Though nothing is ready for harvest, an abundance of community spirit has already sprung from new gardens at Ida Vista Co-operative Housing.
On Saturday, July 9, the housing complex will host an open house to demonstrate and celebrate the recent expansion of its community gardens. While there’s been a community garden for some time on the Ida Vista property at the corner of Shuswap Street and 10th Ave. SW, it wasn’t available to residents of the housing complex.
Laureen Shannon, an Ida Vista resident who helped bring the project to fruition, said the pre-existing garden was open to anyone in the community, but there is a waiting list to use it. The new garden boxes, are specifically for use by Ida Vista residents.
“My goal was to get everyone out of their house and get to know who their neighbour was, and it’s a really kid-oriented place, and a lot of the kids get together… but the parents don’t. So this was an opportunity to get people doing something and is purposeful and has a result at the end,” says Shannon.
Despite initial hesitancy, residents are coming around to embrace the project.
“More and more people are coming out, ‘Oh, can I help?’” says Shannon. “At first, we didn’t have our irrigation system set up, so people were carrying buckets out there, and they had a good excuse to have a lunch out there…”
Another example of the gardens bringing people together is learning what skills others have to offer.
“Some people really have a good, growing green thumb, there are people who know how to preserve, there are a lot of skills coming out of people that we didn’t know about,” says Shannon. “It’s great to know, ‘Hey, I didn’t know you knew this. Let’s put our thoughts together and go for it.’”
The construction of the garden was itself a community effort. Ida Vista, in partnership with the Shuswap Food Action Network, put forward a proposal for funding through Interior Health’s Community Food Action Initiative. As a result, a grant of $5,000 was awarded. But Shannon estimates another $7,000 was kicked in through community donations and support.
Some individuals provided time and or facilities for workshops on such things as how to grow and save seeds, and how to preserve foods.
The Shuswap Seed Savers provided seed to help Ida Vista keep its goal of keeping the community garden entirely organic.
Stanley Bland provided organic soil and manure. Telus helped, as did Salmon Arm Secondary students, who were involved with building the garden beds.
Residents pay $10 a year to tend a bed, and the money goes into a maintenance fund.
“It’s been a great experience and I hope more areas in Salmon Arm and the Shuswap, and all over, will adapt that and know you can grow food pretty much anywhere,” says Shannon, noting Ida Vista is the first co-op in B.C. to develop a community garden for its residents.
Shannon says the development of Ida Vista’s community garden has all been recorded and will air on television sometime in the fall.
And the film will be shared with other co-ops and developments, who might be considering a similar community project.
In the meantime, Shannon would welcome advice on how to keep the birds – particularly crows – away from gardeners’ crops.
This Saturday’s open house at the Ida Vista gardens runs from 4 to 6 p.m. Hot-dogs are being served and attendees can learn about the garden and about the co-op – Shannon adds applications are currently being accepted for housing.