Is anyone on CoSphere an expert on garden allotments or spearheading a movement to get them going here in Metro Vancouver? This is something I think about a lot, especially now with the soaring cost of food. Allotments-like the ones they have in England - are enormous, and anyone who wants one gets one. Every city in B.C. should have allotments in my opinion. I realize this is problematic in Metro Vancouver because of land value. But part of the environmental paradigm shift has to be reimagining those values. So perhaps every new condo should have vertical or rooftop gardens (what is the barrier to this?) Or maybe park space could be reimagined to include more garden plots. The future requires less lawn more gardens. What do you think? I am interested in writing a story for The Vancouver Sun about this.
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Thank you. The problem with community gardens is they are often small and there are waitlists (I am in Port Moody and waitlisted for three) I'd love to see a city take a bigger initiative and set aside a bigger plot of land. The allotments in England are really old so they can't develop the land. The one in Bristol is amazing.
Hi Tiffany, I'm no expert, but I'm wondering whether what you mean by allotments is similar to community gardens? There's apparently over 110 community gardens in Vancouver according to the City (https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/community-gardens.aspx). There is also this Community Garden Builders site (https://www.communitygardenbuilders.com/) which lists some garden locations that they manage and allows you to sign up to the respective wait lists. Some gardens have their own websites and distinct policies (for instance, plots are available at Strathcona Community Garden, but you're obligated to be part of a work party and sign up in person: http://strathconagardens.ca/). For your article, perhaps you might want to talk to people with some institutional memory of the 3-year program (now completed) called the Vancouver Community Agriculture Network. This was, according to their website, a successful collaboration between Tree City, Environmental Youth Alliance, PHS Community Services Society, and some UBC Land and Food Systems Faculty (https://vcan.ca/about-us/). Maybe you are already aware of these resources, but I hope this helps a little if not. :)