Allard Street Community Gardens

(information provided by Suzanne Hanna) 

 

History:

In 2003 the Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society, acting as lead organization, and six partnering organizations (Canadian Red Cross, Ontario March of Dimes, Clean North, Community Living Algoma, PMAO-Children’s Aid Society, Extendicare Van Daele) were successful in receiving funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to establish a Community Garden at 105 Allard Street, adjacent to the Canadian Red Cross building.

 

The Allard Street Community Garden offers 57 individual 4’x10’ garden plots, which can be rented annually for a nominal fee of $20.  Rental fees provide members with access to tools, storage, water, power, and gardening assistance.  Plots are awarded on a first come, first served basis and a waiting list is available. Members are to complete 8 hours of volunteer service at various work bees and social events, which are held monthly during the garden season. 

 

“We not only grow vegetables, we grow hope” is our motto because we hope to build community as well as gardens. Our garden is open to anyone; even visitors who wish to sit on benches and watch. The many organizations involved in this project have worked together with the membership and have pledged to create a self-sustaining community garden that will allow individuals who have no outdoor space to increase their gardening skills so they might grow their own healthy, nutritious food and stretch their food budgets to accommodate limited financial resources.

 

Our garden seeks to sow the seeds of social justice, community, economic development and ecological sustainability within Sault Ste. Marie through the support of environmental and horticultural education programs that promote waste reduction, recycling, water conservation, the use of local native species and organic gardening practices. We hope to revitalize and beautify an existing urban neighborhood and promote civic pride and allow for the integration of people of all ages and abilities in our community so we might serve as a model of collaboration towards a common goal.

 

The Allard Street Community Garden provides a safe environment for people to interact socially with others so they can form friendships while communing with the natural world. Through the cultivation of leadership skills, self-esteem, self-reliance, neighborhood pride and community spirit, it promotes increased volunteerism amongst citizens along with physical exercise. It not only serves as a location for other community organizations and events, it also provides alternatives to crime among youths at risk.

 MEASURABLE RESULTS

Social:

In 2003 the Allard Street Community Garden contained 32 raised beds and 4 raised planter boxes and had a membership of 70; in 2007 the site housed 38 raised beds and 7 raised planter boxes and boasted a current membership of 125+. There are fifteen names on the waiting list on average per year. Site improvements each year have yielded expanded perennial borders, additional herb and vegetable beds.

 

The Canadian Red Cross, who rents 8 beds, has seen a marked increase in the number of participants, volunteers and in the volume of produce generated for their community kitchen program and the various community organizations that participate (A New Link, Ontario March of Dimes, Community Living Algoma, Brain Injury Association, Breton House) in their program. Improved accessibility has resulted in an increase of members (children and adults) who have physical, emotional or intellectual challenges working in the garden as well.

 

As a result of this structured program, a number of these individuals have left their supportive organizations and have rented their own beds in the garden and are now independently gardening. Members interact socially at the monthly work bees, meetings and potluck meals as well as informally while tending their beds.

 

The Garden has fostered and developed partnerships between community residents, seniors, cooperative housing, schools and other community groups. These collaborations have resulted in increased community donations and fundraising dollars and the sharing of community resources for both the Horticultural Society and the Garden.

 

The Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society has partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Sault Area Hospitals to provide horticultural therapy opportunities to those battling depression and other forms of mental illness. Battered women’s shelters and programs have used the community garden to help heal emotional scars and raise the self-esteem of abused women.

 

The Garden has served as a tool to help people out of social care (Ontario Works) and back into mainstream society by providing positive and meaningful work experiences and community projects for youth at risk (Phoenix Outdoor Education Program) and community service offenders (John Howard Society). All of the gardens on site have been constructed by youth and young adults on community service orders who have benefited from a sense of ownership, control and responsibility.

 

The Garden has partnered with local neighborhood schools that have used the site to encourage learning and environmental stewardship in children. Children from abusive environments have enjoyed a sense of safety and accomplishment. The Allard Street Garden has also welcomed people of all ages with special needs by offering specialized tools, raised beds and planters and wheelchair accessible pathways as well as horticultural education and support.

 

The Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society partnered in 2003 with the Sault Housing Corporation who provides community housing in the Albion/Chapple neighborhood for individuals, families and seniors with limited financial resources to provide space for the raising of fresh, nutritious and affordable food. As well, the Society offered a 7 week Children’s Gardening Program to children ages 5-12, free of charge, which offered hands-on gardening experiences, nature study and craft activities. As a result of this successful collaboration, the Society in 2006 has expanded their children’s programming to two sites (Albion/Chapple, Second Line) and built additional raised beds at the Second Line site. The Sault Housing Corporation has announced in 2007 that it has committed funds and staffing to working with the Society on a massive outdoor beautification program involving six housing sites and the construction of a children’s garden at the Boston Avenue community housing location.

 

There is a marked increase in volunteerism. The Garden has drawn volunteers from the Horticultural Society, partnering organizations, Ontario Works, John Howard Society, local high schools, the Volunteer Bureau and the community at large. This has resulted in a noticeable rise (200%) in the Horticultural Society membership since the garden was created and there is now a pool of willing volunteers to help out at Society fundraisers and plantings which we lacked in the past.

