An empty lot at the corner of Bronson and Gladstone is the proposed site of a new community garden.
A new community garden has been proposed in Centretown in a vacant lot on the corner of Bronson and Gladstone avenues.
Activists from Just Food, a Grassroots, non-profit organization in Ottawa that promotes sustainable food systems, are working with property owner Imperial Oil and city officials to establish a garden on the site, which used to be an Esso gas station.
According to the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association, plans for the new garden are still in the early stages. Bonnie Mabee, chairwoman of the CCCA’s trees and greenspace committee, is playing an advisory role in the new project.
“Nothing is finalized, but most of the neighbourhood seems to have approved of it,” Mabee says, stressing the importance of the community’s support. “I’m supporting it 100 per cent because we need them [more plots] desperately.”
She said the committee has already met with the property owner to discuss plans for the garden, but the soil on the site is contaminated from the gasoline operation and must be treated before construction begins.
Gerald Dragon is an avid urban gardener who hopes the proposed garden will help reduce the current three-year wait lists for Centretown residents who want space at other community gardens.
“I certainly see that there is room for growth,” he says. "People will start to see that any piece of plot we have can be useful."
Dragon says community gardens are becoming popular because people are starting to pay closer attention to what’s in their food and where it’s coming from.
"It's a great way to interact at the gardens themselves and and create a dialogue about food.
Mabee says the city has strongly supported the committee’s gardening endeavours .
“The city provides the insurance, the water, and does the soil testing,” Mabee says. “I cannot thank the city enough.”
CCCA president Charles Akben-Marchand says this new garden will help alleviate the problem of long wait times for Centretown residents who want garden plots.
If everything is approved, Akben-Marchand expects work on the plot to start and finish this spring.