ThINC - Extra Hands Needed at the People’s Apothecary Garden (PAG)

It might not look it with yesterday’s snow flurry, but spring has sprung and the plants are beginning to reawaken! Life at the PAG is beginning to buzz with life again and the plants all seem quite happy, albeit in need of some TLC (or at the very least, a freshening up!).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the PAG, it is a community medicinal plant garden located on Carolyn Askew's (kindly loaned) plot of land at Lot 62 North Cove Road, and is a part of the Thetis Island Community Farm Co-operative. It was constructed by the ThINCpod in the summer-fall of 2020 with the help of several Thetis Island residents. In 2021, Aislinn Cottell maintained the space with the help of volunteers, coordinated various events and activities, and developed some handy resources that we are continuing to expand on. In 2022 we are planning several medicinal plant and gardening workshops for the Thetis Island community.

The garden currently has 45 unique medicinal plants (map and online plant library coming soon), including borage, comfrey, self-heal, mullein, wormwood, mints, lemon balm, evening primrose, sweet woodruff, yarrow, fennel, deadnettle, motherwort, lamb’s ear, and more! The kids at Thetis Island Elementary School have made numerous trips there over the last couple of years and we will continue to do so! They are getting better and better at identifying the myriad plants, and have helped with various maintenance activities - from mulching and composting to weeding and path maintenance.

Without further ado and turning this eSPOKES message into an essay, ThINC would greatly appreciate having extra hands in the garden throughout the growing season! Some of the activities will include: weeding, pruning, planting, application of compost / lasagna gardening, and path maintenance / wood chipping, and work parties will run every other week. To jumpstart the summer season, our first work party, weather dependent, will be on Sunday, April 24th from 10am - 12pm. From there, we can collectively decide on the best times to garden. If you would like to join, please email me at charlotte@thetisislandnatureconservancy.org

For more info on the PAG, please see: https://www.thetisislandnatureconservancy.org/people-s-apothecary-garden

Many thanks!
Charlotte

Education and Stewardship Coordinator at the Thetis Island Nature Conservancy