Community Garden in Perth-Andover!
The wheels are turning and the gears are beginning to mesh on the Perth-Andover Community Garden Project.
The village of P-A has some funds available to help kick start this project, and we sure have plots of land to use for gardens within the village these days.
But do we have enough interested residents?
If you’d like to become involved in this project, and would like to have a plot of land for your own garden, please contact Wayne Sabine.
Wayne is an experienced organic farmer and gardener and he is very excited to finally see this project pick up some momentum.
As it stands now, this project will see suitable plots of land get plowed and turned over this year and then planted with buckwheat to winter over.
Next spring, the buckwheat will be plowed under to prepare the ground for our gardens.
Residents who take part will each have their own individual or family plots to tend.
There are other forms of community gardens, such as where large plots are worked by volunteers who then get a share of the booty come harvest time, or the produce is grown for members who subscribe and receive produce as it is harvested.
Many communities around the world have turned to community garden projects to grow their own food. Most have ultimately become amazingly successful, and many are in urban areas where you wouldn’t expect to find much agricultural activity!
For instance, Detroit, Michigan had become one of the poorest and most blighted cities in the US after the car industry pulled out when they began outsourcing jobs to other countries. The city had become the poster child for total urban breakdown and decay.
Poverty stricken residents turned to growing their own food, and have turned many empty blocks into flourishing gardens and have begun reclaiming their city.
In Goleta, California a small project has burgeoned into a twelve acre organic farm that provides year round goods for its subscribers. Fairview Gardens is surrounded by urban sprawl, shopping malls and highways but in the midst of all this it is now grossing over $350,000 per year and produces milk, eggs, free range chickens, goats and more than one hundred varieties of fruits and vegetables for its 500 member families.
So community gardens offer enormous potential for economic development and employment opportunities as well as being a local and ecologically sound source of organically grown food.
Community gardens also bring people together….gardening together provides healthy fertilizer for new friendships to blossom in!
We are in the process of organizing a steering committee to oversee this project, but its success ultimately depends on you the people getting involved.
This is a grand chance to help beautify Perth, forge deeper connections with the land, your friends and your neighbors, and have access to your own organic produce!
There will be plenty of expert advice and guidance available for people who join this project.
There are some amazing organic farmers in this province who are willing and excited to host workshops to answer questions and guide us as we create our gardens.
We need to have a plan and budget in place by October 1st, 2012 so if you want to do this the time to call and let us know is NOW!
Get on the Garden Wagon today!