 

The Community Garden has received numerous citations in the media, frequent mentions in the judges’ Communities in Bloom Competition reports with respect to its community involvement initiatives, as well as in various community newsletters and radio broadcasts. It has won a total of eight City Beautification Awards and serve as a model for neighborhood revitalization efforts.

 

Environmental:

Members make a conscientious commitment to garden organically. They do not use synthetic pesticides and fertilizers or any harmful chemicals. A Community Tool Shed on site provides access to free organic fungicides, insecticides, and fertilizers that members can apply to their crops. As organic gardeners, the participants focus on building healthy soil and learning to garden in harmony with the environment, to work with nature and not against it.

 

The Allard Street Community Garden supports sustainable environmental practices and provides its members with on-going educational opportunities (hands-on gardening demonstrations, mini-workshops and handouts) during bi-monthly work bees and meetings to increase their knowledge base and level of self-confidence.

 

Water conservation is encouraged. Twelve water butts made from recycled food grade plastic barrels are equipped with spigots and screened lids so they can be used to collect rainwater and store it for later use. This helps to divert water from the city’s sewer system while permitting the gardeners to water deeply using un-chlorinated water which has warmed in the sun. To further conserve water, the Garden uses soaker hoses, mulches, water timers, close-cropping, native species and other strategies to keep water usage to a minimum. Our shade structure has been equipped with gutters to harvest rainwater into rain barrels as well. As a result of our actions, we have saved money on our communal water bill (we pay $150 annually approximately to support 125+ members) over the past 4 yrs.

 

The Garden promotes composting and maintains a very large 3 bin composting demonstration area on site. Compost generated by members’ garden waste is applied to the beds each fall and spring. The soil is also amended with fall leaves, grass clippings and manure. These actions help with household waste reduction and the blue and yellow boxes on site capture materials for recycling that would otherwise be thrown out. All of our Potluck Socials and community events are as garbage-free as possible.

 

Biodiversity is maintained through the wide variety of food crops produced, the planting of native species in various flower and shrub borders and herb beds which attract beneficial insects, the maintenance of a mini fruit orchard and the use of other wildlife-friendly practices. Members are encouraged to plant open-pollinated flowers and vegetables varieties and to save and share seeds whenever possible amongst themselves, their families and the community at large.

 

Natural insect and disease control strategies utilized include the use of trap crops, good garden hygiene, crop rotation, the planting of resistant varieties of seeds, companion planting, barriers, hand-picking, beneficial insects, traps, etc. Organic pesticides are used as a last resort.

 

Weeds are controlled through hand picking. To keep area between the garden beds weed-free, a layer of old carpet is laid down and covered with mulch derived from the chipping of Christmas trees.

 

The lawn under the fruit orchard is top-dressed with compost and mown high to reduce water loss and prevent stress. To help reduce CO2 emissions, we plant trees throughout the growing season on site and within the community and maintain a tree corral of healthy native species that have been locally propagated. Volunteers cut the grass with a push mower and avoid using gas mowers and leaf blowers.

 

The Garden builds the raised garden beds and planter boxes without the use of pressure-treated lumber and tries to recycle building materials wherever and whenever possible.

 

Members use Square Foot Gardening techniques (block plantings) to make an effective use of space, help retain soil moisture and reduce weeds. Intercropping protects the soil from erosion and prevents leaching.

 

The Garden has entertained visitors from across Canada, several US states and Germany who have come to tour an environmentally friendly organic community garden. A recipient of four City Beautification environmental awards, the Garden continues to receive favorable reviews from Communities in Bloom judges and all who visit with regards to its environmental performance.

 

The Garden has fostered and developed partnerships between community residents, seniors, cooperative housing, schools and other community groups in an effort to educate with regards to environmental stewardship. These collaborations have resulted in increased community donations and fundraising dollars and the sharing of community resources for both the Horticultural Society and the Garden.

 

 The Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society delivers a 7 week Children’s Gardening program to children, ages 5-12, free of charge, who reside in community housing sites supported by the Sault Housing Corporation. The classes provide opportunities for the acquisition of hands-on gardening skills, nature study and the development of environmental stewardship practices.  As a result of this successful collaboration, the Society in 2006 expanded their children’s programming to two sites (Albion/Chapple, Second Line) and built an additional children’s community garden at the Second Line site. The Sault Housing Corporation recently announced in 2007 that it has committed funds and staffing to working with the Society on a massive outdoor beautification program involving six of their housing sites and the construction of a children’s garden at the Boston Avenue community housing location as a result of tenant interest.

 

The Allard Street Community Garden recently completed a Wal-Mart Evergreen Foundation environmental grant in 2006 which resulted in the creation of four garden borders in three community locations (Riverview Centre of the Sault Area Hospitals, Second Line community housing site, and the Allard Street Community Garden) promoting the use of native species, water conservation and organic methods.

 

As a result of seeing firsthand the positive benefits of gardening organically, the Canadian Red Cross no longer sprays pesticides on its property.

 

Community gardens have also been established at the three Children’s Aid Society/Sault Ste. Marie Housing resource centres.

 

The Allard Street Community Garden recently received funding to expand their garden in the 2008 season.

 

For more information, please contact Suzanne Hanna at wildgardener@shaw.ca