The community gardens are back... and just in time cause this snow is killing me. Sunday the community garden group got together for a garden work bee. Thanks to a compost delivery last Friday, there was plenty of work to do. A good part of the day was spent cleaning out old plots, trenching the existing plots, adding some compost, and finally.... gratuitous hi-fives.
This marks the 8th consecutive year of community gardening on campus at the University of Ottawa with approximately 50 plots available to staff, students, and community members. Not bad considering the garden originally started out as a small group of 10 students sharing 4 plots.
This year, like that last few years, the resources for the garden were provided by Physical Resources Service and the community organizing was provided by OPIRG. And like last year, the plots are open on a first come first serve basis and are free to all those who participate.
I am really happy to see the gardens up and running this year because it will mark the second year of gardening in the new permanent space (the second garden having been relocated in 2010). But beyond that I am happy because community gardens play a central role in this year's theme of sustainable food. I don't know if you noticed but this year saw a great deal of programming around sustainable campus food systems and food security.
There is also another link to food systems on campus that I thought was worth mentioning here. This year as part of our Living Laboratory project, we had several groups work on Community Service Learning projects focused on campus agricultural projects. Of note are the groups who were working on window farms, mobile community garden plots, rooftop gardens, and an Edible Landscape for the the University of Ottawa.
Now I know that community gardens aren't everybody's cup of tea so if you are still interested in acquiring local healthy food you can always get on board with the Good Food Box program at the SFUO's Food Bank, or hit up one of the many Farmer's Markets around the City.
~jON - campus sustainability managerphoto credit - jonathan rausseo