Garden and Urban Farm Field Trip
June 16th 2018. 10:00 to 14:00Permaculture Bus Trip brought to you by Garden Jane
Ready for some garden and urban farm inspiration? Join fellow gardeners, community builders, and permaculturists on Sat June 16th, 10 am–2 pm for a garden and urban farm tour and field trip by school bus.
We'll visit three exciting sites in Toronto's West End and explore themes and topics along the way. Our stops include the High Park Children's Garden, Rockcliffe Greenhouse, and the Black Creek Community Farm.
The bus leaves from High Park TTC station and returns to Jane TTC station.
Themes and topics include:
- Soils, plants, and land: how to test soil, ID plants, and read the landscape
- Urban gardens, farms, and community development
- Permaculture design principles, approaches, and design elements
- Diversity of plants, people, community, biological ecosystems, social ecosystems, and design approaches to enhance diversity
- Community building with each other, including a community building "Design It Forward" challenge for the bus
- Skill building and practice: plant ID, soils analysis, reading the land, permaculture design, and working together!
Fee is on a sliding scale: $35–$75* (choose what you pay)
*The fee includes: bus; research, organization, and facilitation of the field trip; carbon offsets; and a contribution to the Black Creek Community Farm.
Tour Highlights
High Park Children's Garden
We'll visit the Children's Garden and the straw bale Eco-Kitchen to learn about some of the design elements, programs, as well as the site's soil, plant species, ecosystem, and social–cultural history.
Rockcliffe Greenhouse
At Rockcliffe Greenhouse we'll see the home base of Toronto's Community Gardens Program. Here you'll have a chance to see a site very few people visit. You'll learn about its rich history of community work, as well as the no-till plant and garden work being done at the site. We'll look at the soil and approaches taken to maximize plant and garden health.
Black Creek Community Farm
At the farm, we'll see and learn about a site that has transitioned from fields to a community farm and learn about the variety of approaches taken to working this land, the urban farm model, and community development work.
Fun Fact: This field trip was partially designed by people who attended the Toronto Botanical Garden Intro to Permaculture workshop as a "Design-It-Forward" practice.