‘Tis the Season… to give a Garden Gift!  

As we honour the service of our great Canadians who gave all this month, we remember, our attention now moving on to gift-giving and Christmas trees. This year, there are more ways to honour and remember in our community while supporting a wonderful community gardens project located at the Mount Saint Joseph Sensory Garden grounds, 51 Lobban Avenue, Miramichi East.

The Mount St. Joseph Sensory Gardens were created for the benefit of its former residents, and with the help of Roots to Table Good Food Collective volunteers, two vegetable gardens followed. Now, The Community Food Forest adds a beautiful, natural and edible urban environment where we can grow and foster community well-being through education, good food access and local food growing skills. All this while bringing unlikely spaces alive with fresh fruit and vegetables, in big and small ways.

The Gardens are maintained by volunteers and the Garden Donations program will pay for purchasing, planting and caring for many different edible trees and shrubs, and supports regular maintenance and ongoing stewardship by the Gardens’ volunteers. 

Sponsor a Plant

We are starting with two easy ways to donate that beautify both our gardens and our community. The first is to sponsor a plant in honour of an event, to celebrate a birth, graduating class, acknowledge service club members, organizations or businesses along with family members, pets or friends. Or just because they like to see things grow.

We are thrilled to acknowledge Mr. Dennis Sullivan of Miramichi for our first official donation of $100 in memory of his brother and former Mount Saint Joseph resident, Father Leo Sullivan. Pleased to see the Gardens being maintained after the Mount closure, he offered the donation having no idea this program was in the works. Thank you! It’s going right to our fall 2020 plant, as will every donation invested in sustaining the gardens.

Community Bottle Box (until end of November)

The second neat way to support the Garden Donation program is by dropping your recyclable plastic bottles in The Community Bottle Box located at the Food Forest at Mount St. Joseph, north-side parking lot. Local radio station CKMA 97.3 has built a bottle trailer with a special door for storing large bags of empty bottles, made possible by contributions from Uni Financial Cooperation, Assurance Manuel, River Signs, Carrefour Beausoleil and Radio Ma 93. The Community Bottle Box will be on-site until the end of November. Thanks to Radio MirAcadie Inc. and sponsors for this great opportunity. 

The Roots to Table Regional Good Food Collective exists to inspire, celebrate and help create good food experiences growing and sharing fresh, healthy food for all in our region. We look forward to expanding our community gardens project and the network in 2021. To donate, volunteer or find out how you or your group, school or club can participate, email or call 506-210-2748.