2007 Multicultural Garden

This year the Garden Group is very multicultural . We have gardeners from: 2 different places in India, South America, Italy, The Chez Republic, Armenia, Trinidad and Jamaica. And of course those of us that were born here in North America. Some of our gardeners have a gardening heritage from their parent's country of origin, like Estonia.

The garden itself was a perfect reflection of this international mix, and also our love of heirloom flowers and vegetables. Please visit the picture page to see the things we have been growing.

The Sharing Plot was no exception. We have Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage, Early Wakefeild Jersey Cabbage and Multi-coloured Carrots. Along with that, we had companion plants of celery, onions and leeks, and parsley. We also have Chiogga Beets, and Bulls Blood Beets.

In 2006 we donated 300 pounds of produce from our Sharing plot. This plot had an interesting beginning. It started out as a severe weed patch that no one wanted, so I started to weed it and soon other gardeners were helping me, after a week or two it was ready. We got some different types of hot pepper plants and tomato plants, as well as several boxes of leek plants donated from our local corner store, the Food Fair. Several other gardeners donated tomato plants too, and some potatoes as well. We have been bringing this produce to The Stop Community Food Centre. They have been very appreciative of our donations, as you can tell by the letter they gave us!

Although the garden was started in 2005, we weren’t organized as a Community Garden until the summer of 2006. The people at The Stop and the Urban Agriculture Coordinator, Rhonda Teitel-Payne, have been—and still are—very helpful in supporting our efforts to bring good organic food to our tables. This is was my first introduction to the Toronto Community Garden Network. Chris Martin from Parks, Forestry, & Recreation has been “behind the scenes” but very instrumental in our success as well.

I have lived in this neighbourhood for 20 years, and the Symington Avenue Playground was very quiet, some times kids would play, fool around in the park, once in a while people would play baseball or tennis and dog walkers wouldn’t pick up after their pet. Now that the garden is there, there is such a change! I see *parents* playing with their children in the grassy areas, there is often a line up to play tennis and there are lots of dog walkers and they are very good about picking up after their pets.

When the garden was first put in there was a concern about safety. There was a gap in the fence by the train tracks and unfortunately there was a problem with people drinking and being rowdy. Sometimes they would come into the garden and take produce or vandalize some plants. To correct the problem I made many phone calls and e-mails to Parks & Rec. and to CPR, and finally convinced them of the need to close the gap. Now there are two layers of fencing blocking the gap, and since that repair has been done we haven’t had any problems.

By the season end of 2007 we plan to finish a raised garden bed.