Hi, I am an AGSC student and currently I am working on a proposal to extend the farmer's market at the UBC farm. Does the UBC botanical garden offer programs such as community allotment garden? Just from browsing this forum, I see quite a lot of people with high interest in horticulture/plants..etc I am wondering if the UBC botanical garden would consider expanding or extending programs into the UBC farm. An example would be plants-related programs such as tutorials/education programs or plant sales. One of the reason is that I want to incorporate this idea into one of the plan from AGSC 450 ( extending the farmer's market). This idea seems economically feasibile with the help of the community + people who are eagar to participate. Actually, I don't think it would add much cost because the basis to implement such programs are time, land and water. Jonathan Choi
Hi Jonathon, probably replying too late for your project, but I was on vacation when you asked. I don't think you'd find anyone at the garden who would disagree with your thoughts - yes, it is a good idea. However, time is the stickiest of all the things required to implement such a program, since time = investing money in a position to look after things. And that's the real sticking point, particularly since the garden lost its education and outreach coordinator position for over a year's time (though funding has been found to fill a position for 12 months - but that generally means no long-term commitments to projects if that's the length of time to be guaranteed). An alternative re: organizational time is the Friends of the Garden, but I can't speak for them other than to say they'd have to be approached directly.
