Growing Food and Connecting Neighbours

Meet Edmonds neighbourhood residents, Sonya Govahi and Luci Baja, who were successfully matched through the Sharing Backyards Burnaby project!

Sharing Backyards is a program that links people in Burnaby with under-used yard space with those looking for a place to grow food.

Sonya is an experienced gardener who missed having the abundance of fresh fruit and veggies that she used to grow in her family’s garden in Iran. Now living in an apartment in Burnaby, with only a small balcony, she was looking for garden space -- so she contacted us about the Sharing Backyards program!

 

Homeowner Luci contacted Sharing Backyards because she had extra yard space that she wasn’t using, and she knew that many others in Burnaby didn’t have any yard or garden of their own.

Once both Luci and Sonya had contacted Burnaby Food First, the Sharing Backyards coordinator suggested a meeting between the two be set up since both women live in the same neighbourhood.

Luci and Sonya were eager to meet, and the program coordinator facilitated the first ‘ face-to-face introduction’.

Luci and Sonya made up their own gardener-homeowner agreement. There are no set rules to doing this -- but there are a few suggested guidelines. Sonya wanted to share the harvest with Luci, and Luci offered Sonya access to the compost bin, spare pots, and garden hose for watering. It was mutually agreed that Sonya could come and go to the garden as she pleased, but had to let Luci know when she would be there.

Luci and Sonya received some seeds and starters from Sharing Backyards Burnaby to help them get their food garden started. They planted strawberries, herbs, kale, beans, and tomatoes. Their shared garden is now well underway!

Want to find out more about Sharing Backyards? Interested in joining the program or know someone who would? For more details, check out our Sharing Backyards page or contact us for more information.