THE STORY OF CENTRETOWN – CENTRE 507 COMMUNITY GARDEN IN PHOTOS

Not too long ago there were 6 lovely ash trees in planters on Bank St. beside Centretown United church. The folks at Centre 507, a Drop-In Centre located in the church building, used to enjoy sitting under these trees and cooling off on a hot summer day. The members of the congregation appreciated the green beauty the trees brought to their churchyard on Bank St.

Sadly the trees were killed by the ash bore and had to be cut down. The empty planters were a sad reminder of loss.

After contemplating the empty planters for a while a new idea blossomed, inspired by the United Church of Canada’s policy on Food Sovereignty. Why not take out the tree stumps, fill the planters with healthy soil and grow food?

The congregation decided to partner with Centre 507 and grow vegetables in the planters to be donated to the Centre. This would add fresh, nutritious vegetables to the soups and lunches at the Center and would create an opportunity for participants in the Center to volunteer with other volunteers from the congregation and neighbourhood to learn about growing food in the city and the pleasures of gardening.

With the help of a grant from JUST FOOD Ottawa the garden began to take shape.

Removing the stumps

Curtis Fortier, volunteer, donated a truck, chain saw, axes and his expertise in removing the stump from each planter. A team of seven volunteers helped Curtis saw, chop, dig and pry out the stumps.

The first stump is out.

The stump crew, Lan, Debbie, Curtis, Jane, Brian, Jim, and Linda (not in the photo).

Starting some seedlings

Mme. Camille’s grade 3-4 class at Elgin Street Public school signed on to grow some vegetable seedlings in the classroom over the winter.

Adding new railings

Mike, Centre 507 Board member and volunteer, added some new railings to the planters so that new, rich soil could be added.

Adding soil

Many thanks to Big Yellow Bag Ltd. who delivered 5 cubic yards of rich, clean soil, only charged us for 3 and kindly dropped each bag of soil directly into each planter. Saved us a ton of shoveling!!! Thank you Andrew from BYB.

Planting

In late May Mme.Camille’s class from Elgin Street Public school planted seedlings and some seeds in the new garden.

Jim, Jane, Brian, planting the first lettuces and leeks.

Tomato teepees

Jim, the tall guy on the right, built a tomato “tepee in two of the planters. Assistants Brian, Jane, Debbie, and Linda planted 2 tomato plants at the foot of each of the 8 poles.

Garden sign: Debbie preparing to “plant” a garden sign in each planter. The sign says: “Centretown United/Centre 507 Community Garden. These gardens have been created by volunteers from this church, Centre 507, Elgin Street public school, neighbours from this community and JUST FOOD Ottawa. The veggies will be donated to lunches at the Centre. Please leave the harvest for the folks at the Centre. Help us keep the gardens trash-free and beautiful. Many thanks, the Centretown Gardeners”.