Community Gardening

1. Community Gardening

2. What is it? A community garden is a piece of land that is turned into a garden and kept up by the people of the community. Everyone who wants to help can, it’s volunteer based. People can take care of a certain sections of land and plant whatever vegetable they want to.

4. Describe -This project is a combination of social, educational, environmental, health, and agricultural. -As you learn how to garden, you have this sense and feel of community. -People will love to live in a city with a community garden and it will impact their health by eating vegetables without pesticides.

5. Describe -Gardens can reduce gardening carbon emissions from imported produce. - Gardening is agricultural because we are growing fruits and vegetables.

6. Background Information -Surrey is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada. According to the 2011 Census, Surrey grew by 18.6% from 2006 to 468,251, up over 73,000 people.-40% of the population in Surrey-Whalley rent a place according to 2006 Census-Vancouver is a temperate rainforest. In a temperate rainforest, the average temperature ranges 5C to 25C. Rainfall exceeds 200cm a year. In Vancouver, the average temperature in the spring and summer months range from mid teens to low 20s.

7. Other Community Gardens -There are other community gardens in Surrey already, however, they are usually inaccessible and in less populated areas. -There are 4 community gardens in Surrey:Dunsmuir Community GardenHazelnut Meadows Community GardenNorth Surrey Organic Community GardenHolly Park Community Garden

8. Rational Our group chose the topic of community gardening because we saw three main problems: tenants and people in apartment can't grow gardens -some people don't know how to garden properly -use of pesticides carbon emissions

9. Rational Tenants: possibly can't gardenand apartment dwellers: can't because gardening on a covered balcony is just plain impossible.Learning to garden: everyone can garden , as long as they know how to. At our community garden, we'll have lessons to teach people how to properly garden. Just the basics to get people growing their own garden and maybe even volunteer at the community garden. Pesticides: we solmaly swear that we will not use pesticides. Pesticides kill bugs, who's to say they won't do anything to humans.If fact they do. They play a role in brain cancer and leukemia and have increased the rate of miscarriages to those who have had chronic exposure to them. Carbon emissions: transport of imported food to supermarkets

10. Description Approximately 50,000 of our person hours will be used for the construction of the garden areas. Over the course of two years, these hours will be used to create 5 different gardens at 5 different locations. The construction of each garden requires multiple jobs.-removal of grass on the site-digging for the 11 fields-preparation of the fields (soil must be poured into the holes, wooden planks must be inserted into the sides of the fields to show boundaries)-creation of gravel paths between the fields in the garden-construction and placement of shed, benches, and fences

11. How the Hours Willl Be Spent • Each garden will receive 1000 hours of attention. Volunteers with basic construction skills will be needed, and there will need to be a designated project manager on the site during the construction of the garden. This person will have to be a professional in the construction industry.Gardens could be decorated through the efforts of local artists. Their efforts will count as hours.Extra hours will be used to make another garden at another site if it is deemed necessary due to too many people going to the other gardens. The extra hours will also be used to create the mini gardens that are spread throughout the city.

12. Approximately 15,000 hours will be used on the advertisement of these gardens. Advertisement will take the form flyers, brochures, and newspaper ads in the city as well as in-person advertisement at the parks. The advertising will focus on making the community aware of the existence of the gardens, the purpose of the gardens, the features of the gardens, and the benefits of the gardens. Hopefully by advertising, we are able to attract more people these gardens. Approximately 25,000 of our hours will be used on educating people on the processes of gardening. The seminars will be available at community centres and also at the parks themselves. These seminars are intended to teach people the basics of gardening, such as the procedures and the tools needed. The education of these people will allow the seminars to become self-sustaining.Seminars could also be taken to the school. By teaching children how to garden, we are allowing them to also participate in this community program. This will lead to the construction of a smaller garden at the school to facilitate teaching children how to garden.

13. Advertisement: Approximately 15,000 hours will be used on the advertisement of these gardens. Advertisement will take the form flyers, brochures, and newspaper ads in the city as well as in-person advertisement at the parks. The advertising will focus on making the community aware of the existence of the gardens, the purpose of the gardens, the features of the gardens, and the benefits of the gardens. Hopefully by advertising, we are able to attract more people these gardens.

14. The Maintenance The Maintenance: Approximately 10,000 of our hours will be used on maintaining the facilities and doing upkeep on the plants. For Maintenance we would make sure the areas for always safe and well kept. The maintenance facilities will include all of the tools needed for our job . The maintenance will be an important and crucial part of our gardens operating at optimum efficiency.

15. Possible costs associated-the building of the community garden-tools-maintenance (soil, fertilizer, replacement wood)l-compost area... instructor costs: maybeWood must be pretreated non-rotting stuffConstruction of:A gardenPlan-30m by 30m-boards required for each field on the garden-at least 11 fields per garden-6 benches of at least 2 metres, and a shed are other structures that must be builtSmaller gardens (street side)-1m by 40 cm by 30cm (height)-filled with soil

16. Saving Money • There many ways to decrease the amount of money required to run one of these community garden. The first and foremost method is to set up a donation box for the community garden. The donations from those who are gardening can be used to acquire soil, perform general maintenance, and to buy and replace tools. • Instructors can be volunteers found around the community instead of being a dedicated instructor that we must bring in. People can bring tools to the gardens, allievating a lot of our tool costs. Seeds, fertilizer, and their own soil could be brought in as well.

17. Indicators People will get lots more knowledge thanks to this project. They will have learned about how pesticides are bad for our health, and how gardening is much better for the environment than just buying it in a store. They will learn how it is better for a budget as well because gardening is cheaper. This may even help with poverty! All this knowledge will then be passed down from generation to generation, and when that happens, this project will be a true success because even after all the hours are completed, there will still be a positive impact made.

18. Benchmarks or Measurements: Some measurements are the number of people interested in the gardening tips and people visiting everyday.We will be instructing people how to properly garden and will give helpful suggestions to help them further improve. If many people are interested and show up, then this project is a success. Also, if many people visit the garden everyday, then it's a success because people will be showing interest in the program, and that's what we want.

19. A Lasting Impact Also, there is an environmental impact. There will be no pesticides, so there will be no creatures killed, or water polluted. This will make a huge impact as the water may become even cleaner, and the animals that may be in the water will be less harmed. The chemicals wouldn’t bioaccumulate into creatures such as fish, and this may help with their reproduction. As well, we would reduce the carbon emissions released because less people would go towards store to buy vegetables. This means that the stores will ship less in, and the less shipped in, the less carbon emissions released. All the transportation required to bring in the vegetables would be cut down, and the environmental impact would be huge. • Our project will have a great lasting impact. Even after the volunteer hours are done, we will have made a lasting difference. One of the ways that it’s lasting is that the knowledge and tips people will get for gardening will be everlasting! Knowledge is a treasure that stays forever, and it’s also something that can be passed on. Whether it’s with friends and family, or generation passing onto generation, the knowledge will stay alive. Also, gardening is one of those things that can be redone by city volunteers because it’s something that makes the city a better place. City of Surrey volunteers will maintain the gardens, and then the gardens will always be there. A local project like this will make a huge difference in the community as well. Overall, people will be more involve...d in the community because it’s a community garden! People would also be healthier by eating less chemicals and pesticides. The impact on people will be everlasting, and that is one of the greatest parts of this project.

20. A Lasting Impact This project will make a great difference in the community and the environment. The five gardens we state are just a starting point, and there may be more developed in the future. The future is bright for this project!