Save Kale Corner

There exists a boulevard garden on the green space at the intersecting corner of Belmont, Begbie and Grant streets.

One of the many of our neighbours who enjoys and supports our gardening initiative there named this space Kale Corner. Built by some gardening enthusiasts and lovers of very fresh organic food, Kale Corner has become a meeting place for community to gather, talk gardening and interact with one another over a commonality that we all share.

We, (the corner crew who live on the only property bordering this small green space) have made every effort to keep the space clean, safe, aesthetically pleasing, away from sidewalks as not to obstruct any walking paths.

Truly a labour of love, the gardens have been admired by many a neighbour walking their dog or biking with their children. On May 25th, a city worker came by and without any notice began deconstructing the raised bed that we created there.

They took away the driftwood that contained our beds and warned that they would come back to re-seed (with grass) the 3 truckloads of earth that we had brought in. After speaking with him and being told that our food garden was a liability, he directed us to the Parks Operations Manager.

We are asking for the support of city council to halt the dismantling of the garden and permit the use of the green space for this community garden initiative.

As well, we are asking our gardening allies and those with a passion for taking back the commons and growing food in public space to stand up next to us and move forward in normalizing and embracing the use of public space for the production of organic food.