DG Site Updates: New forum suggestion: Community Gardens/Gardening, 1 by inanda

inanda wrote:
Hi guys,

Busiest week of the gardening year here - our lily club bulb sale. Thats why I've not been around for a couple of days.

About 8 years ago some friends started gardening on a vacant plot owned by the city. Lots of veggies, herbs, fun. This went on for 4 years or so, then we were told local NGO had a city grant to make it into a nice tidy park. No more 'untidy' veggie gardens. Never mind that there are 2 other parks within walking distance,
both with play structures & hockey rinks.

There followed an intense year of lobbying, sit ins, arrests, media attention - you name it - it happened.
Finally the city decreed that there would be 'some' garden plots for the locals.

Won't go into the various designs, gazebos, sheds etc etc. We now have our community garden with 70 little plots , each 8' x 12'. Plots take up about 2/3 of the space. Rest is grass and on an adjoining vacant lot there is a play structure. Furniture is 2 picnic tables on a cement slab and a bench on the grass.
For the past two years we have gardened here, subject to tons and tons of rules, bringing our own water in milk jugs. This year we finally got city water. We each paid $10 towards the water so I hope that will be enough to cover it. People who couldn't afford that, didn't have to pay.

I gardened with local kids, peas, beans, marigolds . Kids gardened with me. New Rule last year. a) no kids under 10 except with parents and b) you could not share your plot. Because I gardened with little kids, I was 'sharing'.

I plant peas very early. When they are finished, I dig in the vines (nitrogen) and replant. I happened to plant my entire plot with iris that year, after adding/digging in tons of semi-composted leaves. Great drama over that. Could not add foreign material to a plot. Might be sprayed or buggy materials. From my own trees. !!!! Could not plant only flowers.!!!! So on I went. They tried very hard to get me out of the garden. However, I had not broken any rules because there were NO WRITTEN rules. Only verbal.

Had to find somewhere else for the kids to garden. Another vacant plot.

By now you must realize I live in a very depressed part of the city where crack houses are often raided and bulldozed as rehab is not possible. So.... I started gardening last year on this vacant plot with kids. WE have 3 rules. Politeness, don't touch others gardens and time outs or banishment for the day for throwing things or bad language. Oh yes, local adults are welcome but you have to garden with a kid. Only exception to this are the seniors.

This year we had 12 kids and a total of 17 people gardening in decent large plots. We harvested a lot of beans and tomatoes for the local food bank. It was quite interesting taking the kids with their buckets of veggies to the food bank. Some had been there with parents to receive food. At first they thought it very strange to give food. One 12 year old now volunteers there on Sat AM, packing boxes.

The kids wanted to make signs for their plots and then they wanted a BIG sign for the garden. A good activity this very hot summer to keep them out of the sun.

We now have a fire pit for story telling/reading/marshmallows. The Elders come and have been teaching us about the aboriginal herbs and medicine. So we have different medicine plants. We also have a treehouse about 2 ft. off the ground for the little kids that the older kids always seem to be looking after.

3/4 of our garden is plots. At the end of each plot against the main walkway we planted tomatoes, hoping that passersby would pick them and leave our gardens alone. This has worked well. We have only lost one huge sunflower, 2 pumpkins and a row of carrots. Everybody has their own plot or part of a plot - as much as they need and can plant as they wish.

We have been extremely lucky with water. The apartment buildings on either side of the garden take it in turns to let us use their water.

We have just started building a long perennial garden the length of the lot which I hope will be like an english cottage garden.


we do other guerrilla gardening too. Pots on the main street which were weedy were planted, including the CBC pots!!! We planted in a little space at the back of the art gallery one night but they didn't water it so it didn't last. It was too hot this summer.

I realise this long story is not about a usual community garden. It has brought the community together though. We have had potlucks, dancing, a mini-powwow. Pinatas, an african musical group who live
nearby. People talk to each other on the street now and people from neighbouring streets too.

Flowers are appearing in front yards and apartment buildings. Another plus. The street is much cleaner now, not nearly as much rubbish thrown on the
street. The drug houses have gone. Two are boarded up, two are being rehabbed. That is a story for another time.

I have to say that almost all our seeds were donated by
DGers. I could never ever have found enough $$ for seeds for everyone. I'll never be able to thank DGers enough. They came in from all over the country. The huge huge sunflowers were a particular delight. We are going to have a pumpkin carving day soon, so that everyone will have their own pumpkin.

This photo is Spring 2005

This message was edited Sep 26, 2006 10:01 PM