For David Walker, entering his community garden in East Vancouver is an escape from the worries of everyday life.
He has been gardening at Cottonwood Community Gardens for 10 years.
“I fell in love with the place as soon as I entered,” he said.
“At least a few hours a day can shut out many concerns and conflicts in other parts of the world.”
Walker is one of many passionate gardeners in Vancouver, using community spaces to relax, grow food and connect with others. This is part of the myriad benefits of gardening in urban space.
Community gardens are important for many reasons, said Tammarasoma, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Resources and Environment Management and a research director at the Food Systems Lab at Simon Fraser University.
For example, she said gardens increase biodiversity by adding new plants and pollinating. They build community relationships. And they enhance food security for those who have time to access and care for them.
See | Vancouver Community Gardens and “Guerrilla Gardeners”:
Urban gardens come in many forms and offer a myriad of benefits to the surrounding community.
They also take underutilized or abandoned space and turn them into something useful. For example, the Cottonwood Community Garden was built in a former garbage dump.
Vancouver estimates that there are more than 110 urban growth spaces in parks, school playgrounds, and private land in the city, many of which have a waiting list for membership.
Soma says interest in community gardening increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People were looking for a way to spend time during the blockade, and also interest in gardening increased due to the turmoil in the supermarket, [such as] Hoarding food, long lines in supermarkets. ”
“Gardening was a way to ensure the similarity of the elasticity of the food system.”
On the beach13:17A little dirt will never hurt: Cottonwood Gardens
CBC’s Melody Jacobson visits one of Vancouver’s oldest community gardens to learn how it started and how it continues to thrive.
Urban gardening comes in many forms beyond the typical small plots of remote planting areas.
For example, City Beet Farm owners Duncan Chambers and Liana Glass grow fruits, vegetables and flowers in residential areas throughout Vancouver and provide them to residents who purchase an annual share of their crops.
They currently serve 87 members and supply additional produce to the community support organization Little Mountain Neighborhood House for the Food Hub Program.
According to Duncan, Grass and two other employees are harvesting enough food for 250 people from June to October.
“If we had more small farms like this, we could increase the number,” Duncan said.
Carol Shane said allowing Citybeat Farms to use their yard (one of the 13 farms in the city) “provides a great and wonderful opportunity as a homeowner.” ..
“Life growing in my vestibule, and more importantly, being able to see life brings me great joy, and people are talking about how we use our vestibule. When passing by, it brings conversations around, “she said.
On the beach8:46A little dirt will never hurt: City Beet Farms
Duncan Chambers and Liana Glass own CityBeet Farms, which grow crops in the Vancouver people’s front and backyards.
Soma agrees that an urban garden is more than a place to grow food.
“They are also a way to support intergenerational knowledge among indigenous older people, knowledge holders, older people, and young people,” she said.
“Decolonize our thinking”
Leona Brown, an indigenous cultural facilitator and member of the Gitxsan and Nisga’a tribes, has promoted the development of indigenous food forests that grow culturally important food and medicine in the Metro Vancouver area. One of East Vancouver that started this summer..
She said these forests give indigenous peoples the opportunity to taste and learn about important plants in their culture, such as salmonberries, huckleberries, tobacco, nettles and fireweed.
On the beach8:52A little dirt never hurt: decolonization of gardening
Leona Brown and Metis Edkauter, independent indigenous cultural facilitators of the Gitxsan and Nisga’a tribes, talk to CBC’s on-the-coast about the implications of decolonizing gardening. Editor’s Note-After the interview, the Burrardview Community Association shared this statement: Burrardview Community Association (BCA) executives responded to inappropriate comments made by individuals during the Parkboard on March 30, 2022. We want to record the strongest possible accusations. Meeting at Vancouver Urban Food Forest (VUFF). This person has confirmed that he is a member of BCA. However, he did not play an official role at BCA and was not authorized to speak on behalf of the organization. We do not support his view and would like to reiterate our heartfelt concern that such comments were made. Comments like these have no meaning in civilized discourse. Follow up with this person.
“Returning to the medicines we lived with for thousands of years before colonization has decolonized our thinking,” Brown said.
Metis educator Loris Nider works with children to teach them the importance of not only growing food and medicine, but also connecting with the land.
“They are said to be dirty,” she said. “It’s not soil-it’s soil, it’s a living thing.”
Education is also important at Ocean Park Community Orchard in Sally, British Columbia
“We’re trying to do an educational program that’s not too boring for kids, but it makes them think about how it affects their lives,” said Linda Stanley, a former college professor.・ Wilson said.
Gardens differ from others in that the volunteers who care for the orchards do not bring the fruits of their work home. Instead, it is donated to those in need.
“It’s just together, people can come up with ideas, work together towards a common goal, and we don’t have a fixed agenda,” she said.
“The community really does a kind of expansion depending on the people who appear, and we strive to encourage and continue to promote it.”
On the beach7:32A little dirt will never hurt: Ocean Park Community Orchard
Melody Jacobson, CBC’s story producer, spoke with Linda Stanley Wilson, one of the founders of Ocean Park Community Orchard.
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