The snow is melting, grass is re-appearing and gardeners have come out of their five-month coma.
But it’s not stereotypical farmers with huge plots of land, tractors and stylin’ overalls, but rather city dwellers, students, and entire communities working together towards “clean eating” and a healthy lifestyle.
Community and landless gardens allow a window of opportunity to gain a new skill, as well as a chance to change the way we think about food, reducing our intake of chemicals and pesticides, say people involved with community gardens in the city.
Alison Juta works in the Conservation Council of New Brunswick office in Fredericton, and said community gardens aren’t just a passing fad. She’s an organic farmer in her spare time.
“There is a huge move away from mass produced, chemically-fed, ‘feedlot food’ to buying local food from local farmers who are known to the purchaser,” said Juta.
St. Mary’s church on the Northside has its very own community garden that allows residents to not only learn the ways of planting a seed, but what it means to live a healthy lifestyle.
There are 77 plots on the Northside and they are on a first-come, first-serve basis, said Edee Klee, head of the Fredericton Community Garden Initiative.
“We started with a quarter acre lawn and now we have created a full community garden since last year.
“We are looking for a location on the Southside, downtown, high-density, low-income areas, and I feel that that population is available here in Fredericton.”
The idea of community and landless gardens is not a new one.
Since the time of the Aztecs, ancient Egyptians and recently part of Africa, people have been embracing the methods for healthy eating, by working together and reaping the benefits, said Juta.
Abruzzo, Italy is a perfect example of how a community garden can really function for a community, she said.
“One can barter part of their olive crop for cheese from the next-door neighbour’s goats, grain for her chickens from someone three plots away, and milk from a local dairy.”
In Todmorden, U.K., they have collectively established community growing within schools, businesses and industries. It has become a lifestyle for residents to garden and share what they produce.
Places like Fredericton have developed the same idea today.
Once the cities began to develop at considerable rates, there was little room and time left for agriculture. But people still desire a healthy lifestyle, said Juta.
A general membership for a plot in a community garden here in Fredericton costs $10, which will give you a beginner’s look at gardening, including access to the 18 workshops planned for 2012, Klee said.
A four-by-10 foot plot in the garden costs about $20.
“A sense of being , a sense of entity always grows in a community garden,” Klee said.
