Community Gardens / Edible Gardens in Public Parks / Urban Food Forest

Ideas:

Would love to see more community gardens in Fredericton especially in the downtown area. Accessible and visible for all to grow and learn.

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Our city experiences high rates of homelessness and food insecurity. Given that many plants which grow food can be equally beautiful as ornamental plants, I would appreciate seeing the city take up the model used in Seattle's Beacon Food Forest - let's grow more food and less wasteful monoculture with city lands.

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I'd like to see one or more community level food forest/forest gardens to provide for more local food security. I'd also like to see more edible tree crops in the regular urban food forest. Think apple/pears/plums/cherries. Also local Liberty Tree Nursery has some nice hybrid chestnut-blight American/Chinese chestnut trees that would be a great addition to the urban forest as an edible food crop.

Staff Feedback:

We appreciate your input on community gardens. As part the Imagine Fredericton Municipal Plan process, residents told us about the importance of community gardens a number of times. This is why the new Municipal Plan contains a Policy (3.7.1) within Part 3: “Building a Successful City” specifically on Local Food.

(25) Encourage local food production where appropriate by:

i. Supporting the development of community gardens;

ii. Allowing small-scale urban agriculture within the Growth Boundary; and

iii. Promoting larger-scale agriculture in appropriate areas outside of the Growth Boundary.

This new policy will become an on-the-ground reality by working with community stakeholders to develop a locate food strategy, hopefully for the spring of 2021.