Garden aiming to grow in size, purpose

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This article was published 13/02/2022 (1693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For many, gardening isn’t just a hobby — it’s about relationships with the land and mental health as well.

The co-ordinator of the Stickney Avenue Community Garden says he is working toward expanding not only its overall size, but its purpose as well.

Located at the east end of Stickney Avenue, the garden is classified as an urban farm on the City of Brandon website.

Plans are in the works to expand the garden 70 metres north. The current fence expansion would only push the fence 16 metres north, said garden co-ordinator Ben Loewen.

He explained there is land the garden can expand into that runs 70 metres north of the current fence line. This is because of a previous city land allocation that will require a different process to acquire.

“So while the full 70 metres is available in the future, only 16 metres is available now. Pushing the fence north 16 metres will give us 736 square metres more land,” he said.

The plan is to have each plot expanded to 125 square feet of growing space. Work on the fences is expected to begin this summer.

The expansion is being driven by increasing demand for more garden space.

“Definitely a big demand for garden space. I don’t know of anyone who would want less,” said Loewen.

So far, the garden has 81 plots. Each plot is a raised 12-foot by four-foot bed. Two-thirds of the plots are open to anyone who wants to garden, and the rest are to grow food for Samaritan House Ministries.

The expansion has been in the works for a while, Loewen said, but the land is leased from the city. They were hoping to start expansion plans last year, but the lease was up for renewal last year. The time it took to formally renew the lease meant they had to push expansion plans to this year.

The long-term plan for the garden is to use it for teaching and educational purposes.

Loewen said he’s working on partnerships with Indigenous groups to have land-based teaching sessions on the garden grounds.

“It’s going to be a few years for those plans,” he said.

Brandon University has been working on community garden initiatives through Green Futures and Enactus since 2014, according to the university’s website. The first were on-campus garden plots tended by volunteers and students.

Enactus is an international student-led movement encouraging entrepreneurship. Their website for Canadian operations lists 250 businesses launched, 232 projects involving 3,000 students and 1,218 people employed from their initiatives for 2020-21.

Samaritan House Ministries has been in talks Brandon University students and faculty to study the psychological and sociological effects of gardening on individuals.

The garden is managed in partnership by Green Futures and Samaritan House Ministries. The ministry is involved in gardening as a food security initiative, but only a part of their overall initiative, said food bank co-ordinator Marcia Hamm Wiebe. She is also a gardener, which is another reason Samaritan House is involved in the plots.

Samaritan House has been supportive, but they haven’t spent a lot of grant money consistently over the years.

“We have been on the ground, literally, involved in gardening since 2000, but that’s because they allowed me to stretch my job description,” Hamm Wiebe said.

The city got heavily involved in urban gardening a few years ago, she said. Several grants were bestowed on the city through Neighbourhoods Alive, a provincial government funding initiative to revitalize urban communities through the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation.

“There was funding available, everyone jumped on it, everything was great until the funding dried up and therefore people didn’t want to try it anymore,” she said. “The city didn’t want to give up land unless it was bringing in money for them.”

Much of the reasoning for the garden was to access money for the community for healthy purposes. Demand for gardening space was created by a community garden being available, explained Hamm Wiebe.

Since then, demand has been steadily growing to the point where there are waiting lists and calls for more plots.

“I never thought we would be in this position. I honestly thought there would just be a few of us who loved to garden and we’d hang out and grow things, then suddenly it became a political football,” said Hamm Wiebe.

The pandemic really drove demand for gardening, she said, but wasn’t sure if it was boredom or people trying to save money as food prices rose, or both.

Demand for seeds has been high for two years, to the point where supplies run out much earlier than previous years. She even knew of friends who started indoor gardens in their homes as a way to pass the time during lockdowns.

Despite the high demands, it is still a very good development. Hamm Wiebe said it is a physically and mentally healthy activity and the Stickney garden wants to accommodate that.

Everyone who wants a plot must apply ahead of time. The cost is $35 for the season. To get an application, contact greenfutures@enactusbrandon.com.

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