Start a Community Garden
What is a community garden?
A community garden is a place where people come together to grow flowers, fruits or vegetables. Often, community gardens make use of neglected or underused spaces in neighbourhoods, providing beauty and sometimes food for the people who tend them.
What are the benefits of a community garden?
Community gardens have many benefits:
Environmental education and conservation - You can grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs in a community garden so that people can learn how to have food that is fresh and local. Gardening not only beautifies a space in your community, it also reduces your environmental footprint as growing food locally means less fossil fuels to transport food from far away.
Community building – Collective gardening increases the sense of community in a neighbourhood by providing a chance for people to meet and work together to develop an area that can be enjoyed by everyone. Community gardening is a great way to connect young people and seniors. Young people can learn from seniors and help them out with jobs that might be getting harder for seniors to do. By connecting people, these gardens play an important role in building safer neighbourhoods.
Healthy body and mind - Gardening is part of a healthy lifestyle and allows you to get outside and do something active. It can also provide stress relief and many educational opportunities for young people.
Resources
The Community Gardening Network of Ottawa has many resources for new gardeners. Check out their website for more information on how to start and maintain your community garden.
http://www.spcottawa.on.ca/ofsc/en/community_garden_network.asp
If your garden is planned in a more commercial area, you might want to contact your local Business Improvement Area (BIA) to see if they want to get involved:
