Garden an oasis for refugees

Talwood Community Garden expanding after being planted earlier this year by refugees who used to be farmers in Syria

A new community garden outside a west-end apartment complex, planted early this summer by Syrian refugees, has been so successful it will be far bigger next year.

The Talwood Community Garden was planted in June outside an apartment complex on Talwood Dr.

Jill Bishop, a community food cultivator with the Nourish program, told the city’s parks and recreation advisory committee on Tuesday that it was tended mostly by Syrians who’d been farmers before they came to Peterborough.

The garden was planted on cityowned land; it had 24 plots this summer, each of them 10’ by 10’.

Bishop said those plots fed 15 families, as well as a few individuals.

At least another dozen people would have liked a space in the garden this summer.

That’s why Bishop asked asked to increase the garden by 12 additional plots next spring, thanks to “extreme interest” – and the committee agreed to the expansion.

Bishop said the garden was used this summer for many impromptu picnics, where the gardeners met their neighbours.

“It acted as a gathering venue,” she told the committee.

It’s been so successful that the Peterborough Pollinators, in partnership with GreenUp, want to plant some fruit trees and pollinator gardens there too.

Because the majority of the gardeners speak Arabic, Bishop said the Nourish program published some brochures in Arabic.

Bishop said she was certain the expanded garden will be tended by enthusiastic gardeners.

“The adage build it and they will come is true for community gardens,” she said.

Also on the parks and recreation advisory committee’s agenda on Tuesday night:

Wellness Centre programs:

The committee heard a report from Heather Stephens, the new assistant manager of the Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre, about programs she thinks could be potentially introduced at the centre.

Stephens proposed an outdoor fitness program offered at city parks (perhaps at Beavermead, for instance, which is getting outdoor fitness equipment installed).

She also talked about having Tiger Tots Martial Arts programs for children, or new daycamps (such as a March Break Junior Firefighters Camp, in cooperation with the firefighting program at Fleming College).

Stephens started her job in July after working at the YMCA for 18 years.

Nordic skiing in Jackson Park:

The committee approved a plan to allow the Peterborough Nordic Club to groom the trail in Jackson Park this winter for cross-country skiing.

The club had asked last year, but they weren’t incorporated yet so the city couldn’t enter into a legal agreement with them. But now they’re incorporated.

A city staff report says it will mean that a 1.2 km trail will be groomed (in the portion of the park owned by the city).

Meanwhile the club is also expected to groom the section of trail between Jackson Park and Ackison Rd. on land owned by Otonabee Region Conservation Authority. They did so last winter too.