WELCOME to The Garden Institute of B.C. (TGIBC)
New! Collaborative Journeys linking communities and capacity building with TGIBC.
NEW!! "Land Share" Elder Cohousing project. TGIBC Pres Sharon Rempel is creating a model to cohouse mid to low income aging organic eco activists and community development women on shared land that will produce some of the organic food used by the group.
New! Heritage Wheat Project is now being adminstered by Seeds of Diversity Canada and is a public fund for donations and funding support for heritage wheat projects.
NEW! "Faith" Red Fife farmer Bernie Ehnes behnes@shockware.com and Sharon Rempel slrempel@shaw.ca selling 'Faith' Red Fife and donating a tithe to Heritage Wheat Project.
The Garden Institute has been promoting organic urban food production, community gardens and community seed banks since 1998. Founders Sharon Rempel and Nancy Finlayson have worked in the organic movement since 1986.
The Garden Institute of B.C.(TGIBC) and The Garden Institute (TGI) of Alberta are the same registered Canadian charity. We incorporated in B.C. as a non profit society in November 2008. We were a non profit organization in Alberta from 1998 to 2008.
We are collaborating with Seeds of Diversity Canada to bring together heritage agriculture information and seed catalogues.
Current Directors: Sharon Rempel, Ian King and Megan Halstead. Program funders are G. Weston Foundation and October Hill Foundation.
We have two free downloads in pdf:
DIG. Diversity in Gardens. Activities to explore seeds and biodiversity in food.
On Farm Research Guide. Ways to discover answers to your own agriculture questions. Participatory research involves everyone as equals. Farmers are the world's plant breeders doing 'on farm' research and variety selection.
Grassroot organic agriculture practices encourage maintaining healthy soil fertility. It's important to grow appropriate varieties of crops for the growing conditions and climate.
We believe that 'on farm' research empowers people to seek answers to questions they want to answer, and to develop varieties that meet their requirements.
Cultural uses of plants and traditional knowledge documentation is a vital part of our work in Canada and overseas. We encourage the use of folk music, folk food and folk culture to keep a rich cultural diversity alive with the heritage seed.
We network with sister organizations around the world. By seeing each other as allies, not competition, together we can create new ways of living sustainably, honor traditional wisdom of people, seed and land and have fun playing music, sharing stories and creating beauty locally and globally.