Staff, volunteers and nearby residents have been carefully tending the kale, grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers basking in the late-August heat at Coquitlam's Inspiration Garden and neighbouring community garden — and that's where they'd like them to stay.
Signs have sprung up throughout both gardens asking visitors to please leave the produce alone after gardeners noticed the tasty morsels kept going missing.
"A lot of people try to be helpful, they're walking through and they see something is ready and say, 'I'll pick it, nobody else is,'" said Park Spark program co-ordinator Jennifer Urbaniak. "But this is being taken care of, there's a regular harvest and there's a destination for the food."
Since 2010, staff and garden volunteers have harvested everything from potatoes to leeks, cabbage to arugula and basil to melons on a weekly basis. They package it and donate it to the food bank operated by Share Family and Community Services.
Last year, 1,467 lb. of food went to Tri-City families in need. So far this year, more than 1,200 lb. has been donated.
Produce is also going missing from the raised beds that run between the Inspiration Garden and the parking lot, Urbaniak said, an unfortunate occurrence since members of the public have paid to rent the beds and have been carefully tending them since the spring, eagerly anticipating the summer harvests.
"I think it's people not understanding that these plots are rented… by members of the community at a cost," Urbaniak said. "They're paying for the seed to go in, they're seeing them raised up since April or May and then somebody walks by and takes it. They don't realize that members of the community are putting in lots and lots of time to see it raised up."
One possible solution garden staff have considered is developing a sampling garden, where the public can help themselves to a bean or a sprig of mint and, hopefully, leave the community garden — and produce intended for the food bank — alone.
"One of the main functions of the Inspiration Garden is to show people what we can grow here, to inspire people to grow their own food no matter if you have a backyard, a patio garden or a small balcony," Urbaniak said, "and for people to get that reward when the tomato plant finally produces a tomato."
The onions and the apples, the kale and the kohlrabi at the Inspiration Garden and community gardens are being coaxed along with local families and food bank clients eagerly awaiting their harvest, so be sure to drop by for some inspiration — but not your dinner.
[email protected]
@spayneTC
