“Starting & Supporting Inclusive Community Oriented Gardens”

Community Garden Introduction

My goal is that you will be able to use this information to help start and support Community Gardens now and in the future here in Toronto. My goal extends to your audience – the folks that you will be helping to start and maintain these gardens – they may just be ordinary people, they may not have letters after their names, but they will have many good qualities and skills non-the-less.

And they are the key to a successful community garden.

Page 7 of the "Community Garden Handbook":

Core Beliefs of a Community Organizer.

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The information below is based on the three day course that used the Community Garden Handbook we will be using the revised edition printed in 2008. I will not be covering all the information that is in that booklet, however, since then, more information has become available. I hope to give you the tools that you can use to start working right away. There is a lot of information in the Toronto Community Garden Network (TCGN) website tcgn.ca website with lots of information that has been collected, and contacts for resources as well as garden stories to help you. For certain points, I have made reference to various pages of the handbook, so you can look them up for more details.

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First of all – I want to make it clear – that people, or organizations – can not just “swoop in” and put a C.G. In a park and expect it to be accepted. ... you need to start with an existing group even if it is just two people that have a great desire to start a community garden. Page 2 of the C.G. Handbook.

At the moment there is only one person for the City Of Toronto's – Parks Forestry And Recreation (PF&R) program that is assigned to care for groups that want to start a C.G. In a city park – Solomon Boye. The city has provided a Community Garden Tool Kit. It is also a free down loadable pdf. - there are several “i”s that need to be dotted, and “t”s that need to be crossed .... but the basic concept is what is being presented here.

Definition – many people have preconceived ideas about what C.G.s are, and often get them confused with allotment gardens, as well as the terminology used to describe the individual plots. So, for the record – the City of Toronto runs the allotment gardens program – you pay your rent for your “allotment” - about $75 and do not need to worry about your garden neighbours or the surrounding area. On the other hand, community gardens are run by a community group, they can either have an “individual plot arrangement” or communal plots, or a mixture of both. Some of these groups will have a parent organization like a Health or Community Centre, and some are just stand alone groups. People join the community group and might be requested to make a small donation to the community garden.

At one time C.G.s were regarded as “recreational gardening”. However, times have changed and now the people that use these gardens to grow food – grow food that they want to put on their table, on their plate! – whether it is because they want to have organically grown food at a reasonable cost, or, because the food grown in the garden is part of their grocery budget.

I feel it is important to clarify all of these distinctions, because you will need to clarify these points at the public meetings you will be holding – for when you are starting your community gardens.