The Campus Community Garden is a UVSS constituency group that manages the urban agriculture space on campus, with practical support from Facilities Management and the UVic Sustainability Office. The new garden is located off of Mckenzie Avenue across from the athletic fields. There are 90 plots at the gardens, including individual allotment gardens, communal “giving gardens,” for volunteers and food bank donations and garden plots used by advocacy groups and classes. Due to the high demand for plots, rentals are restricted to current UVic students, faculty and staff, though volunteers from outside the UVic community are welcome.
We hold work parties every week, where members can come and work on their individual plots in the company of other gardeners, or help out with the communal tasks and the giving gardens. We also offer workshops on gardening and food related topics throughout the year, and are always looking for great new ideas if you have a workshop you would like to lead or a topic you would like to learn about.
The nitty gritty: CCG Constitution and Bylaws
Hi,
I’m part of a grad class in Studies in Policy and Practise who are doing a group project on cooperatives and local food security. I’m curious how the UVic garden runs the communal plots – who runs them and how is the food grown distributed? Has there even been a formal cooperative model put forward for the garden? Do you think the food grown could be distributed to low income students on campus?
Would love to talk to someone about this. I can be reached at ritaf@uvic.ca or on campus at 472-5305.
Thanks!
Rita
Hi Rita,
Thanks for your interest. I’ve passed on your post to the people running the garden. We’re run partly through a UVSS club and partly through our own executive (we have documents outlining everyone’s duties, the times of AGMs and Semi-AGMs, election to the executive, rights and responsabilities of plot renters etc.). The garden has plots that are rented out and some that are used by the club members. We’re run by volunteers. Each plot renter grows his or her own food, and the club plots are shared by whoever happens to be around. Food from the club plots is free and shared between those who come out and contribute some time. Our AGM is this coming Saturday the 28th at 3pm in TEF 255, you’re welcome to come and see us in action.
Kathleen
Hi!
Im a highschool student from Kamloops and I am participating in a competion for a different university to come up with some ideas to improve the university. My group has decided on doing something with a garden. We would like to hopefully make it more of a community connector and I would just like to know a little bit more of how its run on your campus (with the volunteers) and how much it cost’s you to keep the garden maintence. Also, (this is going to sound really strange) but do you guys have any rooftop gardens??
I would love any help you could give me!
Taylor
Hi Taylor,
Sounds like a great project! (sorry for not getting back to you, we were having a spam issue and your comment was buried)
In case it’s still helpful, we are run by an volunteer executive and charge $30 a year for an 8 X 15 ft. plot. We are also a club with the UVic Student Society and the UVSS holds our funds for us. We find $30 per plot for about 48 plots in enough to buy tools, hoses, some communal organic fertilizer, and replace the shed (or other large expense) when needed – we’ve also been building raised beds. This year we are also budgeting for expenses related to moving the garden to a new location.
In addition to individual plots, we have some large plots that students who belong to our club use as a group. This way undergrad students who aren’t around in the summer when most of the growing happens can still participate.
We don’t have any rooftop gardens (no roofs except small shed), but I believe the Social Sciences and Mathematics Building, as well as the First Peoples House have something like that.
Let me know how your project went, we are always interested to hear about garden projects at other universities!
Kathleen