City of Red Deer
Community Gardening

…2008
• Solitary 9 acre garden plot location
• 189 garden plots
• Area zoned as future development
• Current residential development forced
relocation of gardens

Relocation
Challenges:
1) Site Selection
• Site life span and size must balance
cost/benefits of developing and maintaining
sites
• Site constraints: funding, appropriate soils,
access to water, sunlight, vehicle access and
site serenity.
• Land use and current use conflicts (i.e. zoning,
additional traffic in areas, loss of green space,
agricultural land practices prior to gardens).

2)Site Preparation – soil sterilization &
amendments
3) Public Expectation
• New opportunity for community food
provisions?
• Adding a garden to every community?
• Moving soil (plot by plot) to a new location
so no soil re-conditioning required?

Opportunities:
• Community development
• Organic produce, healthy & sustainable
lifestyle
• Easy access/sustainable transportation
• Full & half size plots cater to wider range of
people
• Low probability for future development in
new sites making them more permanent

Site Criteria
– Even dispersal across city
– Convenience for gardening
– Room for expansion
– Topography
– Soil structure
– Sunlight quality
– Obstructions
– Site safety and security
– Vehicle access
– Serenity
– Alternative land uses
– Adjacent land uses

2009…
• Garden locations
– Red Deer College
– Cruikshank
Farmstead
– Parkside Gardens
– Barrett Park
Total – 175 plots

Plots
• Large – 12m x 10m / Medium – 12m x 5m
• Advertising
• Registration agreement
• Participant expectations
• Maintenance

• You are responsible for maintaining your garden plot and any access or walkway
to the south or east of your garden plot. This includes weed and litter removal;
• Individual garden plots boundaries will be staked and marked - Boundary markers
should not be removed;
• Composting is permitted within your plot boundaries;
• The City of Red Deer does not provide a watering source at any of the garden
plots. We instead encourage the use of rain barrels or community led watering
initiatives;
• Pets are not permitted in the garden area;
• We recommend that gardens be treated as organic and discourage the use of
herbicides and pesticides;
• Be considerate of your neighbours. Do not plant sprawling crops or tall ones that
might interfere with the garden next to yours;
• Please do not water, weed or prune someone else's garden unless requested to,
by that gardener;
• Do not enter any private lands adjacent to the garden plots;
• If vandalism or theft occurs, notify the Parks garden representative immediately.
• If you are not able to tend you plot, notify the Parks garden representative.
Neglected plots will be either reassigned or tilled;
• If you will be away during the growing season, ensure that someone will tend your
plot.
• At the end of the gardening season, all dead plants and weeds should be
removed.
• Plots are assigned according to the waiting list maintained by the Parks garden
representative.
• Existing gardeners have priority for plot assignments or trades.
• Failure to comply with the above rules may result in the loss of gardening
privileges

Parkside Gardens
• Underused turf area
• Opportunity to grow
north and west
• 2009 - 22 large / 15
medium
• Expandable to 44
large / 30 medium

Piper Creek Gardens
• 2009 – 28 large / 8 medium plots
• Full expansion – 38 large / 17
medium

Barrett Park
• Former home site
• 2009
– 6 large / 6 medium
• Full expansion
– 14 large / 14 medium

Red Deer College
• Partnership with college (Green Campus)
• 2009 - 84 large / 28 medium (full expansion)

Unity Baptist Church
• Raised beds
• City provides materials
• Church manages/supervises – open to
public

Moving Forward
• Plot expansion
• Community involvement
– Work with community groups
• neighbourhood fenced facilities complete with
raised garden beds, composting facilities, shared
tools, water service, food bank group growing,
green houses and programming opportunities.
• Ecologically sustainable practices