Paula Luther visits a community garden site on the corner of Victoria Drive and Hull Street.
City gardening grows
Community gardens provide precious space for urban green thumbs and sanctuary searchers
By MARINA SHEVCHUK
Gardening isn’t just for your grandma anymore. Getting down in the dirt can be a great way to get some physical activity, grow delicious food and connect with people in your neighbourhood.
The main obstacle urbanites are facing when it comes to gardening is finding land, which is why community gardens are becoming more popular.
“Community gardens are very important for a few hundred reasons, but as our cities become busier, as people’s lives become more stressful, gardening generally is a really good way to feel better, de-stress and you get the added benefit of exercise and some healthy food,” said Mike Levenston, founder of cityfarmer.org, a website that promotes city farming and urban agriculture.
According to Levenston all you need to begin farming in the city is a bit of land and sunlight. “If you want to start a community garden, first find a vacant piece of land and second, find out who owns it and go and see if you can get permission,” Levenston added.
Paula Luther is a coordinator at the Trout Lake/Cedar Cottage Food Security Network. She said that another way to begin city farming is to join a local community garden, particularly if you’re inexperienced.
“It brings people together and we get to share our knowledge and learn from each other and it crosses those cultural and social barriers,” Luther said.
According to Luther, community gardens have the power to lighten the burden on emergency food provisions such as food banks.
“They can also transform neighbourhoods,” she added.
Gardening volunteer Christine Boyle said that an isolated sports field at Grandview Elementary School was used by drug addicts and sex trade workers before a community garden began there in 1999. And although their garden gets raided and vandalized periodically, Boyle believes that it has brought their community closer together. “It’s really neat to have these intergenerational connections around something as important and vital as food and the earth,” Boyle said.
Visit cityfarmer.info to find gardens in your area or log onto the City of Vancouver food policy website to find all the tools you need to start one.
http://www.langara.bc.ca/voice/voice_200810/documents/16a05.pdf
On a dark, cold night in November, the Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House filled with the aroma of hot drinks, fresh fruit and other snacks, and the sound of excited voices. More than 40 people attended a community meeting to discuss our concerns and ideas about local food security.
Interests within the group included swapping surplus garden produce, cooking together in community kitchens, starting food projects for children, and building on the local food culture through public art and an upcoming magazine called Edible Vancouver… Many people were interested in the connection between medicinal plants and health care, and almost everyone in the room expressed interest in supporting new community gardens.
Facilitated by the Trout Lake Cedar Cottage (TLCC) Food Security Network and the Vancouver Food Policy Council , the community meeting was successful in identifying the many strengths of existing food programs, the gaps that need to be filled, and opportunities for community members to take action and get involved.
The TLCC Food Security Network continues to meet each month to move forward on the ideas initiated at the community meeting. An area of land near the Nanaimo SkyTrain station has been identified as a potential site for an intergenerational, cross-cultural garden with native plants, fruit trees, public art, and beyond.
Partners in the network, include Vancouver Native Health, the Environmental Youth Alliance, and the Vancouver Community Agriculture Network, Your Local Farmers Market, community members, Vancouver Fruit Tree Project, Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House, Trout Lake Community Centre. EYA & TLCC Food Security Network are partnering in a workshop series for the 2008 growing season:
February 16 – soil, compost and planting apple trees
March 29 - garden planning & seed starts
April - bed building & planting
June & July - winter gardening
September - seed saving & putting garden to bed
There will be a Community Meeting scheduled for the end of February for community members to discuss engage & actively participate in the creation of the garden, and to grow & evolve the garden. Join in as we grow together, eat together & work together.
To register for any of the workshops, or to get involved, contact Paula Luther, Coordinator – tlccfoodsecurity@gmail.com To stay informed check out our blog – tlccfoodsecurity.blogspot.com
Jill Dalton
TLCC Food Security Network member
local resident
keen gardener
