Nancy Pearson 12/07/15
BUSAD 175 - Travel & Tourism Operations - Fall 2015
Tour Project Two - Niche Tour
Community Gardening NorthWest Niche Tour
"Community gardens are potential places for healing. In a time when families have limited resources including money, community gardens can provide nutritious food and medicine. Gardens are also a crossroads where diverse people come together to interact and connect. Elders can share their stories and wisdom, while youth can share their energy and enthusiasm. A garden has potential to foster community healing by bringing isolated people together over a common purpose. For many, gardening is a great way to relieve stress and to reconnect with the earth."
Join our group as we gain gardening experience while nurturing connections in this tour of Whatcom County's Community Gardening scene. We will be visiting three of these centers for growth and healthy living, see gardening skills demonstrations, give it a try for ourselves and have the chance to lend a hand where needed. Lodging and meals will be provided by The Firs, a retreat center located among mature fir and cedar trees near Bellingham.
People across the world and especially in the Pacific NorthWest are finding that Community Gardens can be a great place to learn the basics of how grow food and how to prepare meals with fresh produce, as well as to meet and work along side neighbors in the garden and even to help the needy by growing extra food to share thru the local food bank. Likely candidates for Agri-tourism like garden tourism tend to live in rural or urban homes with gardens, to read gardening media and websites, be friends of museums or garden attractions, and open-air tourists like walkers & hikers.
As more and more people look for ways to improve their lifestyle and help make the world a better place, gardening has emerged as a shining light that guides us toward healthier ways to live and to build strong community connections. Communities of people who make the effort to garden together experience many benefits including increased sense of community stewardship, people coming together from a wide variety of backgrounds, as a focal point for community organizing, and growth of new community leaders. Many police departments recognize community gardens as an effective community crime prevention strategy, and group discussions started in the garden can lead to community-based efforts to deal with other social concerns.
Community gardens even offer neighborhoods an access point to non-English speaking communities, and allow people from diverse backgrounds to work side-by-side on common goals without speaking the same language.It also increases opportunities for cultural exchange by giving new immigrants the opportunity to grow traditional crops otherwise unavailable locally, to take advantage of the experience of elders, to work together and share in learning from the results. With all these advantages, there's never been a better time to get involved! Come alone or bring the family along for a fun getaway way to learn about community gardening. Dig in!
Community gardens even offer neighborhoods an access point to non-English speaking communities, and allow people from diverse backgrounds to work side-by-side on common goals without speaking the same language.It also increases opportunities for cultural exchange by giving new immigrants the opportunity to grow traditional crops otherwise unavailable locally, to take advantage of the experience of elders, to work together and share in learning from the results. With all these advantages, there's never been a better time to get involved! Come alone or bring the family along for a fun getaway way to learn about community gardening. Dig in!
Day 1
3:00-5:00pm Check in to The Firs Retreat Center
5:00-6:30pm Dinner & Welcome Lecture
Lodging: The Firs Retreat Center is a 7-acre campus among mature fir and cedar trees, just 2 blocks from Lake Whatcom and our private beach, in Bellingham, Washington. The central location is convenient whether coming from Vancouver, B.C. or from the Seattle area. Link to The Firs
5:30- 6:30 Dinner
Lodging: The Firs Retreat Center is a 7-acre campus among mature fir and cedar trees, just 2 blocks from Lake Whatcom and our private beach, in Bellingham, Washington. The central location is convenient whether coming from Vancouver, B.C. or from the Seattle area. Link to The Firs
Day 2
8:00-9:00am Breakfast
9:00-9:30 Travel to NW Indian College
9:30-12:00 'Pea Patch Gardens' Training, Pt 1
12:00-12:30 Lunch Break (Sack lunch)
12:30- 4:00 'Pea Patch Gardens' Training, Pt 2
4:00- 5:30 Tour NWIC Medicine Wheel Garden
4:00- 5:30 Tour NWIC Medicine Wheel Garden
‘Pea Patch Gardens’ Training:
Now let's go visit the Medicine Wheel Garden; Enjoy!
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| Medicine Wheel Garden |
Bellingham FoodBank's Community First Garden Project
“This program let me grow food for my family. Now I can put fresh organic food on the table thanks to my new knowledge and skills.” —Rita, proud Garden Project Gardener
Get your garden on today!
Link: Community First Garden Project
"The Community First Garden Project has built all 25 raised-bed veggie gardens for this year's group of new garden recipients and provided the soil, seeds, starts and support for them to grow their own food. Our gleaning program, Small Potatoes Gleaning Project, is already talking to other local farmers and reminding them that we have more than 100 volunteers who are eagerly waiting for the opportunity to harvest their farms' excess veggies. And Victory Garden participants have been picking up seeds from us that they'll grow into donated produce from their home gardens."
Day 3
8:00-9:00am Breakfast
9:00-10:00 Travel to Bellingham Food Bank Garden Project
10:00-12:00 Assist in building raised-beds for new garden
12:00- 1:00 Lunch & Travel to Cloud Mountain Farm Center
1:30- 3:30 Beginning Vegetable Gardening Class
4:00- 5:30 Seed Starting Class
6:30- 8:00 Dinner & Sharing Time
Cloud Mountain Farm Center
1:30-3:30pm Beginning Vegetable Gardening: Vegetable gardening is more than planting seeds. In this general overview learn how to successfully grow a wide variety of produce throughout the year, including how to get started, planning your plantings, managing your soil and fertility inputs, and timing for succession harvests.
3:30- 4:00 Break
4:00- 5:30pm Seed Starting Class: Starting your own vegetable transplants at home can save you money and expand the varieties you can plant. In this workshop we'll discuss seed starting mediums, containers, sanitation, and fertility. This is a hands-on experience; you will go home with a flat of seeds ready to grow, and the skills to grow them successfully.
Thanks for joining us.
See you around the Community Garden!
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