Happy birthday to Barrie’s first community garden!
The Coulter Street garden, located near Sunnidale Park and the Bayfield Mall, is 10 years young and has been providing residents an opportunity to get their hands into the earth and enjoy the outdoors.
There are now four such gardens across the city, including Shear Park, Golden Meadow Park and Eastview Community Park.
“It has been amazing to see the city’s community garden program expand and the interest in gardening grow across Barrie,” says Ward 3 Coun. Ann-Marie Kungl, who says she was pleased to engage residents through Urban Pantry and the Barrie East End Household Association (BEEHA) to identify support for a garden at Eastview.
“This is the first growing season for that community garden,” she tells BarrieToday. “All plots are being used and they have been dedicated to supporting youth initiatives.
“There has been great uptake by residents and I hope to see this program continue to grow and involve students more broadly and establish a teaching garden,” Kungl adds. “The possibilities are boundless.”
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Kungl says she has seen both the interest in gardening and awareness of food insecurity heightened.
“Residents wanted access to community gardens and I saw many taking the initiative to grown their own food on their own properties,” she says.
Despite the pandemic, city staff supported the program's continuation.
“Staff were amazing and worked hand-in-hand with public health to ensure gardens would be available as soon as possible and informed gardeners of new safety guidelines to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID-19 while using shared spaces,” Kungl says.
“In seeing the interest in gardening grow, a group of us facilitated the formation of the Barrie Urban Gardeners (BUGs) Facebook community page that has blossomed from 200 members in May to over 1,000 members today,” she adds. “Residents are participating in meaningful conversations on how to reduce food waste, support action against climate change, garden in a sustainable way, protect pollinators and so much more.”
Just recently, Barrie resident Tom Reeve “very generously” built seed boxes that the city helped to erect at all four of community gardens, Kungl says.
“It is hoped that this new addition to the gardens supports seed sharing and complements the Barrie Public Library’s seed swap initiative,” she says. “Many may not be aware that Barrie is also the 30th Bee City in Canada and there are several annual pollinator initiatives that our amazing city staff promote and co-ordinate, such as the importance of gardening without pesticides and creating monarch butterfly habitats.”
Kungl says volunteer members of BUGs and Urban Pantry have been supporting the planting and care of the 15,000-square-foot Janice Laking Community Garden, recently established by Steve Jones with My Local Leaf, which sees all fresh produce being directed to community not-for-profits across Barrie.
Stephanie Wideman, from the City of Barrie’s parks and forestry department, says all garden plots are rented.
“With the 10-year anniversary this year, I know that there have been people here since the beginning,” she says, standing near a groomed area in the Coulter Street garden.
“It’s people like that who are champions for carrying this through. They are the foundation stones,” she adds. “People like that who are actively involved with the garden really keep the momentum going.”
To learn more about the community gardens, contact Service Barrie.
