Canada: Putting Down Roots in Vancouver’s Backyard Gardens
Immigrants receive less attention for ‘greening’ the city, but their efforts feed families and help plants adapt.
Christopher Cheung
TheTyee.ca
Sept 21, 2021
Excerpt:
Growing food is common among certain cohorts of immigrants, mostly those with Cantonese backgrounds, but also those with Italian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Vietnamese and other Chinese roots. B.C.’s temperate climate is good for growing many East Asian vegetables, particularly brassica crops like bok choi, gai lan and napa cabbage.
But exactly how prevalent is yard gardening? When did it start? And do such gardens number in the hundreds or thousands?
There is virtually no research that answers these questions.
On the surface this might seem strange, considering yard gardens are a point of local heritage in Vancouver, whose government is obsessed with becoming the “greenest city in the world.” Dig deeper, though, and it’s not that surprising: yard-based vegetable gardening here is primarily an immigrant activity, often conducted in other languages than English and without connection to formal clubs.
The new Backyard Garden Project aims to help fill that gap. It’s a showcase of the people behind the produce, and the layers of meaning behind the busy backyards.
