Canada: 200 new community garden plots in Richmond City Centre already spoken for

Almost 100 years ago, when the tram ran from Vancouver to Steveston, people would come to the Garden City Lands for target practice.

By Maria Rantanen
Richmond News
Apr 4, 2022

Excerpt:

This newest community garden is located at the Garden City Lands – a 136-acre plot of Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) farmland in Richmond’s City Centre – and is the 11th community garden the city has created.

But all the plots at this new site are already spoken for, and the waitlist city-wide for community garden plots continues to be in the 500-person range.

At the official opening on Monday morning, Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie pointed out 40 to 50 years ago, Richmond residents usually had room in their own large-lot backyards to garden, but with the city densifying, this is no longer possible for many residents.

Hence, the push for more community gardens.

This 200-plot community garden is larger than many other community gardens in Richmond, some of which have just a few dozen plots.

Each garden plot is comprised of two tubs placed on a gravel bed, filled with soil from Richmond and compost from leaves gathered in city parks.

While the tubs are currently located on a large bed of gravel, Ian Lai, executive director of Urban Bounty that manages all the community gardens in the city, said they are waiting for permission from the Agricultural Land Commission to do soil-based gardening.

Read the complete article here.