize, a variety of heights of raised beds within the centre for easier access for people with disabilities, wide pathways between the raised beds, perennial gardens, benches, and garden shed with community boards to share news on.  We are looking for support from the Acadia community and the larger City of Calgary community to help us make this beautiful addition to Acadia a reality.

Logo Contest:  Acadia Community Garden needs a logo!  Logo contest is on now. Please submit proposals for logos to acadiagarden@yahoo.ca  on or before midnight of February 09th, 2013.  Please let your creative friends know. The winner will receive acknowledgement on our facebook site and via our email list. All ages welcome to submit logo ideas.  Logo proposals will be posted on the Facebook site and voted on at the February meeting.

Call for Interest:  Acadia Community Garden Opening and Artist Showcase- opening celebration Spring 2014.  This call is to gauge interest of Acadia Artists of all disciplines - Art Show/Performances - singers/musicians/dancers/performance/ visual arts/poetry/author readings/collaborative art /circus/buskers/etc.   Looking for interested artists in all disciplines connected to the community - all ages/live/work/play/school in the community of Acadia to be part of the opening celebration of the garden in spring 2014 and to develop the idea of the celebration.   Please email toacadiagarden@yahoo.ca with proposal by June 30, 2013.  Please include basic outdoor venue requirements, set up/teardown time and approximate budget requirements. Donations of talent, production equipment rentals, tents, children's entertainment, etc will, of course, be gratefully accepted.  Interested in volunteering for the opening celebration?  Please pop me an email. 

Come on out on January 17th and "Lettuce" celebrate together!

Come Celebrate our First Year Of Planning

Please come join us at the Acadia Recreation Complex lobby on Thursday, January 17th from 7:00-8:30 drop in to celebrate our first year of work on creating a community garden in Acadia.

The Acadia Strong Neighbourhood Initiative is generously providing coffee/tea/hot chocolate and cookies.

We look forward to sharing our progress to date and our plans for the next year.

The proposed build date is spring 2014.

The Acadia Community Garden is a grateful recipient of one of the Calgary 2012 Grassroots Initiative grants.

Thank you,

Corinne Sandhurst
(403) 253-2577

Acadia Community Garden - Oct 17, 2012

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, October 17th, 7:00pm at the ARC.  We hope to see you there!

Acadia Garden Update from Sept 5th meeting

Hi Everyone, Sorry I am late in posting the update frome the September 5th meeting...here it is. Corinne

Hello Everyone,

Our last meeting went well, and our next meeting will be Wednesday, October 17th, 7:00pm at the ARC.

In the interim, we will continue to work on the elements required by the City of Calgary. Various members of the committee will be measuring the site and beginning work on a plan, we'll get a bank account going (for our grant, woohoo!), and some of us will be visiting other community gardens to see how they look when they're in full growth. We'll continue to work on getting the word out about the garden - if any of you has a contact that could help us get a blurb into local school or church newsletters, or any other media in Acadia, don't be shy, let us know about it!

Some other events and news you might like to know about:

Oct. 3 - Hillhurst Sunnyside Harvest Fair

Oct. 25 - The Calgary Horticultural Society's Community Gardens Resource Network will be organizing some regional meetings and presentations, to help us make contacts with other community gardeners, to exchange information and to learn something new.

The Community Gardens Resource Network has a newly designed website at http://www.calhort.org/community-gardens.aspx#. I invite you to go have a look at it.

Linda Berry

Acadia Community Garden Committee

Acadia Community Assoc AGM Sept 27 7 pm

Acadia community association annual general meeting! Sept 27 7 pm. Hope to see you there!

Acadia Community Garden Grant Winner

We are delighted to report that the Acadia Community Garden is a recipient of one of the August www.gigyyc.com grants for $1200.00. We were one of the Cultural Ambassador picks.

Thank you to everyone that voted for the garden! We could not have received our grant without you!

Congratulations to all the other public and cultural ambassador grant recipients.

If you have a great idea for a grassroots initiative for Calgary, there is still time to put in your grant application and get everyone voting for your project for the next round of grants!

Here is the link to our project http://www.gigyyc.com/event/2012/acadia-community-garden

The next meeting will be in October, the date will be announced soon.

Please share the wonderful news with everyone in the community of Acadia!