Community Gardens

Today was a big day. And by big I mean tiring. Today a dream of mine became reality thanks to the City of Red Deer and a group of dedicated and extremely hard working volunteers from Alberta Transportation.

A many of you know I get pretty excited about things that help create a more sustainable community. So parking my car for the summer and riding the only object I have ever named (my dear Townie bike named Eleanor) is one of those things... the other is local food. We love to say that we have our own massage therapists, or realtors, or lawyers or even our own personal trainers but we don't consider or care enough to think about what is in our food or where it came from. That needs to change. I believe we are doing our children a HUGE disservice by not correcting our kids thinking that cucumbers come on Styrofoam trays wrapped in plastic wrap or that potatoes come in bags already to clean... or that lettuce just magically appears cut, washed and ready to use. What we put into our bodies determines what we get out of them. (end rant)

Back to the gardens.... When I think about living in Red Deer I think about the kind of Red Deer I want my kids and maybe even grand kids to live in. We live in such an individualistic society and we have to try to create "a sense of" community because it no longer exists on its own as a societal norm. Well I'm trying to change that. I want to leave a legacy in my neighborhood.

With the help of Rene Michalak I discovered that my pipe dream of having community gardens could not only be a reality but that there was seed money through the city to pay for all the supplies... SAY WHAT!!?? So awesome. I applied as soon as I could and within a few weeks I had heard that our project was approved! Very cool. But now what?

I started to advertise the beds immediately and before construction even started we already had 10 of 12 beds spoken for by our neighbors. I should mention that I have reserved 2 beds to grow vegetables to be used in food hampers that are given out on an almost daily basis at my work.

So it was at 8 am today that a truck load of supplies showed up and the volunteers showed up and made the magic happen. Today would not have happened if not for the generous help of the 11 engineers from Alberta Transportation, Our facility maintenance manager Omar, Volunteers from Living Stones Church (Milt & Kevin) and The City of Red Deer! I am so full of gratitude and appreciation for so many that caught my vision and ran with it! THANK YOU!!

If anyone else is interested in starting a community garden I would love to share what I have learned with you... you can contact me via twitter @centralabbeth or email beth.anthony@telus.net