The Farmers on 57th Project

There is a big, beautiful garden project underway at the George Pearson Centre.

The Community And Residents Mentors Association (CARMA) and Farmers on 57th have come together to create tabletop wheelchair accessible garden plots for Pearson residents, community garden plots, a fruit orchard, a small farm, and vegetable and garden plots that will supply organic food to Pearson Centre and sell produce and flowers at the nearby farmer's market.
 
The 140 residents at the George Pearson Centre are taking an active role in garden design, gardening, meeting fellow gardeners, and building healthy and abundant ecosystems. 

 
The mandate of the Farmers on 57th project is multifold:

• to bring meaning, exercise and beauty into Pearson residents’ lives
• to create productive organic gardens which will supply food to Pearson Centre,
• to bring food to the local community via an existing farmer’s market,
• to involve and educate neighbours, residents, and nearby students about food growing and issues of food security, and
• to support new farmers and integrate productive agricultural spaces into urban settings. 

We hope to inspire other locations to follow our lead.
 
To see more pictures of the gardens, please download the Farmers on 57th newsletter. 

Read below the July 31/09 Vancouver Courier article, "Community garden continues to grow."

Thank you Vancity!

Community garden continues to grow

Gardening an outlet for George Pearson residents
Sandra Thomas, Vancouver Courier
Published: Friday, July 31, 2009

On Wednesday afternoon Joy Kgellbotn proudly showed off her tabletop garden at the George Pearson Centre on West 57th Avenue.

The 67-year-old's garden is full of edibles, including beets, carrots, kale, spinach and radishes. "Joy" is painted on the wooden side of the garden and a smiling ceramic bug peaks out from behind green vegetable leaves.

"I've been eating little bits," said Kgellbotn. "But I shared the broccoli."

View Larger Image Joy Kgellbotn displays her tabletop garden at the George Pearson Centre on West 57th Avenue. Kgellbotn is a quadriplegic who's lived at the centre for almost 40 years. The George Pearson Centre is a home for adults who need specialized assistance due to severe disabilities from
illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries. Kgellbotn contracted polio as a young woman and is confined to a wheelchair and breathes with a ventilator. Her disabilities don't stop her from working the small garden, with some assistance. "I like to come out here in the evenings when it's cool," she said.

Kgellbotn's tiny garden plot is part of a new community garden launched at the centre this year. The project is the brainchild of documentary filmmaker Jen Rashleigh, who was riding her bicycle past the centre last year when she was inspired to start the garden.

Her goal was to centre the garden around George Pearson residents and then
expand it to include members of the nearby community. Rashleigh approached Pearson with her idea and applied for and received funding from Vancity, TD Canada Trust and Vancouver Coastal Health.

The success of the project was evident Wednesday when the residents hosted a garden party to display their efforts. Rashleigh said the first vegetables to be harvested were radishes.

"The residents were giddy, it was like a party," said Rashleigh. "The garden has brought them such a sense of accomplishment and sharing."

Rashleigh said the project is so popular she's spotted staff members from the centre helping out on their days off.

"A long-time staff member recently retired and they had a big party for  her," said Rashleigh. "But then she was back the next day working in the garden."

Heather Morrison is a CARMA project leader who visits George Pearson every
Tuesday for garden day.

A quadriplegic due to muscular dystrophy, Morrison said she was taken to George Pearson "kicking and screaming" in the early 1980s. After spending two years at the centre, she bought a townhouse in Ladner where she lives alone with 24-hour assistance.

"I've been on a ventilator for 28 years and I'm totally dependent on this machine to breathe," said Morrison, who has a plot in the garden. "But what I do is show people who are here because of accident or illness that life isn't over. This garden shows them they're still part of the community and
that they have something in common with the other gardeners."

© Vancouver Courier 2009