An Hour in the Garden...

Is better than an hour in the queue. So says the narrator of this brilliant allotment garden propaganda film.

Community Gardens: How Many is Enough?

The City of Victoria Food System Discussion Paper is worth a read. You can find it on the City's Official Community Plan website.

The section on Case Studies is interesting. Here are some stats on Community Gardens in other West Coast cities with favorable climates:

San Francisco (pop 815,000). "The Recreation & Parks Department supports and manages 40 community gardens on City-owned property, operated in partnership with community volunteers...the Mayor's Directive on Healthy and Sustainable Food (2009) [is] a groundbreaking, comprehensive food policy that holistically considers all stages of the food system."

Seattle (pop 608,000) "Over 1,900 garden plots serve more than 3,800 gardenders on 23 acres of land. The gardens are an integral part of neighbourhood development...Seattle's Comprehensive Plan (1995) states the goal of 1 garden for every 2000 households in every "urban village"."

Vancouver (pop 578,041) "Vancouver has 52 community gardens on Parks Board, School District, City and transit authority-owned land that provide 1,600 community (allotment) garden plots. 900 additional community-shared (commons) gardens are integrated into new developments around the City."

Portland (pop 582,000) "Has 32 gardens on Parks, public and private lands...Administered by Community Gardens Office."

So, how does Victoria compare? We're doing a survey right now to find out exactly how many garden plots there are in Victoria and the CRD. But wouldn't it be wonderful to have a Community Gardens Office here?


-Fiona Gilsenan

Children's Show on Allotments

Photo of Mr. Bloom and talking veg from www.bbc.co.uk.

Can you imagine a 26-part children's show about not just gardening, but about allotments? Well, if you could watch the BBC's children's channel CBeebies, you'd see one. Matthew Appleby writes about the new show.

The 26-part children's show features an allotment looked after Mr Bloom filled with talking vegetables: a shy cabbage, mischievous radishes, a comedy runner bean and a singing aubergine.
Garden writer Dawn Isaacs has given horticultural advice to the live action and puppet series.
Set in a colourful, fertile allotment run by the green-fingered Mr Bloom (Ben Faulks), Mr Bloom's Nursery, aims to show how young children can learn from the experience of nurturing plants and vegetables.
In each episode, a team of young helpers, or "tiddlers", come to the allotment to help Mr Bloom tend his plants and produce. But when they add leaves and clippings to his homemade "compostarium", a group of lively young vegetable puppets spring to life who the children play with, teach and care for.
Children will learn a variety of important lessons including the importance of drinking water when it is hot and sunny to understanding that growing takes time as well as simple vegetable-growing tips.

Perhaps the show will be available on dvd. Perhaps the CBC would like to do a show like this? Maybe First Lady Michelle Obama? What are the chances? You can read more about it at the BBC website.

-Fiona Gilsenan

Design for Commons

Above is the design for the proposed Fairfield Community Garden Commons. It incorporates the principle of layering plants and trees to maximize use of space and encourage crop production. The proposed allotment portion would be adjacent to the south end of the Commons.

Allotment Interest

Are you looking for a plot in Fairfield?

Let us know: fairfieldcommunitygardens@gmail.com