23 April 2011

Community Gardens

The cost of produce has increased by 12% here in Alberta, perhaps country wide.  So what does one do?  Do we dig a bit deeper into our pockets, eat fewer fresh vegetables and fruits, or do we become pro-active and grow our own?

If you live in an apartment with a balcony, you can grow a great myriad of vegetables and herbs in containers with the right light.  But for those without the right conditions or a yard, there are community gardens like the one in the photo above. 

More and more people are turning to community gardens to compensate for the lack of their own personal garden and it saves money too.  Growing your own vegetables can save a lot of the grocery budget.  I was watching a Global Edmonton news segment about community gardens wherein one interviewee said she saved $500 last year by growing her own produce.  That's significant! 

Some community gardens offer raised bed gardening, which is ideal for those with physical limitations, and/or in ground gardening plots.  Check with your local community to see if there is one near you.

Failing that, one can grow in containers too.  Most vegetables require about 6 hours of direct sunlight a day.  Check with your local garden center for advice on growing in containers.  This blog will also run a feature on container gardening and I am teaching a class on the same in mid-May.  Check back here for more soon.

3 comments:

Sheila said...

This is such a lovely picture of a community garden. We used to enjoy walking by the community garden that was located where The Venetian now stands. It's a shame that development is rapidly eating up all the available green space within Edmonton's downtown core. Happy Easter Shirley!

Rambling Woods said...

I love the idea of this and we have two huge patches of lawn that could be used as a garden...but everyone wants grass to line the pond..sigh..

Anonymous said...

You should take part in a contest for one of the greatest blogs on the net.
I'm going to highly recommend this blog!
Feel free to visit my web page read this blog

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...