These are some of the Community Gardens that were on yesterdays Community Garden Network Trolley Tour: Univ. of Windsor, Bruce Park, LaSalle, Kingsville and Ford City Community Gardens. Steve Green was the chief organizer of the tour. Next week Community Gardens on Municipal Property comes up as new Parks policy at City of Windsor Environment, Transportation & Public Safety Standing Committee. People should consider attending to support this initiative. Willistead Park could benefit from a small area set aside for this. That would gel nice with the potential formation of a Willistead Park Stewardship Committee that I have spoken about since last Fall. Community gardens come in all shapes, sizes and level of activities. Naturalized Garden areas like U of W to geometric like in Kingsville to looser, more idiosyncratic like Ford City. All of them involved flowering plants, fruit trees and bushes as well as vegetables and herbs. I have studied landscape architecture history from around the world to know that there could be a good fit at Willistead Park. This could accent the heritage of the Manor House setting and serve as a community builder. Even at the last Willistead Board meeting, Stephen Marshall reiterated that the Willistead Board does not have purview over the Park (despite giving influential advise without consulting the general public on the asphalt paths). A potential Community garden offers a starting point to the formation of a larger Stewardship Committee for Willistead Park. City Parks is now reviewing and grading which Parks are suitable for Community gardens. I hope that Willisteads perceived formality does not disclude it from consideration of a potential small community garden or due to its recent past of imposed pathways. Some of the greatest gardens of Europe were formal. A very interesting community design could emerge at Willistead Park. Willistead Park did have its own Greenhouse in the past and the unused Gatehouse used to be the Gardiners Cottage. This is an opportunity to be up front now at Council and extend some democracy.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 17:02:39 +0000
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