Lessons Learnt

Well, the summer has come to an end and the garden is getting gobbled up. Overall, I thought that the community garden had a very successful first year!

Top three lessons that I’ve learnt throughout the summer:

1. Communication, communication, communication! This is a community garden and found that it was a struggle to manage all the request in a proper manner.

2. Division of Roles. With such a large project it is important to delegate to other people. I found that I was so excited to be a part of all the projects that I didn’t give other people a chance to step up too. Next year, leadership will be selected and people with have specific tasks throughout the summer.

3. Everyone has valuable experience. Not everyone is an expert gardener but throughout the summer I found that every single member had something to offer to the community garden.

If I could go back and change anything would I? Of course, who wouldn’t? I found that the community members really rallied together and made the best of a short time line and even shorter growing season. The construction dates ideally should have been moved earlier into the spring but with weather and other problems popping up we had to make due.

More education! After all the building and working and planting we ran out of time during the summer for more of an education component. I suppose these are growing pains and hopefully someone can take on this role next summer so we can have learning bees instead of just working bees.

Park n’ Play n’ Stay

The Community garden has teamed up with The City of Calgary to provide a space for those growing minds to learn about gardening!

A team of community members got together and created booklets identifying different fruits and vegetables, insects, and weeds found in the community garden.

Alberta Environment donated trees for every child to take home and plant in their home backyard! The kids were very excited to get home to plant their new trees. Hopefully we’ll see them popping up within the next couple of years.

GreenGate donated some vegetables for the children to take care of throughout the week that they are at the garden. This was a big hit! All the kids were willing to get in there and plant their veggies, water them, and make sure there aren’t any weeds cropping up close by!

Overall, the children learnt a lot at the community garden and we hope to continue with our community involvement at a larger scale next summer.

Benefits of the Community Garden

I may be a bit biased when it comes to the benefits of a community garden but I would like to share some of the ones I’ve learnt along the way as well:

Although we had a very short growing season most of the gardeners ended up with lots of goodies to take home to eat. In my little garden plot I ended up with over 150 potatoes to eat throughout the year! Growing veggies closer to home decreases the ‘food miles’ that they will travel in order to get to the grocery store. For example some fruits can come as far as New Zealand (almost 14000 kms). That’s a lot of food miles! Not only are we reducing food miles we are helping to reduce the carbon footprint of our food production.

Since the community garden is organic only there was a reduction in the amount of pesticides on the food there and therefore will be a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Many ‘fresh’ fruits and vegetables are grown in monocrops which deplete the earth from their natural resources (vitamins and minerals from the soil). Most people grew at least 5 different types of vegetables within their 4 by 8 plot. This helps keep the soil balanced in the soil.

The community garden also provide a natural environment that was also socially sustainable. It became a place where garden members could connect with their environment, other members, and ensure a safe place for children to learn about growing crops from seeds.

Growing Together!

Over the past few weekends and a rain delay, volunteers have constructed the planting beds for the new Community garden. Thank you to everyone who helped! We were very fortunate to get the support of Deck Co who kindly lent us their deck building equipment to speed the process up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planting has now begun and a walk through the garden shows that everyone has been very busy indeed. Over the next couple of months, gravel pathways will be added along with signage and a feature rock that is being donated by the Community Association (thank you!).

Check back for more information in the coming weeks.  

The Final Garden Design

Below is an image of what the DDG Community Garden is going to look like when it is finished being built. The team had to overcome some obstacles because of the water lines but are trying not to deviate from the design plan too much.

The garden wants to thank the University of Calgary Environmental Design group for working with the community garden to create such a wonderful space!

Proposed Garden Design

The Douglasdale Glen Community Garden volunteer community has had the luck of working with a U of C Design team to come up with look and layout of the Community Garden. They have given us their first round of drawings for which we can provide feedback. Since it's a student team volunteering their time, they have asked that we give them a few weeks to finish up exams and then get together to finalize the plan. Have a look! The design also includes a grass berm for seating (see photo example).

Community Garden Site Selected!

Great news! The community garden site has been selected and approved with the co-operation of The City of Calgary. The site will be located in the field across from Swifty's.


On Tuesday, February 23rd, the volunteer group met for a discussion around some key issues in terms of design, fund-raising and grant applications, and final requirements for the city to give official approval.

Over the next week, volunteers will be visiting the home-owners within immediate proximity to the garden. This is the final step in the approval process.

Grant applications have been submitted and enough funding has been commited that we are confident the community garden will be built for the 2010 growing year! Thank you to the Douglasdale Glen Community Association for their generous support.

Garden designs are being put together by a group of U of C students. The volunteer committee agreed to some preliminary guidelines - mainly that the garden add beauty to our neighbourhood and become an enjoyable place to visit for both gardeners and non-gardeners.

Allocation of plots has not yet been determined, nor has the final size, but if you are interested in a plot, send an email to let us know. Once we have a better idea of the number of plots requested, the final plans can be drawn.

Stay posted for more community garden news! And if you would like to help the group of volunteers by contributing time or resources to this worthwhile project, please let us know.

DDDG Community Garden: A work in progress!

Have you ever thought about having your own garden but don’t have the space or gardening skills to pursue one?

Get to know other community members while enjoying time outdoors growing fruits and vegetables in a local community gardn. City of Calgary Parks and the Calgary Horticultural Society have the resources available to support our community garden. In order for the City of Calgary to invest in our local community garden we are looking for residents to help show support for the potential of a community garden.

Picture above: UBC Community garden

Benefits of a Community Garden:

• improved quality of life


• provides a catalyst for neighbourhood and community development


• a great way to meet people with a common interest


• able to grow fresh nutritious fruits and vegetables which taste better


• helps reduce family budgets


• provides an opportunity for exercise and fresh air


• a place for education at various levels

Without community support we will not be able to implement the communitygarden. No experience necessary, only the desire to grow wholesome organic food! If you have any interests regarding the garden please contact ourneighbourhoodgarden@gmail.com

DDG Community Garden Sponsors and Supporters!