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Visit to Providence Farm - 1

On the advice of advisory committee member Sandra Friedman, program coordinator Harry Hill made a trip to Providence Farm, near Duncan on Vancouver Island on May 12, 2010. The farm has existed as a therapeutic community for 30 years, and includes the St. Anne's Garden Club, a possible model for our Seniors Community Garden on the Sunshine Coast.

(For more information about Providence Farm, click here. For information about St. Anne's Garden Club, click here.)


The new centre for the St. Ann's Garden Club at Providence Farm.

 

Some history...

In the early 1990s we began to look at the idea of a Horticulture program for seniors. Working with Mental Health staff, plans were made to start a small day program in some of our existing facilities. Our first venture was the "Topsoilers" Club, which didn't get adequate support but we persisted and in 1994-95 began a project to create raised beds for the program, an accessible garden for seniors and the community, some allotment gardens to attract the larger community, a natural garden, and a clubhouse.

We obtained the donation of a 24' x 24' modular building, the former real estate office for the Properties. We moved ito to the farm and added a greenhouse (10' x 24') and a deck. This would serve as our St. Ann's Garden Club space until 2007, when the decision was made to create a new building. This has been exemplary program and a great addition to the farm community...

...logs were hauled to our milling site and we used them for timbers for the new St. Ann's Garden Club, seniors' program centre. The St. Ann's Garden Club had been operating out of some old buildings we had salvaged from other places in the late 1990s and which has greatly deteriorated. Providence Board decided in 2006 to create a building committee to plan for a new building. After much discussion and research, it was agreed to create a new timber frame structure to replace the old trailer and modular building. Three years of work and fundraising has resulted in a truly unique and wonderful accessible space for our seniors' program.

(from "Pioneering Times, A History of Providence Farm" by Jack Hutton

 

We arrived at Providence Farm at 9:30 in the morning to chat with Peggy Hickling, assistant manager of the program. Shortly after, participants and volunteers started to arrive, some had been picked up by the centre's bus, others arrived by carpool or were driven by family members. The program runs four days a week, with about eight participants coming the same day each week. On the Wednesday we were there, four volunteers assisted participants with their gardening and other activities, as well as prepared soup for lunch and a snack for the afternoon.

Each morning starts with coffee or tea, perhaps muffins, and a general check-in. Activities for the day are discussed in a relaxed way and participants are asked what they would like to do. Following coffee, we headed out to the garden's high raised beds to water and to sow more vegetable seeds. Participants share the beds and their sections are marked by signs. Because each participant visits only once a week, they support each other by watering all the raised beds, not just their own. On cool or rainy days, participants can work in the greenhouse or crafts room.


Volunteer assistants help participants to plant and maintain their garden plots.
  

Participants choose which vegetables or flowers they would like to grow in their plots.

 

Participants visit the garden only once a week, so they water each other's plots

Click to go to Page 2 of Visit to Providence Farm.

Click to go to the New Horizons Seniors Community Garden's Home Page.

 

 

 

 

 

  


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