Urban agriculture tour highlights some of Saskatoon’s creative gardeners

Some of Saskatoon’s inspiring urban agriculture projects in backyards, boulevards, and even parking lots were on display on Saturday.

The second annual Urban Agriculture Tour was made up of ten stops around the city, covering topics such as permaculture, hot composting, and container gardening.

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One of the stops was Liz James’s parking lot garden.

When James moved into her apartment she was given two parking spots, but the Saskatoon resident didn’t have a car.

“Moving here into the apartment, losing garden space was the one thing that made me really sad. I’m not actually an expert gardener. I had only gardened one summer before, but I had been so excited about it. So moving into an apartment, I thought, oh I won’t be able to do that anymore,” said James.

It didn’t take long for James to notice her neighbours had set up a garden in their parking lot spaces, which inspired her to do the same.

James has multiple portable wooden boxes, which are filled with a variety of things including basil, tomatoes and flowers.

“I didn’t expect how good a feeling that would be, to walk out and just grab your lunch, or grab a few strawberries in the morning to put on your oatmeal. I found that to be a really meaningful experience,” explained James.

“What’s really underlying all of this is that kind of hunger that people have to grow some of their own food and to be connected to food,” said Gord Enns, executive director of the Saskatoon Food Council.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "What's really underlying all of this is that kind of hunger that people have to grow some of their own food and to be connected to food," said Gord Enns, executive director of the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/tag/saskatoon-food-council/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Saskatoon Food Council</a>.

The council, along with CHEP Good Food, organized the free tour together to teach people more about growing their own food in the city.

“People are really interested to grow a bit of your own food, whether it’s a basil plant, or it’s a tomato plant on your balcony, or a full-on garden, it’s entirely doable. It often takes seeing what other people are doing and getting excited about that,” said Enns.