The following article appeared in the December 24 edition of the Guelph Tribune:
It’s a long way from growing season, but city council decided this week to get behind a push to establish community gardens in Guelph.
“It’s just a no-brainer, I think, that people should be able to grow food in their community” and that there should be public places to do this, says Coun. Vicki Beard, a gardening enthusiast who worked with local groups pushing for community gardens.
“People feel they have lost the connection with food and the land. That sounds a bit hokey, but kids don’t understand how food grows,” Beard said.
The importance of having a place to garden will only grow as the city moves towards the denser housing needed to meet the province’s growth targets for Guelph and other growth centres in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area, she said.
“When you live in an apartment, you tend to lose your connection with growing food. If we want high density, I think we must provide an area where there is a connection with food growth,” Beard said in an interview Tuesday.
Council unanimously agreed on Monday to have city staff work with the community on the project. The proposal calls for up to three pilot garden locations in the spring and summer of 2010. Pilot sites would operate for at least two years, and then their sustainability would be evaluated.
Along with other members of a working group that’s been set up, city staff will continue to look at developing policies and procedures for the operation of community gardens. City staff will report back to council later about recommended locations for the pilot gardens, as well as the level of support to be provided by the city.
City park staff have already indicated they could do initial soil tilling and provide mulch for the pilot gardens within their 2010 operating budget, says a new staff report.
Guelph has a “growing supportive infrastructure” of neighbourhood groups, community organizations, interested residents and agency partners that are willing to help the city with the development, implementation and potential sponsorship of a community gardens program, the report says.
One of these community organizations is a subcommittee of the Guelph Food Round Table, which authored the original gardens proposal. This subcommittee, which is evolving into the Guelph Community Gardens Network, plans to take a lead role. It is investigating grants or foundation funding to support hiring people to help with implement the pilot gardens and with a longer-term gardens program.
Beard said community garden programs are becoming more common in Canadian cities. “In many communities, it is just standard,” she said. In Toronto, for example, if a park is created it will include a community garden.
In Guelph, a community garden has been operated for years near York Road by the Two Rivers Neighbourhood Group without much in the way of help from the city, Beard said. It doesn’t have a water source, though, so it relies heavily on mulching, she noted.
Establishing community gardens in parks could have side benefits such as reducing park vandalism, because people there gardening would keep an eye on the parks, she said.
While people would keep much of the produce they grow in a community garden, excess food that’s grown might go to local organizations helping the disadvantaged, Beard said.
Community gardens should have a water source and shouldn’t interfere with existing park programming, says the new staff report. As well, there should be a public process to involve surrounding property owners in the decision-making process “to ensure neighbourhood acceptance.”
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Where will gardens grow?
A number of possible locations for pilot community gardens in 2010 are being investigated.
Suitable sites for gardening have been identified by city staff in Dakota Park, and the Brant Avenue Neighbourhood Group has also requested that a garden location near Brant Avenue Public School be considered.
“While a suitable location is not available in Brant Avenue Park, there is potential for locating the garden on school property, which requires further investigation,” says a new city staff report.
“This sets up a unique opportunity for partnership discussions and/or joint agreements between the neighbourhood group, the school board and the city for this and future garden programs.”
The Grange Hill East Neighbourhood Group is also interested in the city’s pilot gardens initiative, the report says. No suitable location has been identified in O’Connor Lane Park or at Ken Danby Public School, as suggested by the neighbourhood group. However, city staff are looking at opportunities on other city-owned property in this neighbourhood and with the local Catholic school board, which also has a school in the area.
The third area being eyed for a pilot garden is near the Shelldale Centre. The Onward Willow Neighbourhood Group recently indicated its interest in development of a community garden near the Shelldale Centre or maybe at nearby Willow Road Public School. This request is being investigated by the working group that is looking at the community gardens initiative, the report says.