Seasonal and Operational Changes Are Here!

May 23, 2024

When I biked to work at the Compost Education Centre demonstration site at 1216 North Park St this morning, everything smelled so green. It feels like spring is knocking at the door, and we are welcoming the seasonal change. Spring is a busy time of year for us: Elora and Jeffrey are busy delivering spring camps with the City of Victoria, Kayla is starting seedlings for the Spring Plant Sale, I’m churning out grant proposals, and Zoe-Blue is keeping us all grounded.

When we did our strategic planning in the fall and winter last year, we took time to revise our organizational values. One of key values is “adaptability.” We can expect a lot of change in the future, both short-term and long-term, and we will be able to adjust and change course to continue thriving in our community of plants and people.

One of the changes we were anticipating in the fall of last year and has now arrived. We are working to transition management of the Earthbound Garden (2507 Garden St) and Chambers St Allotment Garden (1855 Chambers St) from the Fernwood Community Association (FCA) to the Compost Education Centre. This is a big change for both the FCA and for us! The FCA is transitioning to operating as an arts-based community organization called the Neighbourhood Arts Society and Collective (NASC), and we are working with the FCA and the City of Victoria to 1) transfer the Earthbound Garden license of occupation to us and 2) create a new license of occupation for the Chambers St Allotment Garden.

We were interested in working with the FCA on this transition because we have the capacity, expertise, and passion to steward these much-loved community gardens. We were also motivated by long-term land security. Historically, the FCA subleased to the CEC the land where our demonstration site and office are located; we are now interested in pursuing a primary leaseholder arrangement with the City of Victoria for this land.

We will be working on the transition over the course of the next few months, and we are expecting to have everything officially transitioned in July. We are grateful to have so far received a lot of positive feedback from allotment gardeners and our community – please reach out if you have anything to share!

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