At a time of rising global food prices and intensified effects of climate change hurting agricultural production, one Centretown-based group called Permaculture Ottawa is urging locals to look for places to start their own sustainable gardens. In early March, the UN announced the sharpest rise in the food price index since mid-2012. Volatile weather conditions lowered global crop yields, driving up costs for commodities.
Urbanized and mostly cement-covered, Centretown is challenging for “permaculture” projects to pop up, so careful observation of land options and growing conditions are necessary, says Tom Marcantonio, a member of Permaculture Ottawa. He is also the food production co-ordinator for the Woodpark Community Association, which deals with the old west-end cottage area bounded by the Ottawa River, Woodroffe Avenue N., Richmond Road and Carling Avenue.
Permaculture is a gardening method modeled after natural ecosystems that focuses on localism and sustainability.
The Ottawa group has already worked on a variety of community food projects, and its aim is to create yields that are “abundant enough to share,” Marcantonio says.
The permaculture community in Ottawa shares skills, labour and knowledge to make positive or neutral impacts through food and regenerate local environments, he says.
“If you solve food issues, other issues are resolved as well,” he says. “You vote three times a day with what you eat.”
With rising food costs, permaculture gardening provides an opportunity to cultivate some of the more expensive commodities, says Chris Bisson, co-founder of Centretown-based Permaculture Ottawa. Last year, the group tended a garden in Youville, supplementing low-income families with fresh produce.
This reduces demand on international produce and the significant global carbon footprint created by transporting them.
The group was formed in 2010 after Bisson delivered a speech on guerrilla gardening, a movement dedicated to cultivating unused public space such as vacant city soil beds. Last year, Bisson gathered a healthy crop of tomatoes just by dropping seeds into empty planters outside an apartment complex.
Around Centretown, one can find rooftop gardens, balcony gardens, and community gardens. Permaculture Ottawa strengthens its roots in the community by teaming up with other groups. Just Food is another group that dedicates itself to developing public spaces into tenable land.
There are many permaculturists in the city already, but the group is keeping itself open to beginners young and old, Bisson says.
Bisson is starting to cultivate his own snug food forest in his backyard near Bronson and Maclaren. During the day he is the farm manager at Operation Come Home in the Blackburn Hamlet and is involved in the planning of relocating the Kitigànensag community garden at Carleton University. Kitigànensag is the Algonquin word for “little garden.”
Even though Centretown is one of the highest density neighbourhoods in Ottawa, its density is low enough to accommodate agriculture, Bisson says. His yard is about 10 by 20 metres and he makes do. He has designed his garden as an ecosystem and will collect rainfall in a water stand.
“Everything is connected to everything – the fungal mats, bugs, and soil chemistry,” Bisson says.
After a year of surveying his own backyard, Bisson says he’ll produce beets, and broad leafy greens, such as kale and chard. He’s spent months assessing water pooling, shade patterns, foot traffic, existing plants and pests, sunlight, wind, and soil quality. He points to a year’s worth of compost that he has just finished churning for his garden.
On one side of his yard, he has raised a “wild garden” with plants such as calendula, a marigold-like flower, and bee-balm, a tubular flower that attracts butterflies, hummingbirds and bees.
During a recent interview, an Abyssinian cat traipsed across the yard as if he owned the place.
The cat helps scare pesky squirrels away from his fruit trees, Chris says. In the warm months, he’ll have to set up wire to keep pests away from his crops.
“If you use the permaculture method, you’re not going to benefit right away. You’re going to see someone gardening next to you, swimming in tomatoes, and you won’t be,” Bisson says. Permaculture is sustainable but it takes longer than traditional gardening to get strong yields.
“I’m quite proud of Centretown. There are a lot of people who grow in their own gardens,” Bisson says. “Humans don’t have to be a bad thing in the world.”