One of my favourite events today was my whirlwind tour of urban agricultural operations currently going on in Saskatoon.
I am a gardener. One of the reasons why I love it so much is it’s a lot of trial and error–stick some seeds in the ground and see what happens. This process of course is always improved by sharing gardening stories with others. There is an old Ukrainian woman across the back alley from me who is my gardening idol. I wander over there weekly to ask her about this or that gardening related thing. And I am always more than happy to share my little bit of knowledge with others who are beginning their own gardening adventures. So, you can imagine how I felt when I was given the opportunity to wander through other people’s gardens to see how they did things, what worked for them, what didn’t: I was pretty excited about it.
First off, I visited another community garden, this time the King George & Riversdale garden. I was a bit early for the official tour, so I ended up just chatting with some of the gardeners who were just working on their plots. This garden consists of a variety of plots: some are individual, some are communal, some are ploughed up directly in the ground, others are in raised beds (which, according to one gardener, contain the cement blocks from an old farm house that used to be in that location).
Another stop was at a local woman’s house to see her backyard chicken coop. I grew up with chickens, but on an acreage outside of the city, so I was curious to see this set-up, especially because it was on quite a small lot. Unfortunately, due to city bylaw troubles, the chickens weren’t actually there, but she had a great set up. The coop was winterized and she had mulch all over the yard and a composting system for the nitrogen-rich excrement. It didn’t seem like too much work and she gets her very own, locally grown, organic, free-range eggs daily! I could get into that (if only her yard was big enough for also having a produce garden). I remember the city bylaws about chickens being a big issue in the media a little while ago. She claims that none of her neighbours even mind, so I wonder where all the opposition is coming from? Many other cities have allowed urban farming, so why is the City of Saskatoon still behind the times on this issue?
There was a large group of international students from the Language Centre at the UofS visiting the chicken coop at the same time that I was there. It was interesting to hear what was allowed in terms of urban agriculture in their home countries (many said that it was allowed, others just weren’t sure). I wonder if they will now go home thinking that this is the norm in Saskatoon/Canada, even though this is still an exception and currently has to be done on the down-low.
Wally Satzewich and Gail Vandersteen opened their home to show off their massive backyard garden which supports their market garden store at the farmer’s market (which I had visited earlier today). Their entire yard is dedicated to producing food, it’s pretty incredible. They call their method of farming SPIN farming – (S-mall P-lot IN-tensive) because they not only use their own backyard, but other small plots around the city. I convert more and more of my yard to productive land each year, so I really like this idea. When I was there, most of the growth was early sprouting crops (sunflower and pea sprouts), that he said he sources from Mum’s Sprouting Seeds (located just West of Prince Albert). I use those same seeds at home and would recommend them to anyone who likes eating sprouts!
Finally, I didn’t have much time here, but an older couple have attached a massive greenhouse to the side of their house and have clearly got that hang of urban agriculture. I especially liked how proud they were to show it off and share with others. One cool tip that I had never heard of before was if you want to make some large, circular raised beds, they used the bottom halves of the old City of Saskatoon garbage bins (see below). You know, the massive bins that used to be in the alleys before the city moved to individual garbage carts, which, as an aside, apparently allow for more garbage per person than the old large bins did. Anyways, seems like a great re-use of an old product!
NatureCity Festival Review 
Beautiful
Why can we not all do this in our back yards