Community Garden desperately seeks help from the public to save what's left

The Allard Street Community Garden is unable to stay at its current location and, as it searches for a new home, it's desperately asking the public to help it salvage any infrastructure and equipment it can.

For increased space and better accessibility, on Oct. 1 the local Canadian Red Cross Society moved from its Allard Street location to a new building on Trunk Road.

Since 2003 the garden has been leasing the roughly 33-square-meter patch of land from the Red Cross for $1 a year.

On Sept. 16 the community garden was informed the building had been sold and, since then, had been negotiating with the new owners to try to find a way to stay where it is when the building changes hands.

The new landlord offered to rent them the property for close to $8,000 a year, an unfeasible proposition for the non-profit group whose budget is $1,200-$1,400 a year, a figure raised through nominal $20 membership fees.

The new property owners take it over on Nov. 1 and Allard Street Community Garden must have all its equipment and infrastructure off the premises by that time or risk losing it.

Lead garden coordinator Suzanne Hanna said the group is frantically trying to rally volunteers to tear down, move, and store wood plots, gardening equipment, and soil all valued at thousands of dollars and paid for mostly by Ontario grants.

The plan is to move and store these various items at volunteer’s homes and they’ve received generous support from Lemieux Composting, St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, and Lyons Timber Mart as well.    

Perhaps the biggest concern right now is saving the Allard Street Community Garden’s main shed - a large orange structure that is wheelchair accessible and houses most of their equipment.

Garden volunteers haven’t been able to secure a crane or flatbed yet and they fear the new landlord won’t let them store the shed on the property until they can do so.

“I’m not counting on that. We’ve been told to contact the landlord’s lawyer. I’m assuming that that means no. They are eager to get in and get started on whatever their plans are for the property and I don’t think that they know just how hard it is to move a community garden on a dime,” said Hanna.

Hanna said the shed is something she values because it was built especially for them by high school students and local hardware stores after a fire burned down the old one.

Hanna highlighted the importance of it being wheelchair accessible because the garden serves a diverse body of people.

The Allard Street Community Garden consists of 68 10'x4' foot plots and has roughly 160 members that use it.

Children, the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled, and those who are brand new to the Sault or new to Canada use the community garden as a place to enjoy time outside, grow their own food, and to socialize.

The Allard Street Community Garden is the biggest community garden in the city and a big reason why its so successful is its location near several high rise apartment buildings, giving access to much appreciated outdoor space for these residents.

Hanna said finding a location in the same area is the highest priority and city officials are confident that they’ll be able to find something in the area for next spring, although nothing is official yet.

“I’m pretty confident; there seems to be a lot of appropriate places for them nearby. They don’t take up a large footprint and they’re a well run group,” said Peter Tonazzo, senior planner with the city.

“Community gardens really add value to a neighbourhood and community. The Allard Street Community Garden is the largest one in the city and in many respects is the gold standard of community gardens. We want to try and support its ongoing viability and we’d like to see it thrive and keep going,” said Tonazzo.

Volunteers will be clearing out the garden location starting at 9 a.m. Saturday morning and going until Sunday or until finished.

Anyone who wants to help is asked to just show up or to call Hanna at 705-943-2207