Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Developing the Chinese Market Garden/Native Plant Garden

The first bok choi at the Chinese Market Garden.  
 About 2 years ago, the Chinese Market Garden and Native Plant Garden was developed. It is a living experiment in teaching and learning about the largely untold shared history of Chinese migrant communities and Musqueam First Nations people here on the banks of the Fraser River, on unceded traditional Musqueam territory.



Early signage being painted in partnership with the Chinese Canadian Historical Society.
Here and in many Pacific Rim countries, Chinese immigrant farmers established small (5 -10 acre), intensively farmed, highly productive truck farms producing tender leafy vegetables that fed the cities of the coast with fresh and nutritious food. 

Today, the Orchard Garden team continues to make this space a vibrant one. This year, some international student volunteers from China in the Faculty of Education's Master of Museum Education are meeting bi-weekly to discuss how best to use and share the space. We are spending the winter thinking about our spring planting plans, and we hope to have a welcome sign up in early 2013. For now, the garden is very much in winter mode!

Over-wintering Kale

Each bed is carefully mulched with leaves to protect the soil from winter rains, and prevent weeds. 



2 comments:

  1. I had an interesting conversation with Amy Clausen, MA student in EDST, about how we create historical sites & how these are performed. She recommended reading the work of Jon Hunner for historical site education. Just a thought!

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  2. Very nice guidelines, thanks for this wonderful share, keep up the good work!

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