Bayfield Resident Has Plans for a Community Garden in the Village
by Bob Montgomery
A Bayfield resident is hoping to fulfill a dream by planting a Community Garden in the Agricultural Park behind the Bayfield Arena.
Janneke Vorsteveld says it's something she's wanted to do for the last ten years and she's decided now's the time and she presented her idea to Bluewater Council this week. She explains, rather than have several separate plots where people plant what they want, what she's proposing is one big full shared community garden. Vorsteveld says Bayfield is the perfect place and now is the perfect time to give it a shot.
She says in a community garden everybody volunteers their time to work in the garden and then everyone gets to share what's grown in the garden. Someone could come and work for an hour in the garden and then take some vegetables home. She says part of the motivation for a community garden for her comes from the fact that she doesn't have enough variety in the garden in her front yard. To grow that variety she'd need a lot more space and then it gets beyond what a single person can do. A community garden is the perfect solution and everyone benefits.
Vorsteveld says a community garden can also help address the food security problem that exists right now and she would like to see at least fifty percent of the food that's grown go back to the community where people who need food can come and get it. Vorsteveld adds, she believes that a community garden that's shared is also a great hub for learning. Running work shops with kids planting or preserving or baking, whatever they can do with it. She says she's been working for the school board for fifteen years and there are a lot of kids who have no idea of how to grow their own food.
Vorsteveld says she did a survey and most of the people who responded were from Bayfield, and 92 percent of them supported the idea of having a community garden. At least seventy percent said they'd like to be involved in some form. She says she'd like to be able to have something planted in time for next summer and she's already got high school students lined up that can build the boxes they'll need. She would like to start small this year and have the summer to really plan for next year.
Vorsteveld says council has asked staff to review the proposal and she'll sit down with staff and go over what she wants to do. She's not asking the municipality for any funding, but she says the municipality does have access to government grants for community gardens so she's hoping she can get some help in applying for those grants.
