Kalamalka Demonstration Garden

2012

$22,311

$4,000

Okanagan College embarked on a sustainability project to develop a Demonstration Garden on two acres of unused agricultural land at the Vernon Campus. The intent of this Garden is to increase knowledge and education opportunities for students, community partners, researchers, and agriculture practitioners through training, demonstration, and applied research. This portion of the project saw Phase 1 completed with the construction of two vegetated swale pathways and the installation of irrigation mains for future water conservation irrigation demonstration projects. The swales were the first of the water conservation features to be constructed, and they provide a demonstration of passive water harvesting whereby they distribute water evenly across the landscape aiding in both irrigation and drought proofing. The slopes of these professionally engineered pathways were planted with a drought tolerant seed mix that will further filter water runoff to slow and spread the absorption rate and provide erosion protection. With Phase 1 complete, the college was able to implement the next phase of their project.