The community of Parkdale got a little greener and tastier Saturday.
Volunteers were busy planting around 200 trees, bushes and other plants as part of their food forest.
The Parkdale Community Association was selected by the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation and Tree Canada to receive a $17,400 grant for its 2016 urban forestry program.
Over 140 applications were submitted to the 2016 TD Green Streets Program and the Parkdale Community Association was one of 13 selected to receive a grant.
“Trees are miracles. Trees pump water, they change the microclimate, they change our feelings, they bring health in so many ways not only to people but to the ecology around,” Audrey Smith, a garden designer with the Parkdale Community Garden, said.
Some of the fruit trees planted include apple, cherry and pear, as well as many different types of berries.
“They provide habitat, but food trees are a whole other order of importance because the more we can use our perennial food system – the less reliant we are on outside food and on our annual foods which in Calgary, which we have a short season for,” Smith said.
The funding will support the food forest in Parkdale’s Community Garden; including the establishment of over 17 fruit tree guilds and as a berry plantation supported by irrigation infrastructure, to ensure good establishment of the trees.
“They are amazingly resilient. There are trees that are bred for Calgary, that people say, ‘Really? You can grow pears? You can grow cherries?’ Absolutely! And we are very good at berries,” Smith said.
The forest was included in the plan for the garden from its inception and volunteers have worked for three years on preparing for the final planting.
“Even without the trees, the community comes and visits and meets and talks. It’s a comfortable neutral space for folks to get to know somebody that they might not have a conversation with in any other place,” Smith said about the garden located on 5 Avenue Northwest. “I am just so amazed at the magic that happens when people come together and plant and work. It’s astounding.”
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