Gardening as environmental stewardship and environmental stewardship as worship — how do they go together?
Our A Rocha Community Garden Network believes that organic food production is one way for us to participate in God’s redemption of our world wherever God has placed us, but especially in cities. Growing food together honours God’s desire for the land to bear fruit and foster healthy communities!
Gardening in Greater Vancouver
Our friends Shihoko and Ken Warren coordinate New Eden Gardening Ministry out of a desire to put into practice Christ’s vision for a restored creation. Every other Saturday in the growing season, a group of people lovingly cultivate land which produces the food they share with people in deep need.
For folks living in the Greater Vancouver Area, we have our first local Garden Network event of the year, hosted by New Eden Gardening Ministry. Come and learn from Shihoko and Ken. Click here for event details
Gardening Across Canada
Inspired to start a Community Garden this year? Think of the type of Community Garden you’d like to develop and who would participate and benefit. Have a long-term vision of how the Garden will be a vibrant space for your neighborhood, and how your faith community will be involved for years to come. Click here to view our Community Garden manual.
If you have a garden already, take some time to plan out what foods you’d like to eat from your garden – and plan your space accordingly. For example – re-sow greens every 2 weeks for a regular crop. Also source a good locally produced compost that you can mix into the top 2 inches of your soil. This will balance your soil’s pH (or acidity) levels, boost your soil’s nutritional quality and retain water more efficiently.
This spring the Community Garden Network has been…
…establishing a Rooftop Community Garden with Salvation Army’s Gateway of Hope, empowering people in recovery with an opportunity to grow food for themselves and enough to give away.
…visiting gardens in our network and supporting new sites. Take, for example, the four gardeners from The Mustard Seed Community Garden hosted by St Luke Lutheran Church in Surrey, BC. Once refugees from Iraq, they have settled in Canada and use their garden plots to stretch food bills.
