In the good old days, everyone gardened. Often it was a matter of survival.
Over time, dirt under the fingernails went out of fashion.
I鈥檓 happy to announce that digging in the dirt is in style again.
The renewed interest in gardening comes at a time when many of us live in places where gardening is not an option. Many have little or no yard space.
Community gardens have been developed to address this modern challenge. The basic idea is to set up garden plots that community members can lease. Gardeners plant seeds in spring, tend their plants all summer and then harvest their own fresh produce.
At Trinity Western University, a small group of students lead by the environmental club president, Trish Buhler got the idea to start a community garden.
In the spring of 2009 they broke ground, planting a seed that would grow an awful lot over the next four seasons.
According to Chris Hall, the garden logistics manager, the garden has grown in many ways since the spring of 2009.
鈥淭he garden provides a place where even folks like me with relatively little experience have a chance to try their hand at growing their own food.鈥�
Yet the garden has been about much more than just growing vegetables.
鈥淧eople bring their kids here and the kids really enjoy helping their parents out,鈥� Hall continued. 鈥淚nstead of playing video games at home, these kids are outside getting in touch with nature.鈥�
There are also social aspects. Hall shared that at times during the summer, gardeners would linger far longer than they needed in order to accomplish their weeding and watering.
Why be so hasty to leave a bucolic site like this on a sunny summer evening, when you can hang out and chat with your fellow gardeners? The community garden is becoming a community unto itself.
And the TWU community garden is only one of many in the 黑马磁力 area. LEPS manages community gardens in Walnut Grove and Murrayville and many other community gardens operate in the 黑马磁力 area and beyond.
I was at the dedication of another newly minted garden at Bethany-Newton United Church in Surrey last June. Like other community garden enterprises, the garden opening was buzzing with enthusiasm as a fervent group gathered around and the minister prayed for success.
And so another seed was planted.
David Clements is professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Trinity Western University.
