Community gardens continue to bloom across Edmonton
There are approximately 120 community gardens in the Capital region
Like many Edmontonians, Hanson loves to cook with fresh produce, so when dinner plans are being made she heads out to get the necessary ingredients. However, her destination is not the local grocery store or even a farmer’s market — it’s her own plot in a local community garden in downtown Edmonton.
“I basically plant what I can use,” says Hanson. “I live a couple of blocks from the garden. It’s a five-minute walk so it’s really nice to be able to go over and get your lettuce and vegetables for supper.”
Community gardens are a growing trend in the Capital region with new plots springing up all over the city, as everyone from young families to people 55+ embrace the chance to become urban gardeners.
Hanson says she grew up on a farm and paid her dues weeding and harvesting, and later had a house with a yard where she did some flower gardening. “I loved getting in the dirt after a stressful day at work. It was a very good way to slow down and process your day while being in touch with the earth,” she says.
But like many people 55+, Hanson’s gardening mostly ended when she downsized her housing.
For a few years she helped a friend with a backyard garden before asking, “Where is my downtown community garden, is there one?”
It turned out there was — the Alex Decoteau Community Garden.
The garden’s volunteer director Cheryl Probert says many of the Alex Decoteau Community Garden members are condo and apartment dwellers with no place to garden. Probert says the garden was planned in partnership with the City of Edmonton when a new park was being developed in the area. It is fenced with 37 permanent plots available for $20 to $30 per year, depending on size and location.
According to Probert, the garden is very popular with local residents who have really taken to the process of raising their own food in an urban setting. “We are kind of in the heart of a community that otherwise doesn’t have a lot of green space,” she says. “So it really gives people a place to go do something meaningful, to do something they enjoy. They can walk down to the garden, gets their hands dirty, meet their neighbours and grow some food.”
Junetta Jamerson, Community Garden Facilitator with Sustainable Food Edmonton, says there are probably 120 community gardens now in the Capital region. “There’s been a big increase in the popularity of community gardens in the past six years, and it’s largely fueled by the desire to connect to your own food,” says Jamerson.
Many Edmonton families are the product of the rural to urban migration but are now several generations removed from a farm lifestyle, Jamerson notes, and they started to sense a void in how we source our food. This led to an interest in creating new community gardens, as people took inspiration from existing gardens and made use of the resources and financial support of organizations like Sustainable Food Edmonton.
Jamerson says their annual survey shows that seniors are heavily represented in terms of starting community gardens, coordinating them and participating as gardeners. She says the social aspect of gardening is a big part of it, with many garden groups having special events like work bees, potlucks and gardening presentations.
Karen Mykietka, Facility & Program Manager with Alberta Avenue Community League, says the location of their community garden in a multi-use space makes it a destination even for area residents who are not gardeners.
“We’ve become very well known for our garden,” she says. “People want to rent it to have a garden party here or a wedding .”
Mykietka says planning is underway to expand the garden and add further amenities including a greenhouse and a gazebo. “We’ve applied for grants that could fund a permanent gazebo that could be used as shelter for the gardeners, but also for programming, meetings, wedding, a stage for a band.”
She recalls that the current popularity of their community gardens almost didn’t happen, with several unsuccessful efforts years ago to start a garden by forming a committee and assigning people to various roles.
“But we couldn’t do it, no one was interested in coming to a meeting,” says Mykietka. “Eventually we had a handful of people who decided let’s just get a rototiller, till up some lawn and start planting.
We are kind of in the heart of a community that otherwise doesn't have a lot of green space.