Community Gardens

The "Growing our Gardens, Growing Ourselves" is a community garden initiative currently operating at three of Pacifica Housing's complexes. Resident gardeners work with a coordinator and are involved in all aspects from constructing planting boxes through to weeding and sowing.

Pacifica Housing's  "Growing our Gardens, Growing Ourselves" project aims to help tenants live healthier, more stable lives and build a sense of community. The program was successfully piloted at Oak Park, a family housing complex, in 2009 and expanded to include Waterview, a 49 unit supported housing complex, in 2010. The Waterview garden was built on top of a concrete slab and transformed a previously underused area of the property. In September 2010, gardeners worked with local artist Joanne Thompson to further beautify the space by painting an eight by thirty foot mural on a formally graffitied surrounding wall.

Support from numerous local businesses and funding from the City of Victoria, Vancity Credit Union, the Victoria Foundation and the Victoria Branch of Investors Group, will allow for a third community garden at a second supported housing complex, Medewiwin apartments, in 2011.

Garden Coordinator, David Stott, works closely with resident gardeners and facilitates a number of workshops ranging from soil preparation, composting tips and techniques and harvesting and preserving.  

For more information on Pacifica Housing's "Growing our Gardens, Growing Ourselves" project please contact:

Kristy Franzen kristyf@pacificahousing.ca