Community Gardens

Community gardens fall under the umbrella of ecological organic agriculture regarded as a leading sector promoting healthy eating and physical activity, improving mental health and building social connections. With its many advantages, we consider community gardening a “superfood” of activity.

One of the most obvious benefits of community gardens is that they increase access to healthy foods. In fact, adults who participate in community gardening eat more fruits and vegetables than those who don’t garden.

By growing their own produce, gardeners can specifically plant foods that they like to eat as opposed to being restricted to what’s available in grocery stores.

This is especially important in low-income neighborhoods where access to fresh fruits and vegetables may be limited.

Depending on the task, gardening can be a low- to moderate-aintensity activity that helps meet the ministry of health recommendation for 150 minutes of physical activity each week.

In addition to physical health benefits, community gardens help improve mental health and social connections. Studies have shown that gardening reduces stress and anxiety and promotes a sense of well-being. Community gardening, in particular, can decrease feelings of isolation and boost self-esteem. These gardens provide a space for people to connect with others and to work collaboratively. This is especially important for people who may be isolated or have limited social networks.

Food insecurity, or the limited access to nutritionally adequate food, affects an average of 11.3% in adults and 53% of children under five suffering from stunting (the highest rate in the world), 8% from wasting, and 59% from anemia. Community gardens are an important tool to seasonally reduce food insecurity concerns up to 90% in impacted communities taking into consideration the prevalence of malnutrition in children, pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Community gardens also promote physical activity. Gardening is a whole-body activity that can burn the same number of calories as a traditional workout. Plus you get the added benefit of time spent in nature! Typical gardening tasks like digging, raking, lifting and squatting are excellent at burning calories, strengthening muscles and increasing physical fitness.

Assess the needs

Before establishing a community garden in a given neighborhood, we determine the needs of the area. Generally, in densely populated urban neighborhoods, people do not have the available space or only have small plots. In these cases, the desire to garden, or simply the need for green space, is very real.

Reach interested people

We enlist the help of peers who share their desire to garden to sign a collective request to establish a garden in their neighborhood, or to compile a list of people interested in being part of a community garden. It may not be essential to contact the entire population of a neighborhood or hill, but the more people sign, the easier it is to justify and quantify the needs. A rough estimate of the number of interested people and their needs can provide an idea of the minimum number of gardens required. It's important to remember that a community garden's clientele can grow gradually.

Profile of future gardeners

Social and community groups are also clienteles that can be served by a community garden: groups of people with disabilities, people undergoing social rehabilitation or suffering from illnesses, mutual aid organizations, small farmer groups and daycares. These clienteles often require specific arrangements or special agreements. We prior contact these groups at the beginning of the project for allowing a better planning of their integration into the garden, while also anticipating specific arrangements and associated costs. The involvement of such groups is beneficial to the creation of a community garden. They often represent an asset when negotiating with financial supporters, municipal authorities or various levels of government to obtain services or subsidies.

Ecological inclination

As we promote the agroecology, we initially decide from the outset whether the future community garden will be ecological, as this decision directly affects the beneficiaries, the necessary amenities such as a composting area, the acquisition of certain equipment, and the operating regulations governing gardening. Defining the garden's ecological purpose from the outset avoids many discussions and misunderstandings between future members, who will appreciate knowing, even before registering, what type of gardening they will be allowed to do there.
It can be very useful to check if there are other community gardens in your municipality or the surrounding area. You can obtain a variety of relevant information from the managers of these gardens: number of plots, clientele, equipment, operations, waiting lists, operational difficulties, and support offered by the municipality. Visiting one or more community gardens is an important preparatory step. These visits provide a better understanding of the organizational aspects of such a project.

Municipal involvement

We collaborate with the municipality as it is the primary partner to whom a community garden project must be presented and with whom agreements for goods and services must be negotiated. Very few community gardens exist without municipal involvement. Most are located on municipal land. Furthermore, certain essential services or equipment are provided by the municipality: fencing, water, waste collection, chemical toilets, sheds, and electricity. Municipal support is virtually essential, given the extremely limited budgets of most community gardens. When there is no municipal community garden program, we raise awareness of the project among several people in order to solicit their support. The local councilor, as well as the councilors responsible for recreation and the environment, are informed: they recommend the project to secure the necessary funding from stakeholders. In smaller municipalities, the community leaders and/or administrators are contacted directly. Officials from the municipal department with which the community garden will be working to obtain goods and services is also approached. The chances of project acceptance increase when these two levels of local administration stakeholders are involved together.

Embracing suitable field techniques

Space Optimization: We help to rationalize the layout of community vegetable garden to take advantage of all available space. Dividing the garden into beds, or beds, grouping several rows of vegetables is the most logical and effective solution for saving space.
Plant Selection: Due to limited space, we advise to choose vegetables that growing within 2 or 3 months and those that are hardest to find on the market. This is a way to increase your garden's profitability.
Tillage: Digging the soil with a rake, walking on freshly loosened soil, and digging paths too deep are common mistakes new gardeners make. To properly till the soil, we determine whether it's clayey or sandy.
Organic Fertilization Application: Soil testing and liming are often overlooked. Test results assess soil fertility and indicate what corrections need to be made to achieve adequate acidity levels and provide the nutrients needed for plant growth and fertility maintenance. Without proper fertilization, a plot's soil can deteriorate after only two gardening seasons.
Maintenance: We recommend a minimum of one visit per week, which is essential for maintaining weed control, watering, harvesting, and detecting pest and disease problems.

Community Gardens