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St. Albert Community Garden Association
Located at: between LBH and St. Albert Precast at 17 Riel Drive, St. Albert, AB
Plot Number: 45
Plot Size: mainly two sizes – 10’x10’ and 10’x20’, as well as varying sizes of community beds.
Total Garden Size: 0.30 ha
Gardening Style: inground beds and biointensive style
Number of Participants: 45 families in 2004 gardening season
Fee: per season a cost of $10 for a smaller plot and $20 for larger size plot along with a request to volunteer on regular workbees through the growing season.
Mission Statement:
Through community spirit and collective planning, our Community Garden is a place that permits people to celebrate together the miracle of plant production and the satisfaction of producing vegetables under environmentally friendly conditions.
We Began:
The Garden began in 1999 as the dream of one member, Cat Fontaine. A deep community spirit and love of gardening moved Cat to promote an opportunity for community members to work together to grow a garden for mutual benefit. Several community members who shared Cat’s passion joined her to make a community garden a reality. The project was facilitated and supported by Grandin Community Square, a community development initiative of the Personal Community Support Association of Alberta.
Prior to 2001, the Community Garden occupied a temporary space at the old Public Works site in Riel Park. As industrial development progressed in the area, the City worked extensively with the group to identify a more appropriate space, and in 2001, Alberta Environment confirmed that a particular environmental reserve site could be used for the purpose of a community garden. In 2001, Council approved a three-year License Agreement for the Association's use of the property, and enacted a Bylaw authorizing the use of the environmental reserve as a garden site. Also in 2001, we incorporated as a non-profit association under the Societies Act, in order to sign a license agreement with the City of St. Albert to develop on the city owned land.
Our Site:
The St. Albert Community Garden occupies about 0.3ha of City land west of downtown in the Riel Business Park, situated between LBH and St. Albert Precast, banking on the Sturgeon River. This site is part of the natural flood plain and part of an environmental reserve. The property running along side our eastern border is for sale. The City used this land, before being redevelopment to a light industrial designation, as their Public Works and Tree Farm site.
Our present site has 45 staked plots, either 10’x10’ or 10’x20’. The area houses about 45 families, each working one plot per family. A portion of the total area is held for community use, where members grow vegetables and flowers to donate to different local agencies. We find that having a membership of approximately 45 members, given our space, is a good size for successful management and maintenance of community spirit.
In the Garden:
Each member is responsible for outlining his own plot (bricks, wood boards or ties and small fences are common) and for all work on it. The paths between plots are covered with wood chips laid over newspaper and gardeners maintain the paths beside their own plots. As well as individual plots, the Garden has “common areas” to grow produce for donation to the community and flowers for enjoyment of all. Green manure crops are also grown to enhance the quality of the soil. Members share the work on the common areas.
As of the beginning of November 2002, we have our own running water system with a grant through the Lottery grant money. A holding tank and barrels will still be used to collect rainwater and to still practice water conservation. Our soil is very heavy and we use soil-building practices including biointensive gardening methods to amend it. We have compost bins and are experimenting with different methods of composting. We are fortunate to also receive compost and mulch yearly from the City of St. Albert.
Organization:
We attribute our success to the strong leadership of our Executive, a seven-member group, and their ability to get things done. Each year, in November the membership nominates and votes for a new executive. Our president becomes the direct liaison to the City, in particular Margo Brenneis of Recreation and Community Services. The Garden Executive and members are a great pool of diverse talents and skills. We have within our group artists, teachers, master gardeners, activists and generally environmentally aware people. Our Executive meets once a month to discuss upcoming issues and events. Our general membership meets three times a year, two as general meetings (held in the spring and one in the fall) and one as our wind-up event late in the season. We keep our members updated via newsletters, emails and a phone team informs members of events, meetings or general information. In the Garden, we work in teams to take care of tasks such as planting vegetables or flowers in common areas, or filling water barrels for general garden use. Workbees are arranged to tackle projects such as weeding in the spring or garden clean up in the fall.
We average about 300 lbs. of vegetables each year for the St. Albert Food Bank and flowers are regularly given to various seniors’ facilities. Due to funding difficulties, we no longer have the participation of Eco Youth. Our past affiliation and projects generated were very beneficial to our community aspect. We look forward to further involvement of any youth organizations in the future. We do however, have a special needs group, LoSeCa whose clients and their staff work together on their own plot.
St. Albert Community Garden has a constitution and is experienced in establishing a community garden. As well, we have been successful at writing proposals to various funding agencies, including receiving a Lottery grant for the water system at our new site. We would be pleased to share our success with interested gardens. Copies of our constitution can be made available, along with membership guidelines.
Challenges, Needs and Barriers:
1. Bedding plants and seeds are always welcomed.
2. Ongoing educational opportunities to enhance membership knowledge.
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