More than a year ago, some members of the MV Gardening Club met in their interest to create a community food garden in Barry’s Bay. Our thought was to grow and provide fresh produce to others in need in our community, including through the Madawaska Valley Food Bank and other local services.
Since then, a plan gradually has come together, and others have joined in support. After receiving approval from the Township, we chose to name our project the Madawaska Valley Harvest Garden. Councillors Mary Blank and Joe Cybulskie are advisors to the project.
Local businesses collaborate
In recent months, we have received generous offers of material support, with both the Royal Canadian Legion and the Lions Club in Barry’s Bay providing us with access to their land for garden sites. Crosstown Construction is offering soil, compost and mulch; Murray Brothers, now part of Haliburton Forest Inc., is providing Cedar Lumber for our raised garden beds; and Barry’s Bay Home Hardware is providing gardening tools and materials.
Now we are pleased to let you know that, in the first phase, we are preparing to build our garden beds at the Legion in Barry’s Bay. Our plan includes also to create and maintain garden beds on the local Lions Club property, in time for later season planting this year.
How you as an individual can contribute
Our activities in the garden will include community people with a variety of skills, abilities and knowledge, building beds and maintaining the gardens through the seasons to harvest, with opportunities to share and learn in gardening, and in organization, teamwork and leadership. Many hearts and hands are welcome in this work from start to harvest – including site preparation, building raised beds (for diverse ease of access), preparing the soil, planting, watering, weeding, pruning, pest control, harvesting and preparation for distribution. We imagine small teams of volunteers sharing in the work during daytimes and evenings, and that work will benefit with people experienced in team leadership and coordination. And there will be work behind the scenes, including bookkeeping, recordkeeping, volunteer coordination, garden scheduling, fundraising and public relations.
We would like to hear from you, about how you imagine yourself joining in, contributing and benefitting from participation in this community service project. What are your interests in this project? What related experience and skills would you provide? What work would you most enjoy doing in the project?
Please write to us at mv.harvest.garden@gmail.com
– Georgie, Nola, Tish, Kelly, Rachel and John – the MV Harvest Garden planning group
Madawaska Valley Gardening Club(2026 June 9) MV Harvest Garden has a home! [media release]
Photo: David Clode on Unsplash