Planting a Future - a documentary about urban agriculture in NDG, Montreal

Two Concordia film students approached Action Communiterre this spring, interested in urban agriculture in the borough of Notre-Dame-de-Grace (NDG), Montreal.  For their course, they visited different organizations and gardens around the neighborhood to get a sense of the work being done and its impact in the community.  There's even a short segment featuring the St. Monica School Garden!

Marche Locale - Concordia University's new local food market!

Congrats to my friend and colleague Amy Barrington on her successful organization of the Marche Locale at Concordia University.  The market provides a space in the heart of downtown where local producers (and extremely local producers from around the city!) can sell their organic produce to students and passersby.  The market can be found every Tuesday from 4:00-7:00pm at the Hall Building Terrasse on MacKay, near de Maisonneuve in Montreal.

Amy is a student at Concordia University and a Member of the Board at Action Communiterre.

Watch a CTV news clip on the market!!
For details and updates on the garden visit their website: http://marchelocalequartierconcordia.weebly.com/

Public Consultation: Urban Agriculture in Montreal - events schedule announced!

Great news!

The event schedule for Montreal's public consultation on urban agriculture has been released, along with a great new website!  This follows a campaign of local NGOs and citizens to gather signatures in support of the consultation.  Thanks to the City of Montreal's "Right to Initiative" the city is mandated  to hold a public consultation on any issue when a certain minimum of citizens (15,000 I believe) support the initiative.

On November 15, 2011 citizens delivered a petition with nearly 29 000 signatures to the city and the public consultation was confirmed in December.  After months of planning, the dates for the public consultation have been announced and will be held in May and June.

Citizens are also encouraged to submit their own urban agriculture activities to the website with a photo and description at: http://montrealacultiver.com/?page_id=54.  

I have translated the event listing below from French into English, as the English listing does not seem to be available elsewhere:

Exposition: Saturday May 12, 2012 - 11:00am - 4:00pm

CCSE Maisonneuve Chapter- 4375 Ontario st. East

This is the first information event where the public will have the opportunity to get to know the local actors involved in urban agriculture movement in Montreal.

Colloquium: Thursday May 17, 2012 - 9:00am - 5:00pm

Palais des congrès de Montreal Room 519
1001, place Jean-Paul-Riopelle(downtown near Place d'Armes Metro)

This is the first information event where the public will have the opportunity to get to know the local actors involved in urban agriculture movement in Montreal. Registration is required, space is limited: ocpm.qc.ca/agricultureurbaine/colloque.

 Public consultation sessions: in various neighbourhoods

1. Ahuntsic-Cartierville: 7pm - 10pm - Saint-André Apôtre Church - 10505 rue de l'Esplanade
2. Montreal-Central (i.e. Downtown, Plateau, Mile End, Villeray): 7pm - 10pm - Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal - 460, rue Gilford 
3. Montreal North: 7pm - 10pm - Centre récréatif Rivière-des-Prairies - 7650, boulevard Maurice-Duplessis
4. Cote-de-Neige/Notre-Dame-de-Grace:7pm - 10pm - Centre Communautaire St-Raymond - 5600, rue Upper Lachine 

Deadline for offering memories/testimonies on urban agriculture through the website:  June 14 at 4pm.

Final hearings for individuals and organization that wish to express themseleves on this issue: June 18, 7pm - 10pm: OCPM - 1550 rue Metcalfe, 14th Floor

For more information (in French) see: http://montrealacultiver.com/.http://montrealacultiver.com/.

Congratulations to Lauren!

Congratulations to Lauren who was recently selected as one of two inaugural PFF Community Leadership Fellows by McGill University.

The PFF Community Leadership Fellowships offer extraordinary opportunities to McGill students with innovative ideas, helping them to bring sustainable and positive social change to the communities in which they work.

After a very competitive selection process, Lauren received the good news that she was selected to have her project funded.  Beginning this week, Lauren is working with Action Communiterre and the English-Montreal School Board for 8-months to build a brand new school and community vegetable garden at St. Monica Elementary School in the Notre-Dame de Grace (NDG) bourough of Montreal.   She will actively engage the young daycare children and local youth in planting and maintaining the garden to grow all kinds of nutritious food for the community.  She will be complementing the work in the garden with workshops for the kids on health, nutrition and the environment, as well as hosting community events centred around extremely local food!

For more information on the PFF Fellowship see: http://www.mcgill.ca/internships/pffprogram/2012-fellows. 

Spring has come early!

Early spring is still a blend of browns and grays

It's the warmest March Montreal has seen in 70 years, according to the CBC, with a projected high of 20 degrees (68F) and clear blue skies.  And what greater way to celebrate the warmth than by stepping out into the garden (in a tank top!!!) and surveying the land. 

The tulips and crocus have pushed their leaves above the soil.  I look forward to their blue and orange blooms in the coming months.  But the arrival of the spring bulbs makes me curious about the garlic below the soil as well.  I marked the garlic with thin green poles so I could anticipate its sprouting.  The leaves I used to mulch and insulate the soil are still quite thick on the surface.  But sure enough, as I peel them away I see the green garlic tips poking out from the warm soil.  I'd like to also report that the chives are also making a nice showing and are already a few inches high. Ah, spring is in the air!

 

Garlic and tulips and chives, oh my!

 

"Environment A 'Vertical Greenhouse' Could Make a Swedish City Self-Sufficient"

This is pretty cool! I wonder if this is possible in all cities?

http://www.good.is/post/a-vertical-greenhouse-could-make-a-swedish-city-self-sufficient

Plans for a New Year!

The remains of last season's stalks and plants have been chopped down and cover the soil.  The garlic has been planted and lies dormant beneath the snow-covered soil.  The winter offers a quiet break from work in the garden, but it won't be long before I flip through the seed catalogs and hang up the lamps to start my seedlings for the spring.

Drying flowers for tea: Mauve, Marshmallow, and red clover

I'd call 2011 a pretty successful year.  I finished off the season by attending a seed-saving workshop given through Santropol Roulant, and was able to practice my skills by saving seeds from some tomatoes (an heirloom Purple Russian that I grew, and some super sweet orange cherry tomatoes from our CSA basket), from some arugula that went to seed, and a bunch of flowers I found growing around the neighborhood (calendula, marigold, and other unknowns).  I also did a big harvest of flowers and herbs for cooking and tea.  I have a couple jars of sage, mint, and lemon balm, and some for rosemary and parsley as well.  Mat has been making some delicious soups for us!


Looking forward to 2012, I have a few goals for the new season:
- Record the harvest!  Small urban gardens are extremely productive, and it will be nice to know how much I'm producing and how much money I'm saving by growing my own organic produce.
- Expand the perennial herb/flower garden on the other side of the building.  It's a shadier, tougher patch of earth to work, but planting a variety of perennial herbs and native plants will mean less work in the long term, and less watering and fertilizing, as these plants are adapted to the regional climate and soil.  Flowering plants are also extremely important for attracting pollinators!
- More updates!  While I prefer to be outside gardening more than being inside writing about gardening, writing is a fun opportunity to show some creativity, and let family and friends know what I'm up to.

Hope you all are staying warm this winter and happy 2012!!