On October 18th, we hosted a tree and shrub planting in the Dartmouth Commons with the support of numerous community members who came out to assist, as well as city staff and elected representatives who showed their support both on the ground, and in council.
We had a great turnout of devoted community members who eagerly planted the 7 trees and 100+ shrubs that comprise the municipality's first community orchard.
We even garnered the attention of local media who did a short segment about the event (view here). Skip ahead to 9:20 to see Global Halifax's coverage of Dartmouth Commons Takes root.
This event would not have been possible without the community memebers who participated, the city staff and elected officials who supported the project from the start, and Tree Canada, whose Edible Trees Grant funds projects like this across Canada with the assistance of their funding partners.
Hopefully this is a sign of more events to come in the municipality as we increase the wonderful ways we can use our parks for recreation, community building, and growing food. A big thank you to everyone involved! We hope that we can stay involved in projects like these and help communities start orchards that start discussions about and provide local food in our own municipal parks.
