February 6th 2013 Public Meeting

February 6th 2013 Public Meeting to Discuss the Community Garden Project for the Perth Dupont Community Garden

My name is Susan Berman, I have been involved with this garden since 2005 when Adam Giambrone and Brian Green installed the garden in the Symington Avenue Playground. At that time, there was no community group to run the garden.

At the beginning of 2006 Chris Martin encouraged me to start a community garden group, and handed me the Community Garden Tool Kit booklet. I studied up, and took a course on how to start a community garden. Since that time I have served as the coordinator of the Perth Dupont Community Garden, as a unpaid volunteer.

I am also a volunteer for the Toronto Community Garden Network (TCGN) and am a member of the Ontario Community Garden Network. I have been in contact with folks across the city about their community gardens, the challenges and the successes.

Here is the History of the Symington Avenue Playground Park.

This is the information that I have gathered from the local people as well as documents, and soils studies.

At the Turn of the previous century, it was a gravel mine that was closed and filled in with clean land fill of the era. Then it was used by the city as a storage yard for their trucks and equipment. After that, it was turned into the park.

After the discovery that there was a uranium plant that had quietly been operation in the area since 1967, there was concern about soil contamination. So, with the help of John Slack, we dive five areas of soil tests, and discovered that while there is not radio active threat in the soil, .. just from the factories that have been in the area, there are a large amount of heavy metals in the soil around our neighbourhood. However, because of the organic way of gardening, the soil in the community garden area is fine, and safe.

I moved into the area in 1986. In the park at that time it was just a baseball field with a tennis court (that was in poor condition) in left field!

Once or twice during the summer, I would see people playing tennis, never on a regular basis. Every other year there was a real baseball game. I would occasionally see kids fooling around in the park, however, the dog owners seldom picked up after their pets, so it was not fun to play in the park.

Although we didn't suffer vandalism, we did suffer neglect, like the picking up after their pets problem, nobody was ever around, and there just wasn't a sense of safety in the park.

In the Community Garden Tool Kit – it says that - “Community gardens have been shown to revitalize areas where vandalism and illegal activities degraded places intended for community programs and celebration. This transformation takes place when community gardens incorporate sustained involvement by youth, families, seniors, and diverse ethnic groups.” Page 9.

In the beginning, I repeated these words, and, its not that I didn't believe it, but I didn't know what it really meant. Now that I have been involved with this garden, I can see how the garden has transformed the park. Many of my neighbours now take their daily constitutional walk into the park and through the garden. There are line ups to use the tennis court, and I am seeing parents playing in the grass with their children. The park is no longer a “potty” for the dogs, the dog owners are much more responsible and enjoy taking the time to play with their pets here, and letting them socialize with other dogs and their owners.

The parts of the project:

The basic goal of our project will address structural and aesthetic improvements to our garden shed. The shed is used to store gardening supplies and tools and can only accommodate 1 or two gardeners at a time. We are proposing the construction of a 6 foot wide porch with a roof that can provide shade and cover in case of rain. Currently, if there is a sudden rain, hiding in the shed is very unpleasant and dark. The porch would have a ramp to accommodate disability scooters, to protect them from the rain as well. And we will also have a 3 foot wide walkway to the entrance to the shed, that will make it Wheelchair accessible.

We would like to have a cement pad as the base - the foundation - of the porch and shed. It is the beginning and most important part of the project.

The next part is the pillars, several of them at least - 4” x 4” and 10' tall ... and as deep as they need to be. They will be holding the weight of the solar panels, not just the weight of the roof, so they need to be strong. The roof is designed to be able to accommodate solar panels at the set up, so that we can start with one or two, and add more as necessary.

Installation of solar panels. The portion of the park that makes up the garden has no access to the city’s power grid. Therefore, we would like to install solar panels onto the roof of the garden shed to generate our own electricity.

Along with the solar panels we would require a battery storage system for more efficient and reliable power, as well as the converter, that would change the “direct current” (DC) from the sun, to the “alternating current” (AC) that most appliances use. The generated electricity would be used for lighting both inside and outside the garden shed.

Running water feature for our pollinator Garden. We hope to also use some of the electricity generated from the solar panels to power a running water pool or fountain. This will provide a water source for beneficial birds and insects. Running water, as opposed to standing water, is necessary to keep mosquitoes away.

Last year in one of our community garden meetings, it was agreed on by consensus that the gardeners were willing to add $10 each ($250) to upgrade from pine to cedar, if it was necessary to add money to the project.

What are the expected outcomes of this investment?

• Increased usage of the park and its facilities. A walk through the gardens has become a daily routine for many in the neighbourhood.

• Providing an outlet for healthy, physical activity. One of our gardeners is using his gardening exercise as a rehabilitation exercise from a stroke.

• Providing educational opportunities for children in the neighbourhood. There are 3 schools within a 5-minute walking distance of our garden.

• Increased community awareness about nurturing a native plant garden, preserving heritage seeds and organic growing methods.

• Produce more healthy food for donation to The Stop Community Food Centre.

• More varieties of birds, butterflies and other insects in the garden and park.

• Increased activity and a sense of safety in the park and garden.

• To continue being a model for other community gardens across the city. We would be pioneering the way for other community gardens to also have power on their garden area sites.