History of BUGS: The Plot Begins - 1998

The Working Group began looking for gardeners through the Centertown Community Health Centre, English as a Second Language (ESL) program run by the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, and a "Coffee & Conversation" group run by local churches. Low-income people and new immigrants were thereby enabled to participate. Twenty interested persons met for the Catherine Street project. (BUGs also organized two other projects no longer extent, the small Wesley garden on Main Street and a composting outreach project in Ottawa East.)

For the CSCG, BUGs provided all necessary tools, seeds and bedding plants; negotiated access to water donated by the YM-YWCA and obtained finished compost. After soil testing was done, three-metre-squared plots were cleared and rotor-tilled. Materials obtained via grants and in-kind donations went to build a shed and fence, labour being supplied by the gardeners themselves, in lieu of fees. Included in the plans was a plot for a YM-YWCA Youth Group and a plot solely for donating produce to "Centre 507", the local emergency food centre. The latter accommodated ten people on a waiting list for individual plots.

Beginning in the winter of 1997-98, educational activities included a five-part learning series on organic gardening, From Snowing to Growing. Over sixteen workshops presented a variety of topics related to food security, including protecting bio-diversity, food preservation, participatory garden theatre, composting and a supermarket tour.

Continue to Chapter 4: Support Grows - 1999