Garden Work Days (Adult)
Soil Preparation – April 29
• Adding compost and manure and turning it over into the beds.
Rototilling – April 30
• Roto-tilling, edging and raking all the interior beds.
• Bring your gloves and rakes, and help us clean-up the garden to prepare for planting.
Gardening Days (Everyone)
Opening Day + Gardening Classes Begin
• Monday and Wednesdays 6–8pm starting on May 24th (weather permitting)
In the Garden this Year
New Varieties
Lettuces: Luscious, Lolla Rosa; Basils: Cinnamon, Lime, Dark Opal; Others: Delicata Squash and Black Cherry Tomatoes
Old Favourites
Genovese Basil: one of our organic pest deterrents
Royal Burgundy Bush Beans: the purple beans that change from purple to green when cooked – the children call them “magic beans”
Chioggia Beets: mild white and red striped beets
Tomatoes: Yellow pears, green striped Zebras, Paul Robesons, Amish Paste, and German Giants
Hey STUDENTS
Need Community Service Hours?
Teachers and Students – working in the Garden can give you community service hours! Bring your enthusiasm – and your signature sheet – each time you come to volunteer (or at the end of the season) and we will be happy to provide you with the appropriate credit.
Looking Back
Six years ago the children’s garden was just a dream … a dream of making something beautiful, of drawing our community together, of sharing the wonder of nature that is literally at our doorstep. That’s what we had in mind as we walked door to door and school to school to pitch the idea.
After a public meeting our Councilor Joe Mihevc brought it to City Council and with his support it was approved. But by mid-June nothing had happened. We really wanted the school kids to be involved in the installation of the garden but they were about to be let out for the summer holidays. An Outside Worker’s strike was looming and we realized we would have to act fast. We faxed, e-mailed and hand delivered a strongly worded letter, reminding city officials of the promise made to us in April. Within days letters flew from Councilor Joe, the Parks Dept., Community Gardens, Rhonda Tietel-Payne from The Stop, Community Food Centre and Laura Berman from Food Share and as we made calls we crossed our fingers and prayed.
While that was sorting itself out we ploughed ahead. Friend and Park Supervisor, Helen Sousa, her husband, Joe and few others helped us mark off the beds and the next day I went to Arlington Middle School and asked the students if they could help. I told them their signatures had made a difference but now we needed them to help in another way and class after class of these wonderful kids answered the call. They amazed me! In spite of dreadful heat, humidex and smog alerts they jumped in to help. The ground was so hard many of these kids literally bounced off shovels as though they were pogo sticks. But they didn’t give up. While working with these kids I remember a moment when I thought, “Yeah, this is great, these kids are great…it’s exactly why we started this.” The Community Garden Coordinator, Solomon Boye, came by unannounced and was totally blown away, all he could say again and again was, “Wow!” I was and am so very proud of these kids – we would miss their energy in the summer, but gladly they migrated back in the fall, again in the spring, again in the fall and on and on.
Who knows exactly what did it, but something in the cosmos clicked and the next day city crews appeared as if by magic. Soon school was out and the determined crew of Zora, Rachel, Julian, Salome, Keisha, Kim and Roma had finished hand digging the beds down 18 grueling inches and added a half ton of donated loam. We dug for days and just as we were flagging, Kevin Ghiglione, Monica Ackermann, Gabriel, Allegra, Lucas, Alana Grace, The Godfrey Gang and a bunch of local kids came trotting up the lane. As they arrived we all stopped and looked up, like a chorus of cows hearing the barn door swing wide. We leaned on our shovels and beamed. I can’t describe the looks on the faces of my fellow diggers but it was as if a cool refreshing breeze had blow in.
Shortly after that, the strike was on in earnest and we had the beds dug and posts had gone into the ground on the anniversary of my recently departed dad’s birthday… but no fencing. No fence meant no planting and my back yard was full of stuff rescued at the eleventh hour from various park’s now picketed yards. Somehow Helen Sousa got her hands on some snow fencing and one hot afternoon in early July Helen Alexopoulos and Matina Borovilos and I tied it to the posts. We used a spool of mauve spaghetti strapping from my father in-law’s factory and when we finished we went into my kitchen, sat back and celebrated with champagne. Bring on the Kids! We were finally ready.
People thought that it was folly to bother planting anything so late in the season. We had missed the usual planting day on Victoria weekend, heck, we’d even missed Canada Day but we had come so far. We went ahead and planted everything we had by mid July and discovered there was a problem in the irrigation system. The problem was – it wasn’t working! We had put everything we had into the garden – plant wise, time wise, energy wise, spare money wise and so we ran all the hose we could find from my house to the garden.
Angie Fiore – aptly named – showed up with energy, commitment and guidance. Then Helen found a way to fix the water problem and by the end of the season over 100 children and their families had worked in the garden and taken home some of the fruits of their labour. We even had enough to donate over 100lbs of fresh produce to The Stop, Community Food Centre.
It was hard going but thankfully there were those little beacons that kept saying, “Yes, keep going. You are moving in the right direction!” and so many great people showed up – time and time again – just when we needed them.
And so … we keep on watching for them and the signs – signs of spring – signs of hope – signs that let us know that somehow, – as hard as it is to believe sometimes – the universe and all of us in this garden are unfolding as we should. n
– claire rodger
Thank you to Chris Chopik – our neighbour and a Bosley Realtor – for generously supporting this website and newsletter, and, for funding and championing The Gate Project. n
