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Lady Flower Gardens is a Part 9 Corporation (Alberta) registered Not-For-Profit. We are located on 15-acres of agricultural lands and we have shared access to a 75-acre old growth forest along the North Saskatchewan River, as well as a 90-person insulated yurt, which is used for community development events.
From year to year, Lady Flower Gardens (LFG) develops unique land use agreements with different member agencies. We are deliberate in partnering with agencies that support mental health and wellness with disadvantaged Edmontonians through access to wilderness and agricultural lands. This year our member agencies include: Alberta Health Services, Niginan Housing, Hope Mission, Boyle Street Community Services, The Mustard Seed, and Recovery Acres. The land use agreements are as diverse as the member agencies. However, all the agreements include various land based activities that full-fill at least one of the three objectives with people who face significant obstacles to their health and wellness. 
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Three Objectives of Land-Based Activities
1) Experiential learning: i.e. - learning about the different fauna and flora in the forest while actually in the forest. 2) Community building: i.e. - a collective harvest where the bulk of the product goes to Edmonton's Food Bank 3) Collaboration: i.e. - resources from more than one organization are integrated (the product goes to a collective kitchen for LFG members). These three objectives (experiential learning, community building and collaboration) can be incorporated into a number of different land based activities - horticultural, recreational, environmental, religious, culinary etc. The land use agreements are contingent upon whatever the unique member agencies negotiate, and what resources and supports they can integrate with us and other member agencies.
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Basic Agricultural Activities at the 2 - acre Garden
When people come to the 2-acre garden, they normally do three things: take care of the garden, harvest for Edmonton's Food Bank, and harvest for themselves.
When people come to the 2-acre garden, they normally do three things: take care of the garden, harvest for Edmonton's Food Bank, and harvest for themselves.
- Weeding/Planting/Watering etc are essential garden activities. People are given the opportunity to give back to the garden and take care of it so it can continue producing fresh, delicious, and healthy local vegetables. They also experientially learn agricultural skills that they can take with them wherever they go.
- Harvesting for Edmonton's Food Bank is also important for a number of reasons. By including this in our daily activities, Lady Flower Gardens seeks to foster an ethic of altruism, which contributes positively to people's mental health.
- The final step in the process - harvesting a big grocery bag of food for themselves - helps further our mission of learning to live sustainably with the land and each other.