It’s been clear for months the Cowichan Lake Community Garden would be moving to a new location, but where that would be has been up in the air. Now the town and the garden have come to an agreement on a new location and both parties have begun preparations for the actual move.
Barring a decision to the contrary by council, the community garden’s new site will be Ravine Park, which is behind the old Stanley Gordon School in the 100 Houses neighbourhood. The park is accessible via Stone Avenue.
“It’s a nice spot,” said Cara Smith, spokeswoman for the community garden.
On Aug. 30, Smith collected a soil sample from the site and sent it to MB Laboratories in Sidney for testing.
Smith said testing the soil for contaminates at Ravine Park is important “because the site was used as a landfill in the past. So who knows what’s buried underneath?”
Like soil throughout much of Lake Cowichan, the earth at Ravine Park is “like concrete” and it will take the garden volunteers some time to improve the earth’s conditions there.
“The soil is very, very poor, so we won’t be able to plant anything in the ground for the first year,” said Smith.
However, she said the town has offered to dig some pits there which will help them begin the soil improvement process.
“There’s a possibility that those areas could possibly have something planted in them next summer. Probably not by the spring. That’s OK because we are having to start over again. We’re just going to concentrate in the beginning on getting the site set up and the boxes set up so that people can rent them next spring and plant the individual boxes.”
The community garden currently has 16 planter boxes, however, will be adding eight more thanks to a donation of lumber from Cowichan Lake Timber.
The company made a similar donation when the garden was first getting started two years ago and owner George Donnelly didn’t hesitate to offer similar support when he heard the garden was in need.
“We’ve been here 14 years and during that time we’ve helped out whoever we could in the Valley,” said Donnelly. “One of the reasons we do that is in return we’ve received one heck of a lot of help and support from the Cowichan Lake Community Forest Co-op. Without them we wouldn’t be here. So we like to pay it forward.”
Cowichan Lake Timber will not be constructing the boxes. Donnelly said that last time they made this kind of donation, the lumber was delivered to Lake Cowichan School and assembled there.
Donnelly said he thinks the community garden is a good project.
“I think when you look at this world, we better start to grow our own food. When you look at [water shortages] there won’t be much coming out of California,” he said.
Cowichan Lake Timber also recently offered a discount on supplies to a new community garden in View Royal.
The Town of Lake Cowichan has already cleared the land at Ravine Park, and is working to resolve any drainage issues there.
“The town will ensure that the community garden is assured of piped water,” said chief administrative officer Joe Fernandez in an email. “The town is working with the garden group to make the move as smooth as can be.”
A flyer has also been distributed by the town around the neighbourhood, letting residents know about the garden’s impending relocation. According to Fernandez, so far there has been no negative from neighbours, who are already fully aware of what is going on.
