Calgary Journal Online

The Cedarbrae community garden is one of four new gardens the City of Calgary approved in April, along with gardens in the communities of Maple Ridge/Willow Park, Montgomery, and Rocky Ridge/Royal Oak. The gardens complement the nine community gardens already established across Calgary. 

Dennis Nikols, the president of the Cedarbrae Community League Association, believes the gardens are an important fixture in a community. 

“It’s a good way of teaching our kids. They should learn where food comes from. It doesn’t come from the CO-OP. That’s not where it originates. It originates in gardens and in pas-tures,” said Nikols. 

Each one of the 42 beds have already been designated to a person or a group of people. The garden users include parents, students, retirees, a moms and tots group, St. Cyril school, and Renfrew Education Services: a school for children with special needs. 

The garden bed for Renfrew Education Services is built to be wheelchair accessible.

The vast array of groups prove that a green thumb isn’t necessary to grow flowers or food. The garden users are allowed to grow whatever they want. 

Ines Janson, a retiree who can be found in the garden even on a rainy day, enjoys being able to continue a favorite hobby. 

“I used to be [quite a gardener] but I moved away from my garden, so now this is a way of getting a little bit back,” Janson said.  

 

The gardens need more than rain and soil to bloom. Volunteers like Janson keep the project going. The garden took a massive volunteer effort, Nikols said. Volunteers that were particularly helpful consisted of a group of enthusiastic junior high school boys that Nikols credits as under-taking a huge part of the work. 

 

“Without them we wouldn’t be half where we are today. They worked as hard or harder than any adult. It’s really inspiring,” Nikols said. 

The City of Calgary gave a budget of $10 000 for each community garden to purchase lumber, soil, and other necessary equipment.

The gardens are an attractive alternative to store bought fruits and vegetables which are sprayed with pesticides and in some cases even come into contact with bacteria like e-coli.  

 

LOCATIONS OF COMMUNITY GARDENS: Bowness Community Garden - Lot next to 6508 Bowwood Drive NW  Bridgeland Riverside Community Garden (Carewest) - Beside the community association,  917 Centre Avenue NE Cliff Bungalow/Mission Allotment Community Garden - 24 Ave. & 1 St. SW Fort Calgary Community Garden - 750 - 9 Ave. SE (at confluence of Bow & Elbow Rivers) Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden - 4 Street & Sunnyhill Lane NW Killarney Glengarry Community Garden - 2828 - 28 St. SW Patch Paradise- Lawnview Housing Complex - 19 Avenue & 34 Street SE Sunalta Wildflower Community Garden - 16 St, & 14 Ave. SW University of Calgary Campus Community Garden - 9 St. NW and Collegiate Road Parkland Community Association Community Garden - 14660 Parkland Boulevard SE.  Cedar Brae Community Garden - Behind community association Exact garden locations under discussion for: Rocky Ridge Royal Oak Community Garden Montgomery Community Garden Maple Ridge / Willow Park Community Garden

Besides complete control over how your food is grown, the benefits of a community garden also include a decrease in the cost of your groceries. According to Statistics Canada, since 2008 the average price of fresh fruit in Canada has gone up by 19 percent, while the price of fresh vegetables has gone up by more than 26 percent. 

 

Another reason community gardens are becoming more and more appealing to citizens is the environmental aspect. People are eager to manage their green space in a way that’s beneficial to the earth.  Being environmentally conscious is very important to the Cedarbrae community. Further plans for the garden include building compost bins. 

“We pick up the thrash, we recycle stuff, we do all those sorts of things not so much because it’s going to save the world, but because it’s the right thing to do,” Nikols said. “We see this as a long term project, not just a one shot deal. This is something which will be ongoing for a number of years.”