Canada: A Garden On Every Corner
Canada: A Garden On Every Corner
Linked by Michael Levenston
Broadway and MacDonald.
In Vancouver, British Columbia, one social enterprise looks to make the most of unused urban space by converting empty lots into temporary community gardens.
By Chris Reid
Vancouver Community Garden Builders
Mar 27, 2018
There used to be a gas station at the corner of Cambie and 16th Avenue in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Today the site hosts 100 raised garden beds and provides growing space for roughly the same number of gardeners, many of whom are families living in nearby apartments and condominiums.
The project is the result of a partnership between Wesgroup, a local developer, and Vancouver Community Garden Builders, a local social enterprise. Together the pair opened six new gardens in 2017, which equals 600 new garden beds. In total, VCGB manages eight projects with close to 800 beds or 16,000 square feet of urban growing space.
In a city like Vancouver, where wait lists for permanent community gardens can reach into the hundreds, projects like the one at Cambie and 16th are a useful stopgap providing much needed opportunities for city dwellers to learn about and participate in their own food security. A single garden bed produces around 10 pounds of yield in a year; multiply that by 100 and you’ve got a supermarket aisle full of locally grown, organic veggies.
The benefits of urban agriculture are well documented and innumerable. Beyond the nutritious food they grow, community gardens have been linked to increased social wellbeing in neighbourhoods, reduced crime rates and even less public litter. For many, they offer a retreat from the hectic, concrete urban landscape, and a simple way to recharge.
Cambie and 16th.
The results can be seen all across the city. Where once people came to fill up their tanks, green thumbs are now planting their first seeds of the year, hoping for an early spring. To learn more about the temporary community gardens.
4th and Macdonald Temporary Community Garden
Broadway and Victoria Temporary Community Garden
Dunbar and 39th Temporary Community Garden
Broadway and Alma Temporary Community Garden
Oak and 41st Temporary Community Garden
Cambie and 16th Temporary Community Garden