Village Vancouver

Vancouver's Leader in Transition toward Strong, Resilient, Complete Communities

Hi fellow Kits villagers,

There's currently a long waiting list for community gardening space in Kits, and it's likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future. In addition, a number of VVers/Kits Villagers (and others) who are gardening as part of the Westside Gardening Collaborative at Kits House are about to lose our wonderful space as the property undergoes a complete renovation over the next couple years.  Eventually there'll be a rooftop garden there, but we're looking at community gardening space decreasing in our neighbourhood in the immediate future.

VV is one of the groups which helped start the garden last year. It's relatively small, but very productive, and has been at capacity participant wise. It's been a lot of fun, and a great way for new and old gardeners to garden and share food together, and we'll miss it.

The good news is that the notion of creating new collaborative, community gardening space of some sorts in Kits Transition Village has come up several times lately...including most recently at our village gathering at the Naam on Sunday -- and it seems like there might be some good energy percolating around this.

If this is of interest to you, please chime in, and let's see where it goes.

Cheers,
Ross

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Replies to This Discussion

At our dinner at the Naam last Sunday Randy brought up an idea for a new location for the Kits Community garden as the neighbourhood house will be under construction for some 3 years. It is about an acre located to the south of the Vancouver School of Music, unused, and costing the Parks Board some 60,000 annually to maintain as in cut the grass! I have this glorious vision of an orchard, produce and flower garden operated by the community. This could be a model for the Transition movement and VV. There are vast tracts of grass doing nothing, serving no-one, that could be permacultured - woohoo!

In my mind I am seeing and feeling John Muir's family home and grounds located in Martinez, near San Francisco, CA of which I have photos taken March 2009, my second visit to this amazing historic site..
http://www.nps.gov/jomu/index.htm
I am totally pumped about this idea ..........let's do it !!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday my big mouth made a very useful and knowledgeable contact, namely the Director of Development for Larco Investments Ltd. I have made lifelong friendships and met people who came to respect and help me because I was outspoken to say the least - big grin! He gave me an inside track on dealing with the City of Vancouver regarding community gardening space and other 'out of the box' ideas. I am greasing this contact with good locally made butter and will be going to West Van tomorrow, Friday, to consolidate this business relationship, visit his office, and check out one of their developments.
Ross is concerned that this space is quite a bit further away from the heart of Kits Community Garden. I'm going to take a look next week to visualize the location. Do CP own the land or the City?
While I am concerned about the location -- I think most of us who garden in the collaborative at Kits House live north of Broadway, so there is the aspect of being able to easily walk to a new location -- I'm interested in fostering discussion about all ideas and possibilities. And, if the energy is there, I don't think we need to limit ourselves to just one new garden - the more the merrier.

Including the parallel discussion going on within the larger VV community on the neighbourhood food network page, things I've heard mentioned at various times include the lawn of the Music Academy in Kits Point (urban farming professionally and/or community gardening by neighbours), Shana's 16th-25th, finding a suitable space or spaces between the sidewalk and the street, people's back and front yards, guerilla gardening, VV or Kits Village shared plots in existing community gardens in Kits (they have waiting lists, but the thought of a bunch of new energy/people for work parties might be very attractive for gardens needing more help) collaborative gardening (sharing space and the harvest together ala our current arrangement), community gardenstyle gardening (separate plots) and so on.
Angela, to answer your question about ownership -- I believe CP is the owner. So this might be a situation like the community gardens near 6th.

There have also been people gardening along the tracks further south - I visualizingaround 50th-55th or even further south? - for a very long time - not sure what their situation is -- maybe just be "unofficial", but tolerated? Anyone know?
There are many possibilities we can explore. Personally I am interested especially in the music school location because it fits with a wider perspective that I am aware of.
Any idea on the arrangement with CP for the community gardens on 6th?
I think we go after community gardens on several fronts. I tend to be a big picture person with a long term perspective. There is a situation on Kits Point that could be resolved by and of great advantage to VV as well as the City of Vancouver - a win win situation. To divulge further would be disingenuous at this point.

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