Community gardens an excellent option for vacant lots

Troubled by the sight of weeds growing out of control across the street from his City Park photography business, Imageryowner Milt Taylor set out to solve the problem and at the same time ended up delivering a gift to the community. Five years ago, Taylor planted a small patch of potatoes on the north edge of the property and donated 250 pounds of potatoes to the Saskatoon Food Bank. This year, Taylor and other food bank volunteers plan to sow food crops on the entire three-acre parcel located between 2nd and 3rd on Duchess. They hope to produce as much as 60,000 pounds of food for the agency that provides food hampers to struggling Saskatoon families.

On Monday, city council approved the use of all vacant lots owned by the city for food production by non-profit organizations.

What a terrific way to utilize some of this vacant land. Doing so provides an opportunity to see these parcels cleaned up and to help those in our community who need it most. I hope that we’ll see community associations embrace this idea and work to organize gardening groups who will share the responsibility.

Read “City frees vacant lots for gardens” from the Star Phoenix here.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra