Community gardens are ripe with potential for food sovereignty. Groceries only cost more, and the produce is less nutritious. Just think of people having access to land to grow a winter’s worth of hearty vegetables, gaining social networks, physical activity and plain old fun at work in the dirt. For those uninterested in doing the grunt work of gardening, they can sit back and enjoy the astounding process. Perhaps their wisdom of gardens past would be picked up and integrated into the design, like planting onions between carrots to keep out onion maggots. Good one!
If a community garden’s soil is to create abundance, then the garden must have a perennial perspective. Minimal tillage, mulch, permanent beds, and integration of annuals, biennials, perennials, shrubs, and trees are sustainable soils. With climate change bringing more severe weather changes, having access to healthy soil and various hardy, native species food sources sound like a good plan! Mmm, mmm, Raspberries, Haskaps, Saskatoons, and gooseberries are delicious and nutritious and do not need to be transported 1000km in a gas-guzzling big rig from a chemical-laden corporate farm. Let’s build an enduring supply for our town.
Just as with the soil, so with the people; access to a community plot and to knowledge of local growing methods may improve when events centre around this earthen food hub. What would you do to gather around the community gardens? Would the upcoming Miracle-Gro’s Best Garden Selection city tour be helpful? What about monthly BBQs and Q&A’s with a local expert? How would the site support people using wheelchairs and walkers? We’re in this future together. What’s it going to look like in Morden?
