Garden with Possibilities for Spring 2009

This vacant lot sits next to a Mennonite church in east Vancouver. The lot is used occasionally for the church's overflow parking, but some young people from the church came up with a vision to open up the use of this land for growing vegetables by people in the church or the community or by refugee claimants who attend the weekly food bank. Permission from the church and creation of the plots took place too late for growing vegetables in 2008, so only a few flowers were grown. Soil was brought in from a construction job site and mixed with purchased compost. Some of the costs were covered by a government grant. The soil must be good because the dandelions were flourishing in November!

Vegetables Growing in Unexpected Places

There are very few empty lots in the Dunbar/Point Grey area of Vancouver, but I came across one next to the Pacific Spirit Park. Obviously, someone grew vegetables including pole beans on a support on this empty lot in 2008. It's all a bit scruffy at the end of the season, so it's difficult to determine the other plants that were grown. Was this guerrilla gardening?


This traffic-calming roundabout at 8th and Trimble contains chives. Are there other roundabouts planted with edibles?

The UBC Farm isn't the only area growing food plants at the University of British Columbia. The entrance to the campus bookstore has attractive Swiss chard growing in pots.