Canada: Quebec City residents fight to save 50-year-old community garden
City says garden is unauthorized and on contaminated soil
By Sandra Hercegova
CBC News
Oct 12, 2022
Excerpt:
Denis Gilbert started gardening on the vacant green space in front of his Quebec City home 50 years ago.
“I’ve grown the most beautiful tomatoes of my life here,” he said.
It wasn’t long before neighbours started to join him, creating a community garden that lasted five decades.
“The most beautiful memory I have here is the community that we managed to form with the garden,” Gilbert said.
These days, more than 20 residents are cultivating the land that has become known as the Jardin du Chemin du Foulon.
But now those five decades are coming to a halt as a recent soil study found the land to be contaminated and unsafe, prompting the city to shutdown the unauthorized community garden.
“According to the Ministry of Health, the consumption of vegetables grown on this lot could be harmful to health if they are not washed well,” said Quebec City spokesperson Karine Desbiens in an email to CBC News.
Up until this year, the city has tolerated the garden even though it was never given the official OK to operate in the green space. After it was discovered the soil was unsafe to cultivate, the city gave plenty of warning, Desbiens said.
“Since the summer of 2021, several warnings have been issued to gardeners to inform them of the upcoming dismantling of the garden,” she said.
