The Goldenrod Community Garden - Coming Soon & Needs your help!

Good day everyone,

The Goldenrod Community Garden at the north end of the Tunney's Pasture property is finally a success story, made possible by years and years of hard work by a small group of dedicated gardeners! The Community Garden is about to break ground this spring, a new and important community space that will bring together neighbours from across our local community. Tara and I from the WVCA had a chance to view the site this evening led by Allegra Newman, who has clearly been putting her all into this project for many years. In just a matter of days, activity will begin on the site just north of Goldenrod, and south of the Parkway, about 200 feet west of Parkdale.

You can read more about the Garden below, but right now, the Garden needs your help! Natures's Path is running a "Garden for Good" grant competition. In order to qualify for a $5,000 grant, the Goldenrod Community Garden needs to finish in the top 21 spots. Right now they are placed around 16th place North America-wide, with the content ending at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. 

Please take a moment and visit https://www.naturespath.com/en-ca/gardens-for-good/#goldenrod-community-garden and click on "Vote for this Garden" (a green coloured box below the description), and click confirm when you receive your voting email. (You must be 18 years of age, and a resident of Canada or the US (excluding residents of Arizona and Quebec). 

The WVCA applauds the work of Allegra and the group in bringing the Goldenrod Community Garden to Kitchissippi, and will heartily support the Garden going forward! I'm sure you'll begin to hear and see a lot more about the Garden in the coming months!

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Here is more information on the GCG, taken from their Garden for Good proposal:

Situated near the urban centre of Canada’s capital (Ottawa, Canada) a mission of the Goldenrod Community Garden is to serve the needs of food-insecure citizens in Mechanicsville and Hintonburg by building and maintaining community organic gardens. The University of Ottawa has identified these neighbourhoods as a food desert; that is, for people who are low income or have mobility issues, significant barriers exist that limit access to healthy and affordable food. Goldenrod aims to remove some of those barriers. Recently, the National Capital Commission approved an urban land allotment, near Mechanicsville and Hintonburg, to develop Goldenrod Community Garden. The site was selected after many years of working with the City of Ottawa and Just Food (a local, non-profit). There are currently no community gardens located in this area so this is truly an allotment to celebrate!

Our Phase One build plan for this spring 2021 includes: 30 garden beds/80 garden plots (some wheelchair accessible), a shed, compost bins, fences, water storage and plumbing. Goldenrod’s focus on the food-insecure has resonated. Over 20 people have volunteered to the Build Committee, many more to simply build. The 80 garden plots will allow local families, groups, and individuals to garden. COVID-19 has curtailed community gathering at a time when we need each other most. Goldenrod will allow for COVID-safe gardening.

We have partnered with the Parkdale Food Centre and the Somerset West Community Health Program to identify and connect with food insecure neighbours interested in gardening with Goldenrod. Parkdale Food Centre is a local food bank whose community outreach includes social enterprise and food literacy programs. Somerset West Community Health Program provides specialized health, educational, social and recreational programs to people in need. Just Food, another partner for the garden, is a local, non-profit community-based organization that works on both rural and urban food and farming issues in Ottawa and the surrounding region. We are grateful that Just Foods has provided a build grant to Goldenrod, but there remains a shortfall of CDN $5,000 (USD 4,000). Gardens for Good funding would fill our shortfall and enable Goldenrod Community Garden to achieve our Phase One spring build plan. That would allow a spring planting. Harvest then could begin by early-to-mid summer. Our neighbours are hungry for fresh organic produce. Please – partner with us.

(Sample community garden illustration below borrowed from https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/0da2f83e-2658-4d79-a64c-d127fd32d317/McCarver-Park-Community-Garden)