Come enjoy our public garden space at the McMillan Arts Centre in Parksville. Join us in promoting local food security and independence Visit our Community Pantry in downtown Parksville at Moilliet and Hirst.
We’ve had a fantastic 2025 growing season, and the time has come to put the garden to bed for a brief time, and reflect on everything we enjoyed and accomplished in our third year at the MAC Community Garden. Maybe even update our website. Who knows
Download and read our Annual Report here.
Welcome to the Pumpkin Carving Party! Join us for a spooktacular time at 133 McMillan St. in the MAC Community Garden. Bring your creativity and carving skills to create the most boo-tiful pumpkin masterpiece. Whether you’re a carving pro or a first-timer, this event is perfect for everyone. Pumpkins will be provided as supplies last. If you can, please donate by purchasing a ticket. Let’s get into the Halloween spirit together. See you there!
Saturday Oct 4, 10:00 am. The theme of fall orchard care is “what to do now to improve orchard health for next year”. To break that down a bit further the workshop will cover what you can plant, weed, apply, and plan to do to your trees now, as organically, as possible to reduce pests and disease pressure next year and set your trees up for success.
Workshop will take place at a downtown Parksville orchard, dress for the weather. Visit Eventbrite for tickets.
Friday Oct 3, 7:00-9:00 pm. Set the mood for spooky season with some spooky stories! We will gather in the garden and listen to tales told by master storytellers from the Mid Island Story Tellers Association. Hot apple cider will be available! Everyone is welcome but please note that the stories may contain mature content. Tickets are by donation. All fundraising proceeds will help sustain the garden as a space for growing food, connection, and community in Parksville and Qualicum. Reserve your seat and donate here.
We’re deep into fruit picking season right now, but we still have time to organize fun social and educational events.
First off, September 20 will see our annual Apple Festival and Harvest Swap. We’ll have our own hot apple cider on tap, apple desserts, an Apple Pie contest and a live piano players. It’s a celebration of a wonderful growing season. We encourage gardeners and farmers to bring their excess produce to share and trade with others. Saturday Sept 20 at the MAC Community Garden, 3:30-7:30 pm
This is the busiest time of the year in the garden and in life, but we realize it’s been 3 months since our last update. Unfortunately, Facebook is still the quickest, easiest way to keep updated.
We are deep into fruit picking and processing season. As of today, Sept 2, we’ve picked and shared 2450 pounds of local fruit.
Other upcoming events to watch out for
Apple Festival Sept 20
Ghost Stories in the Garden Oct 3
Orchard Maintenance Workshop Oct 4
Pumpkin Carve-Out Oct 25
Just to keep you up to date on the Community Garden as of June 3, 2025.
We’re picking food and giving away food every day, mostly lettuce, kale, chard, green onions and herbs. The peas are in flower. Lots of bees in the raspberries. Tomatoes and squash are still in the greenhouse, thanks to a cool and damp spring. Our permaculture food forest is establishing itself nicely. Other fruit trees are also getting used to their new homes after we planted them early this spring.
The garden piano has been moved outside for the season, and we’re gearing up for a Strawberry Social and Piano Party on June 10th, from 11 am – 1 pm.
Enjoy this gallery of photos, which should take the place of 1000s of words. Better yet, come for a visit, we’re at 133 McMillan St. in Parksville, BC.
We received a great show of support and a welcome cash infusion from Parksville Rotary this weekend. This $5000 grant will help us grow and distribute more fresh, healthy food directly from our downtown Parksville location. We’re already crushing last year’s totals and we’ve barely begun the growing season.
Did you know that Parksville’s Rotary Club mobilizes 30 volunteers per week, and processes about 25,000 recyclable bottles and cans. That’s amazing!
We’ve been super-busy planting seeds, building soil and running workshops all spring, it can be tough to remember to update the website too.
2025 promises to be a big year at the MAC Community Garden though, especially now that we’ve got our infrastructure solidly in place and can simply grow food and community, instead of running a construction site as well. Here are some photos taken at the garden today, to show where we’re at, and what you can expect when you come to pay a visit in person.
