Are you intrigued with the idea of a community garden being  developed in King City? If you are but could not attend the 3/18 workshop it is not too late. Let me know of your interest and I will ensure that you get connected with others who want to work on this initiative.

Why might a Community Garden interest you?
One way to access fresh, local vegetables.
A fabulous way to learn about gardening from others.
An opportunity for connecting with others in your community.
Be part of creating a new community interaction in King City.

Key points reviewed at the 3/18 meeting..at least the ones I heard.

• Definition: a volunteer operated site that provides garden plots and/or gardening opportunities to community members.

• Prerequisites: real interest in gardening. If you have the interest but have little experience help will be available and offered. Willingness to look after your lot throughout the season and to participate in maintaining any common features.

• King Township Staff are NOT going to lead development; but, will be providing critical inputs to enable it to happen. The latter includes access and approval of approved municipal land, some of the labour such as tilling, guidance on how to organize. Decisions on how the garden will be operated i.e. protocols will be very much the responsibility of the volunteers. So…there is much to be gained by participating in the early days of the Garden.

• We heard some tips & lessons from York Region Food Network who is currently managing 3 community gardens: Markham, Aurora, Newmarket. One particularly valuable advice was to start small; to start with as few as 3-6 lots (each being 20’x 10′) and then to watch the number of lots increase as more people join after seeing how rich the experience is. We also heard how volunteers are indeed diverse: some are very gardening ignorant at the beginning, some have their own gardens at home but either want more space because they want to grow more food for themselves OR they want to participate in a social/community endeavor and some don’t have access to appropriate land for gardening. We also heard that some gardens put priority on providing food to local food banks or to low income gardeners; both of these choices are at the discretion of the volunteers.

At the meeting criteria for sites for the community garden were identified and we discussed a couple options; but, until the snow disappears final decisions cannot be made.

Finally, our Parks, Recreation & Culture Staff has this initiative on their work plan. They are keen to see this take off as the concept has proven to be very successful in many municipalaties. If you have interest to learn more and/or to join do let me know.