A sa国际传媒 couple gave much impetus to the local-food movement with their book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. Perhaps Victoria city council, with its boulevard garden initiative, will kick it up a notch and inspire the 100-foot diet.
Councillors approved a process last week called Growing in the City that will put the final touches on the city鈥檚 new boulevard-gardening guidelines. The aim is to create an inventory of city-owned land that is suitable for food production and assess the potential for small-scale commercial urban agriculture.
Coun. Pam Madoff cites an urban farm in her James Bay neighbourhood that has inspired other instances of urban agriculture and has fostered a sense of neighbourhood.
Alisa Smith and former Victorian J.B. MacKinnon gained international fame with their book about their year of restricting their diet to food grown within 100 miles of their residence. Victoria is not likely to attract that kind of attention, but it鈥檚 good to encourage people to grow as much of their own food as possible. The produce will be fresher than what most people purchase, and the work involved in growing the food will bring many healthful benefits.
A boulevard is the strip of publicly owned land between private property and the street. Victoria has about 300 kilometres of boulevards, most of which have grass between the sidewalk and the curb. It is usually the property owner鈥檚 responsibility to maintain the boulevard, although the city will water, mow and fertilize the grass for an annual fee that is calculated according to the size of the boulevard.
But why restrict it to grass?
鈥淏oulevard gardens can create more beautiful, interesting and diverse streets, add character to neighbourhoods and increase feelings of community pride,鈥� says the city鈥檚 website. It notes other potential benefits, including increasing ecological diversity as well as enhancing bird, butterfly and pollinator habitat.
And the land can grow edible plants that 鈥渋mprove the availability of fresh, local and sustainable food sources,鈥� says the website.
It鈥檚 idyllic and appealing 鈥� you walk a few steps from your door and help yourself to fresh vegetables.
Reality, though, is grittier than the ideal. It鈥檚 much easier to pass your lawnmower over a patch of grass once or twice a week than it is to till, weed and water a plot of vegetables. Grass is more forgiving than most plants; the soil that produces a lawn won鈥檛 necessarily give you a bumper crop of tomatoes and carrots.
You will likely be required to, as the gardening term goes, amend the soil. The city offers suggestions on how to do that, including mulching and composting.
And then if the corn gets as high as an elephant鈥檚 eye, you鈥檒l be in trouble. For safety and esthetics, the city limits the height of plants to one metre. Check the guidelines for boulevard gardening before you plant.
Be prepared to share. If your garden is growing on public land, notes the city, passersby could see the produce as public property and help themselves. We hope, though, that common courtesy would prevail.
Don鈥檛 expect courtesy from the deer, especially when word gets around that more greens have been added to the already-ample buffet offered by city yards and gardens. Deer fencing isn鈥檛 an option along city streets.
The city also encourages using native plants and other vegetation that will thrive in wet winters and dry summers.
Regardless of the challenges, boulevard gardens are viable, especially if neighbours co-operate and co-ordinate, enhancing the sense of community the city hopes to foster.
And you won鈥檛 have to move to the farm to be part of the back-to-the-land movement.
