Bowker Creek Flower Farm
This little farm is a very special place…
We are a 1/4 acre flower farm tucked into the urban landscape over neighbouring properties alongside Bowker Creek in the Jubilee area of Victoria.
We grow and live here with intention and vision. We lead from the heart with our list of skills, creativity and an un-quenchable willingness to dig in, and we want to show our community another way to live.
We farm sustainably using organic practises such as low/no-till gardening and applying only organic fertilizers and amendments. Healthy soil is the basis for all healthy plants, and we work to preserve its natural structure as much as possible. Our gardens include many native plants and perennials, we water efficiently and use lots of mulch. We plant for pollinators and people, all of whom we want to keep healthy and safe.
We grow flowers because we love them, and food because we all need fresh strawberries in our lives….
Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose unceded traditional territory and water our farm stands and provides. We also honour the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue now, and whose knowledge of this place is immeasurable.
This land is the setting for many human stories, mine included. I am humbled by the opportunity to steward this place, I am brought back to life by its tending, and filled up by what it can create.
Renée Sala: Bio
As a lifetime artist, maker and entrepreneur, I keep following my path wherever it seems to lead me, which is typically somewhere unusual. I’ve always been connected to the community through my other creative ventures (even as a kid) and I’m so excited to re-connect in a different way…with flowers!
I was born in Manitoba, and spent my teens up-island in Chemainus BC scooping ice cream for tourists. I spent my 20s travelling all over the world, living and working in England, Australia and Korea and seeing amazing things. I’ve been in Victoria since 2004, when I returned from abroad to attend art school and I am firmly planted here along with my family and friends. And my child. And plants. And cats.
After graduating the Visual Arts Program from Camosun in 2006, I became a professional potter, (following in my mother’s footsteps) and sold my work at many local stores and markets.
I then started my amazing little art school called Crafty in 2009. I obtained BC Arts Council grants and facilitated over 20 large school-wide art installations around the city, offered countless community workshops & camps, plus weekly neighbourhood classes in my home studio. I’ve worked with thousands of local kids and made many life-long connections with students and their families. In 2018 I was awarded a Community Leadership Award from the Victoria Foundation for my work procuring grants and delivering art programs to schools.
Also in 2018, I became the supervisor of the pottery studio at the Arts Centre at Cedar Hill, working with many fabulous artists and instructors to bring high-quality ceramics programs to the community. I was in this position throughout Covid, helping to keep community arts programming going while so much was closed. We even managed to engage thousands of locked-down community members in an incredible collaborative art project called “Hearts Together’ which is permanently on display at the Cedar Hill Arts & Rec Centre.
Life has a way of interrupting your best laid plans, and during the past year I’ve been home with my 8 year old son, healing and digging and growing beautiful things (…and playing Minecraft & teaching my kid how to use a blow torch). It’s been peaceful and transformative. I’m a homesteader at heart and you can find me baking sourdough, listening to podcasts, growing plants, building random things in the yard, and generally just makings things more beautiful.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my story.
Now let’s get growing!
