CORNER BROOK — People are excited about the second year of community garden next to the Blow Me Down Ski Park on Lundrigan Drive.
“People have just planted now, there’s not much coming up yet,” said Isabelle Schmelzer, a gardener at the community site. “(Last year) it was as lush as you can imagine, it did really, really well.”
The Western Environment Centre started the project last summer and began with one garden.
The land is for people who are interested in gardening and want to plant organic produce. It costs $20 annually for a plot of four-by-eight feet, and there is already a wait list.
“There is a lot of interest in this,” said Schmelzer, who has been gardening ever since childhood. “You’ll see a whole variety, everything from the traditional cabbage, turnups, beats and potatoes.”
The garden has eight new plots increasing its gardens to 20. Another garden is also being created across the road from the existing two.
Schmelzer is growing kohlrabi, a German type potato, as well as turnip, cabbage, lettuce, beats, Swiss chard, kale and a variety of beans and peas. She said other people are mainly growing turnip, squash, garlic, broccoli and cabbage.
The Western Environment Centre also holds workshops on gardening throughout the year for the people involved.
Schmelzer said it is great for people who are interested as well as a project for children.
“I’m still learning,” she said. “I’m trying out new varieties ... I haven’t always had good access to good land for gardening.”
Schmelzer believes the community garden is also a good model for local and environmentally sustainable food production.
“The island only has a two or three-day supply of food available,” she said. “One of the ways to address that is to grow your own vegetables as people did for many, many years.
“It brings people of all walks of life together,” she said.
Well, given that the "world of Newfoundlanders" is as backwards, inefficient, unsustainable, and effed up a piece of work in most respects, I'm not insulted in the least by that comment. Small community garden plots....in a sparsely populated, rural region...located away from all residences in a wilderness area requiring private vehicle transportation to access. Now that's enlightened. Chicagoans just don't "get" what community gardens are really about.