There’s plenty of items ripe for the picking.
Food First Chemainus members want to spread the word about the garden outside Chemainus Secondary School currently having a bounty available to the public.
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“Anyone can come and harvest from the garden,” explained Chelsey Taylor, who helped create and organize the local non-profit food sustainability program that’s been in operation for two years. “It’s there for the community. We just enjoy gardening so we grow it.”
“We would love for the more needy to come and harvest food,” added Nuria Sanchez, another group member. “But it’s for the community. We’ll even teach them how to harvest.”
The high school garden has been revamped as a public garden this summer.
“During school we work with the kids on planting, maintaining and some harvesting,” Taylor indicated. “Mostly, we want to educate the kids on the importance of growing your own food and giving back to the land.”
“The students help with the weeding before we do the planting for the spring and they help with the planting of the plants,” Sanchez elaborated.
When school’s in session, the students also utilize the garden for their cooking classes.
But, for now, the garden has a hearty crop that Food First Chemainus wants to see utilized. There’s cherry tomatoes, two different types of beets and beans, garlic, strawberries, lettuces, an abundance of herbs and more.
There’s also sunflowers starting to flourish, but they’re for the kids to harvest later.
“This garden, it’s amazing how the food is growing,” said Sanchez.
The garden was abandoned through the early part of COVID before being resurrected in the spring of 2022.
“With the kids last year, we tackled all the weeding and we cleaned out all the beds,” Sanchez indicated.
The woodwork class constructed six new boxes and soil was brought in.
Food First Chemainus has a dedicated group of people who also maintain the community herb garden boxes by the Chemainus United Church.
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