[Community_garden] (no subject)

[plcarol at region.waterloo.on.ca]

Hello fellow community gardeners; 
Accustomed to experiencing cold and blustery weather at this time of the 
year; we have had overcast, rainy weather for the past 2 months.  But a 
little sunshine comes our way on occasion!  And we say Kudos to Cheryl Dow 
for her work researching our gardens!  Thought you might like to review 
her work - here's the executive summary and website;
http://www.cityfarmer.org/WaterlooDowCG.html

Here's a link to our webpage:  www.region.waterloo.on.ca/ph  click on 
resources, click on community gardens

Benefits and Barriers to Implementing and Managing Well Rooted Community 
Gardens in Waterloo Region, Ontario 

By CHERYL LYN DOW 
4cld1 at qlink.queensu.ca
Copyright © Cheryl L. Dow, 2006 
A report submitted to the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen's 
University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of 
Urban and Regional Planning (M.Pl.) 
Queen's University 
Kingston, Ontario, Canada 
August 2006 
On this web page we have placed an Executive Summary. The complete 165 
page thesis can be downloaded here. (PDF 3.4 MB) Benefits and Barriers to 
Implementing and Managing Well Rooted Community Gardens in Waterloo 
Region, Ontario 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
The objective of this study was to determine planners' and community 
garden leaders' perceived benefits and barriers to implementing and 
managing community gardens in the Region of Waterloo and to develop 
recommendations that planners and garden leaders can implement to help 
foster well rooted gardens in the Region. 
The report is qualitative in nature. Fifteen community garden leaders and 
six planners (including regional, environmental, land use, policy and 
parks and recreation) participated in semi-structured individual 
interviews that lasted between half an hour and one and a half hours. 
The analysis indicated that both planners and community garden leaders 
perceived community gardens as offering a number of benefits to the Region 
as a whole, to communities in the Region, and to individual gardeners 
participating in community gardening. These benefits are summarized in the 
table below. 
Community Garden Leaders' and Planner Interview Participants' Perceived 
Benefits of Community Gardens 
Regional: beautification of Region, gardens supporting communities, 
fostering healthy citizens. 
Community: friendships, enhanced sense of community, family bonding, 
building neighbourliness, increasing feelings of safety, creating 
community pride, promoting sharing. 
Individual: stress relief, education, exercise, independence, skill 
development, pride, food security, and economic savings. 
Environmental: reduction in energy costs, creating biodiversity, 
increasing pervious surfaces, improving air and water quality, reducing 
driving trips, beautifying the environment and promoting sustainability. 
Food Security: inexpensive local organic food fosters independence among 
vulnerable groups, local food production becomes possible for community 
gardeners. 
Faith: foster community outreach, create a stable volunteer base. 
Health: foster connections with natural processes, create opportunities 
for physical exercise, relaxation, and stress relief. 
In addition to the identification of perceived benefits, the analysis also 
indicated that community garden leaders have a number of perceived 
implementation and on-going management challenges which threaten the 
success of their community gardens. The top five perceived implementation 
barriers and the top five perceived on-going management barriers are 
summarized in the tables below. 
Top 5 Implementation Challenges Identified by Community Garden Leaders 
Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) 
Advertising to Gardeners 
Land 
Education/Knowledge 
Infrastructure 
Top 5 On-Going Community Garden Management Challenges Identified by 
Community Garden Leaders 
Human Resource "Gardener" Management 
Finding Supports 
Maintenance and Infrastructure 
Pests 
Vandalism 
Garden leaders and planners provided their views on 1) how a regional 
community garden coordinator and 2) how urban planners can support 
community gardens in the Region. 

Hope you enjoy your Holiday Season!

Carol Popovic R.N., B.Sc.N.,
Region of Waterloo Public Health
99 Regina St S., Wloo On. N2J4V3
Tele: (519) 883-2004 ext 5336
Fax 883-2241
e-mail: plcarol at region.waterloo.on.ca
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