Many of today’s gardeners have little interest in following the traditions of people like my grandmother, who focused on growing food for her family
When I got my small plot in 2013, the 2.5-acre community garden near Victoria was a funky, homey place where gardeners traded tips about growing corn or beans. I felt fulfilled as I worked in the fresh air, happily amazed that my beets were up, disappointed that slugs ate my cucumbers and feeling the burn from pulling weeds.
So yes, in the middle of summer, the garden is undeniably beautiful, with towering sunflowers, trailing deep purple clematis, stately pink lupines. The designer gardens, often photographed for social-media consumption, feature perfect, weedless rows. Red, yellow and pink-stalked Swiss chard, purple-blossomed giant chives, aromatic basil bushes, and succulent-looking, chocolate-coloured heritage tomatoes punctuate the space. It all makes you want to toss a salad.
In these inflationary times, I believe a better focus for community gardens should be producing food, which in most cases was the reason for their creation. In my case, I pay $70 a year for my roughly 18-square-metre plot. Tools, water, compost, wood chips and manure are all supplied. My return on investment is great, given that my organic garlic crop alone would be worth over $200. If I have to spend $200 or more on fencing material, the garden’s appeal diminishes.
Everything was harvested at my Grandma Mary Ogibowski’s garden in Elphinstone, Man. She cultivated laissez faire, not bourgeois, crops. One plot had hearty perennials, such as poppies, yarrow, phlox and daisies. Alongside them, a roughly 5-by-7 metre area grew enough raspberries and strawberries to fill dozens of pint-sized jars of preserved fruit and jam.
Grandma Mary tended her piece of earth into her 80s. Not able to read or write, she based her gardening on experience, moon cycles, weather – not iPhone apps, influencers or books. Her gardening attire was practical Fortrel pants, which she sewed, and well-worn men’s workboots, not designer outdoorwear.
Garden Cent Plot Food Space Time House Community Joneses Vancouver Island HGTV
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