Community Garden

Community Garden

Since its launch in 2020 our Community Garden has become a true campus resource! Half of our plots are parish-held, and the rest are held by neighbourhood families. The Bloom Centre for Early Learning, a nursery school located in our church building, as well as some Ellwood House residents, also hold plots. Parish members and volunteers look after the St Thomas plots, while neighborhood families look after their own. A parish member has made and donated beautiful garden signs, and others have assembled a handy} storage shed.  The garden is deliberately not fenced.

All produce from the St Thomas plots goes to the Heron Emergency Food Centre (HEFC), our local food bank. For neighborhood families holding plots, there are no fees, but a condition of plot holding is that they donate at least ten per cent of their produce to HEFC. Over the years we have delivered hundreds of kilograms of produce to HEFC.

The garden also figures importantly in the life of the parish as a place to hold ceremonies and events, including the springtime Blessing of the Seeds and Seedlings, Thanksgiving in the Fall, Lemonade on the Lawn after summertime Eucharists, and our summer Saturday Farmers’ Market.

Perhaps the garden’s biggest achievement, however, has been its visible contribution to the Alta Vista community and the strong sense of fellowship that has emerged among our gardeners! New gardeners are always welcome!