Free veggies? Charlottetown wants residents to help themselves

The City of Charlottetown is encouraging residents to help themselves to free vegetables at 21 large planters around the city.

There are 11 planters near the ball fields in Victoria Parkand there are others in Orlebar Park, Desbrisay Park, J. Frank MacAulay Park, and Joe Ghiz Park.

Come on down and share the wealth. Coun. Terry MacLeod

"The idea is to tie the community in and promote local food and how to harvest it," said Ward 2 Coun.Terry MacLeod, who chairs the city's environment and sustainability committee.

The city spends about $500 per year on the planters, which are cared for by city horticulture staff.

MacLeod saidthere are alsogroups or volunteers who helpwith the planting, helping to keep the annual costs minimal.

'Bit of lettuce for supper'

The response from residents has been overwhelming, MacLeod said.

"There's a lineup now, everyone wants thesevegetable planters," he said. "We're just getting it out now that this is really good."

MacLeodsaid he enjoys watching residents helpthemselves tofood from the planters.

People coming to the ballpark to watch their children play ball notice the planters and have begun enjoying them, he said.

"While they're doing that, they're heading up to the planters andpicking out a bit of lettuce for supper."

'Great community involvement project'

MacLeod saidthere was initially some vandalism, with plants being pulled out and garbage left inplanters.

Butcity staff just kept replanting them and nowmost of the boxes arewell cared for.

"The city does a lovely job of watering andhelping to educate the folks, but at the end of the day someone's got to take some ownership of it, so I think it's a great community involvement project."

There are three planters at Frank MacAulay Park in MacLeod's ward, built with the help of the Lions Club.

The green space in the area has lots of apartment buildings surrounding it.

"We're providing places for people that aren't fortunate enough to be able to have the space or knowledge to grow this stuff," MacLeod said.

Free harvest

Brenda Whiteway rents a plotfor a small annual fee in the Debrisay community garden, where the city has added planters of free vegetables. Right now there are carrots andradishes to harvest, with eggplant and turnips that will mature later.

"We're not encouraging people to come and harvest our plots we've put a lot of work into them," Whiteway said. "But the community plots down at the very end are available and they're accessible and available to the public."

Whiteway is pleasedthe city offers the public planters.

"I think it's wonderful because the city will come, they water them, they plant them," Whiteway said.

"If you're walking by and you think, 'Oh my goodness, I need a salad for supper, I need some greens in my diet,' well there they are."

Spread the word

Whiteway added the variety of vegetables in the planters is "incredible" but would like to see more people using them.

"I've seen a few people harvesting I think that they could be used more," Whiteway said.

"I think if people were perhaps more aware of them, there'd be more of a harvesting happening but there are a few people that are aware of them."

Fruit and nuts

The city also now offers fruits and nuts for the public to gather seasonally.

The city planted edible orchards in Windsor Park, Desbrisay Park, and Orlebar Park through funding from Tree Canada's Edible Tree program.

The city has just posted a series of recipesonline that use the free ingredients from local parks.

Threemore veggie planters are planned forWindsor Park in 2020.

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