Community garden plots under development

October 7, 2008

(Red Deer, Alberta) – The City of Red Deer has identified four new spaces for community garden plots throughout the community, and the most viable of the locations is due to a partnership with Red Deer College. Topsoil will be turned on the sites this fall to prepare them for planting in the spring.

The four locations approved by Council last night are: 4.5 acres on RDC land, west of CollegeSide; a former farmstead adjacent to Piper Creek on 40 Avenue; Parkside Gardens, off Nash Street behind 52 Avenue; and a small, unforested section of Barrett Park.

The City will offer first refusal on the new plots to existing garden plot customers. With the new locations will come increased convenience, according to Trevor Poth, Parks Planning Coordinator.

“Spreading the garden plots through the community brings them closer to residents, and the locations are also accessible by public transit,” Poth says. “The garden plots are important to many people, and we hope that by offering a variety of locations we can make them easier for people to access.”

The four locations will accommodate all current garden plot users and all have space for expansion in the future. While most plots in the new locations will be the same size as current plots, Poth says Parks staff received feedback from some people that a full plot was too much to manage.

“Our plans include development of a limited number of half-sized plots,” Poth says. “These will be located in the sites that have size constraints.”

The RDC location is the largest of the four; it will offer space for 84 large plots and 28 medium ones. The College is offering the land to The City at no charge.

“We are delighted we could partner with RDC on this project,” says Poth. “It’s an ideal site with direct access to many new neighbourhoods. The partnership is in keeping with the College’s goal of becoming a greener campus.”

The new locations will be developed in three phases as the demand for garden plots increases. Phase one in the spring of 2009 will offer more plots than are currently available. The 189 garden plots off 67 Street are being relocated to allow for residential development in that area.

For information on booking your community garden plot, please call Parks staff at 403-342-8234.

-end-

For more information see the

Q&A Backgrounder.

For more information, please contact:

Trevor Poth                                                 Doug Sharp
Parks Planning Coordinator                          Director of Facilities
The City of Red Deer                                    Red Deer College
403-342-5391                                              403-342-3247