Big news from the garden in the Grand Parade! It is time to do a little harvesting. Some lettuce, swiss chard and kale are definitely ready. I’m letting my friends at St. Joseph Children’s Centre know that when it dries up a bit we are going to harvest some of the food in our garden. Exciting!
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There’s nothing like fresh homegrown veggies. Love this idea!
I think you should create a special salad with those greens – it could be called the Mayor’s Salad or the Halifax Salad. Maybe there are a few local chefs out there who would like to contribute by creating a dressing or adding some other unique local ingredients. The salad could then be featured in their cafes or restaurants. It would be a great way to create some buzz for urban gardening and the local food & restaurant trade.
Good luck with the garden!
Can we expand this idea to city owned land or vacant lots and create youth gardens…let’s teach our young people some responsiblity and provide some positive direction to young offenders(?) Let’s instill a sense of community through working with our hands along with local community leaders and youth from our schools, unemployed youth projects(delivering produce to Hope Cottage, St. Vincent de Paul, senior homes, youth and women’s shelters…) I know I would help.
I think community gardening would be great for the old offenders too. And some of the old folks need to be taught some responsibility too.
Love the idea – with the caveat that you should always know how any particular space is being used now before you turn it into a garden. I remember some informal green space being taken away from young people to accommodate a garden. The result was a garden that was vandalized taking up space where young people could play soccer baseball etc.
I like the idea of promoting urban “small plot” gardens through recipes. A unique dressing is a possible fit for an urban festival in the summer. Natal Day?
Your observation that there is a lot of potential urban “small plots” not being cultivated. The Penninsula Urban Gardening Society http://pugs.chebucto.org/ has to become a huge agressive co op that gets things going neighborhood by neighborhood.
Thank you for your thoughts and for bringing my fledgling little blog to the attention of some others. I really love the idea of the “small plot” urban garden. I have always done some gardening and I know the great rewards you can have from a little effort.
Your cautions about not making it punative or robbing useful green spaces are appreciated. Both valid.
I love that salad idea! Great point on recognizing the existing use of greenspace as well, Ryan. There’s a movie (called The Garden – http://www.thegardenmovie.com/) about the USA’s biggest urban garden project, and it opens your mind as to the benefits and challenges of urban gardening at a large scale.
It’s exciting to see so much interest in urban gardens in the HRM!
PeterG, I’m not sure if you know, but the HRM just this spring offered up city land to those with the ambition to start urban garden projects (http://www.myhrm.ca/ToolKit/CommunityGardens.php). I, for one, was pretty excited, and put in an application for garden space near Dalhousie University. We should be hearing back from them soon.
Also, David McLearn, one of HRM’s gardeners for the past 24 years, has been quietly planting veggies in the place of some flowers throughout the HRM, and donating them to Hope Cottage. Keep your eyes peeled for swiss chard when you pass gardens on city land!
Finally, the Campus Action on Food group at Dalhousie University has begun an ‘Edible Campus’ initiative, starting out with container gardens that they will be placing outside the Student Union Building (Le Marchant & University Ave.) during their Garden Party next Wednesday, July 28th. Make sure you come down! (It’s $5, but no-one will be turned away).
so, how does one apply for the urban gardening project? Where are there already urban gardening projects? What land would be acceptable for this gardening? I’m sure I could bang some coder friends’ heads together to promote this a bit better.
A purposeful walk around your neighborhood and a friendly conversation with someone who owns a plot not being cultivated is a good way to start. Small and simple will not hurt.
To poke around on the web for local ideas:
The council/HRM information is posted on http://www.halifax.ca/CRCA/CommunityEngagement/CommunityGardens.html
But then there is the longstanding Pennisula Urban Garden’s group at http://pugs.chebucto.org/
and also the Ecology Action Centre who have a great site at http://www.ecologyaction.ca/content/urban-garden-project
I’m looking at the fitness park on the corner of Wyse, Alderney and Windmill and wondering if it couldn’t use a little bit of colour / gardening. Is that HRM space? Maybe I should talk to Gloria M. about it? Any way I can some design advice so the garden wouldn’t compete with the park?