Community garden project growing
Volunteers hope to feed 150 families next year with produce harvested at city-owned site
Posted By JENNIFER PRITCHETT WHIG-STANDARD STAFF WRITER
Saturday September 27, 2008
Kingston's newest community garden has already grown more than 335 kilograms of vegetables this season and is looking to feed as many as 150 families next year.
To be able to do that, the public is invited to come out today to the Oak Street Community Garden harvest.
Mike Payne, who helped launch the garden last spring, hopes to recruit more volunteers to open new garden plots on the city-owned greenspace, located southeast of Kirkpatrick Street near Brant Avenue.
No experience is needed.
"The great thing about gardening is that you can jump right in," Payne said.
"We want to attract people who have never gardened before and those people who save their own seeds.
"We want all kinds of people. ... I'm pretty confident we can offer something to pretty much anybody who shows up."
City staff are in discussions with volunteers about developing municipal policies regarding community gardens to facilitate growth of new and existing plots.
The Oak Street Community Garden started with a simple e-mail last winter from councillor Vicki Schmolka to Payne about using the municipal property as a garden.
Payne leapt at the opportunity. Soon, city staff were involved with initially preparing the area. A handful of volunteers did the rest.
"Somebody came and just planted a pumpkin, somebody else planted marigolds - we don't know who," he said.
Local farmers donated seeds and plants and it took off from there.
This year's garden was small, a mere 500 square feet, but the produce it yielded was bountiful, much more than expected.
There were eggplants, pumpkins, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, several different types of herbs and potatoes.
"About 250 pounds of produce has already been taken out and delivered to food banks - a lot of different food banks and soup kitchens have benefitted from our produce," Payne said.
Another 500 pounds of potatoes are expected to be dug from the garden today.
Volunteers are hoping to expand the garden next year. Payne doesn't anticipate having trouble finding people to cultivate plots at the site next year.
"This year, it wasn't a true community garden," he said. "It
was more of a food bank farm on a small scale and it could be that on a
much bigger scale next year."
There are waiting lists of people wanting to plant at the city's other main community gardens, the Sunnyside Community Garden (at Brock and Macdonnell streets), No Frills garden (on Charles Street near Bagot Street) and the Elmwood garden (near Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard).
Andrew McCann, a local food advocate who's helping plan today's event, said he feels the city's involvement with developing the Oak Street garden shows a commitment to develop more community gardens.
"Oak Street is a really big step in that direction," he said.
The Oak Street Community Garden potato harvest gets underway at 9:30 a. m. and runs until 11:30 a. m., rain or shine.
In addition to the potato dig, there will be lots of children's activities.
As well, representatives from the Toronto-based Composting Council of Canada will be at the site to promote composting and provide information on how to do it.
There will be bean sorting to show children how to save seeds, as well as balloons and face painting.
Article ID# 1222131