Green peas, red cabbage and sunshine-coloured flowers burst from community garden plots that flank the parking lot at the Cityview Baptist Church. The plots are so narrow passersby might not even notice them edging the unpaved swathe off East 28th Avenue and Sophia Street, but their modesty belies how the Seed to Sky Garden Club has helped the community flourish since neighbours nurtured it in 2007.
Shamir Bhatia and Surrinder Bring belonged to the Delta Diggers Garden Club but found nothing of its ilk when they moved to Vancouver, so these members of the Riley Park/South Cambie CityPlan Visions Steering Commit-tee searched long and hard for a regular monthly meeting space, according to Seed to Sky event co-coordinator Chris-tel Nierobisch. A neighbour connected them to the Baptist Church and now Seed to Sky meets there monthly, gives produce to the church's hot lunch program and helps maintain the property's landscaping.
Only eight people attended the club's first meeting in 2007, but now 70 people pay the $10 annual membership fee. "It's the best 10 bucks you can spend if you're interested in plants," Nierobisch said.
"We not only have our joy of gardening in common but we have our neighbourhood in common," she said. "Most of those 70 people live within walking distance of each other."
The club earned $300 to start by landscaping a plot at the PNE and then secured a small neighbourhood grant from the city. It holds a plant sale before Mother's Day.
Photos from the recent event show throngs of people m ing among green leafs and fronds.
The club uses its income for honorariums for guest speakers at its meetings, typically held on the second Wednesday night of each month. Upcoming sessions include tackling weeds, climbers and vines and hardy blooming cool-season houseplants. Seed to Sky also holds a wreath-making workshop before Christmas.
Members share seeds and create boulevard gardens. They've helped Riley Park Seniors maintain their community garden, the Fraserlands Community Gardening Group plant a passageway along the Fraserview golf course and its members help maintain the Tupper Neighbourhood Greenway.
Nierobisch, a retiree and master gardener, says members range in age, gardening know-how, ethnic background and personal growing space. "It's a neighbourhood club, not club of experts who sit around and try to make one rose look better," she said.
"It's a wonderful example of when two people put their mind to something and get a ball rolling, how something good can come from it with, actually, very little," Niero-bisch said.
Nierobisch and her Seed to Sky friends work to protect green space in the city. She and the club's chair, Selina Pope, opposed the park board's plan to add parking spots to the former site of the Riley Park Community Centre.
Nierobisch likes that the gardening club furthers a sense of service and commitment to the Riley Park community. She said you don't make a neighbourhood livable by merely residing in it.
She also believes you can protest injustices happening in other countries but you can make the biggest difference in your own backyard.
Most of the club members live within blocks of one another, but anyone can join. For more information, email [email protected].
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