“I come here every day to watch it grow,” said Connie Larson, standing in her plot at a Saskatoon community garden.
Tuesday Larson was one of many people whose green space had grown to a point where she’s able to harvest her own vegetables.
Urban agriculture is a growing trend. Saskatoon has 25 community gardens, and the city receives requests for more every year.
“I love gardening and I live in a condo so I don’t have garden space. When I heard about this I jumped to it,” Larson said.
Several gardens are run by communication associations, like City Park. Theirs is in a corner of a park, and could easily expand, but it sits on city property.
"Access to land and space is an ongoing issue. We have a much bigger demand than there is garden space. A lot of gardens have a waiting list of 30 to 40 people,” said Gord Androsoff, from Chep Good Foods Inc.
According to the city, the challenge in existing neighbourhoods is sharing green space with everyone who needs to use it. The city said they try and find vacant lots to make community gardens, but things like water access need to be taken into consideration.
The demand has put community gardens on the blueprint for new neighbourhoods.
“We know there's going to be softball, we know there's going to be soccer, now we know there's going to be community gardens generally in most neighbourhoods,” Neighbourhood services manager for the city, Mike Libke said. “So we try to at least have it in the front of our minds to pre-plan a space where it could go and if the interest is there from the community we'll help to develop that space."
