Saturday, August 8, 2009

Imagine That - Converting parking to planting

Here's a post from ImagineSudbury suggesting some new productive uses for Sudbury's Downtown parking lots.


Did you know that Victory Gardens supplied more than 40% of American food production during the World War II. And with the current economic events, the Victory Garden is making a comeback.

The plan involves taking out wasteful lawned areas or wasted downtown land and getting the community involved in vegetable & food gardening. In 2008 San Francisco implemented this program on its beautiful lawns in front of the Town Hall building. The lawns were ripped up and donated to those who wanted it. Raised beds were built using burlap bags stuffed with straw, forming keyhole-round gardens that would allow gardeners to use the most space with minimal tools & absolutely no chemicals & pesticides.

see http://sfvictorygardens.org

The idea is fantastic, and we have a large mass of land in Sudbury's downtown that has been lying wasted for more than 2 years. In fact it has been used as a shopping cart dumping ground for quite some time.

We need to take that land back while nothing is getting done about it. Based on the lot size and a quick walk around, the lot could easily supply enough room for up to 100 families using raised beds starting in the mid spring 2010. The land is sealed by asphalt so it wouldn't be such a big deal to move the gardens once the season has changed, but I would suggest that bringing people especially needy families to grow their food downtown would open up a wide zone of possibility in our downtown. Call your local councillor & get hold of the Mayor at mayor@greatersudbury.ca



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