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 Vision:

We envision an Ottawa

• that utilizes public urban green spaces for food production;
• that integrates food production into its public landscaping; and
• that leads by example and adopts an ‘edible planting strategy’ at City Hall.

Policy Recommendations:

In order to increase food security in Ottawa and strengthen the biodiversity of Ottawa’s green spaces, it is recommended that the City of Ottawa:

1.  Initiate a pilot project and test area for an edible planting strategy on public lands[1] by establishing formal partnerships between the City and interested community groups to develop planting options, maintenance and harvesting strategies, as well as food allocation protocols.
1. This will foster stewardship through citizen participation in the development of edible landscapes on public land and provide new educational, social and recreational opportunities for citizens.       .
2. Shift line items in existing landscaping budgets towards edible planting strategies such as:
1. Gradual integration and/or replacement of ornamental plants with food-producing plants on municipal public lands.
2.  Replacement of dead, dying and diseased trees with food-producing trees, such as fruit trees, nut trees and maple trees[2].
3. The use of native and non-invasive species should be favoured over exotic, foreign species that may require more maintenance and/or horticultural inputs.
4. When community groups are involved in maintenance and harvesting, their input on variety choice – for example, varieties that have higher yields – should take precedence over other considerations. When community groups are not involved in maintenance and harvesting, edible species that require less maintenance may be favoured[3].                                                                                    .
3. Work together with the Community Gardening Network at Just Food to actively promote edible landscaping to private businesses, households, and other institutions.

The Role of Businesses, Community Organizations, and Individuals – What You Can Do:

• Learn more about the types of plants that are edible and how you can use them.
• If there are edible plants at your home, workplace, or community organization that are not being used, connect with a community group that is interested in harvesting and using the produce.
• If you are planning landscapes for a new garden, park, housing development, or other greenspace, use edible species where possible.

See Also:

• Community Gardening on NCC Lands for NCC inclusion in edible landscaping initiatives.

Pertains to:

• Ottawa 20/20: Section 2.3 “A Green and Environmentally-Sensitive City” that strengthens ecosystems planning and designs
• Choosing Our Future (City of Ottawa, City of Gatineau, NCC): “Challenges for the 21^st Century” and “Future Implications,” specifically land-use planning and ‘whole-systems’ approaches.
• NCC as the crown corporation that is responsible for maintaining public green spaces
• Ottawa Forests & Greenspace Advisory Committee which advises City Council on issues related to urban trees and forests

Rationale:

Benefits

The term “edible landscapes” refers to the use of edible plants (fruits, vegetables, nuts, and herbs) that replace ornamental plants, are planted alongside decorative plants, and/or populate public barren areas. Edible landscapes are typically found along boulevards, in public parks, and at City Hall and, unlike community gardens, would be open to the public or specific community groups that have an agreement with the City for the harvest.

The benefits of edible landscapes are numerous and include:

• connecting local citizens to natural food systems;
• education about the plant life cycle and new sources of food, in particular among youth;
• community building and a sense of public/communal land stewardship;
• social and recreational opportunities for local citizens who partake in the growing, harvesting, and eating of edible plants;
• access to food sources that are not readily available in grocery stores for all income levels;
• opportunities to grow food without the use of pesticides;
• reductions to the ecological footprint of the food system by providing locally-grown food sources;
• enhancing the aesthetic value of the landscape;
• enhanced local biodiversity;
• value-added landscaped areas that create profit-generating or income-supplementing products.

Transforming Ottawa’s ornamental public green spaces into edible landscapes through partnerships with local stakeholders demonstrates support for environmental and social stewardship and represents an investment in a just and sustainable future for Canada’s capital. While the recommendations outlined above offer simple, practical and achievable initiatives for developing the City of Ottawa into an edible landscape, it is essential that policy be developed to enable and support such endeavours.

Gaps

Food production and ecological health are inextricably related; edible landscapes would expand the biodiversity of the City of Ottawa creating landscapes that are more robust and adaptable to changing conditions, while also creating a local food supply.

There are several key documents that influence land-use policy decisions at City Hall, such as Ottawa 20/20 and Choosing our Future. Long-term environmental health and ecological resiliency appear as a core value in a number of places, and local food production is mentioned as a core strategy. However, Ottawa currently lacks a mechanism for enabling edible landscaping. In fact, municipal bylaws[4] stipulate that parts of trees and plants cannot be removed from City of Ottawa parks and facilities. These bylaws would require revision in order to permit access to the products of edible plants in designated areas for the purposes of harvesting produce.

Additional gaps with regard to local food security include a lack of available community gardens to meet the demand[5] and a decline in traditional environmental knowledge necessary to sustain a food-producing garden for an entire season[6]. While edible landscaping itself will not compensate for these gaps, it does help to address some of the concerns through 1) providing an additional local food source for residents and visitors, and 2) educating people about the diversity of food sources and providing local food to those who either don’t have the gardening skills or interest to produce their own food.

Placement

Edible landscaping can be incorporated as part of most landscaped areas but may be most appropriate for areas that are easily accessible for harvesting, and protected from potential contamination.

Liability of Edible Landscapes

The liability issues raised by introducing edible landscapes could be addressed by the already-established processes and procedures in place that address liability concerns on public lands. Similarly, the liability processes in place for the Community Gardens in Ottawa could be expanded to include edible landscapes on public land. Of possible concern is the application of common law nuisance principles to municipalities due to undesired encroaching plants[7]. Also of concern is the risk of injury to volunteers harvesting food. The liability of volunteers falling from ladders or slipping on rotten fruit might be mitigated by having volunteers sign a waiver form. These are issues that would require further examination.

Appendix K1 – What’s currently happening in the national-capital region?

Currently, the City of Ottawa has a number of sugar maples, crab apples and other fruit trees scattered around the city on public lands, however these trees were not planted with the explicit intention of community harvesting. While harvesting maple syrup may not be a top priority, it illustrates nonetheless the variety of food-producing species that inhabit the nation’s capital. Additionally, there is wild garlic growing in Gatineau Park, however, because the space is managed by the NCC and considered a vulnerable species, the garlic is not open for commercial harvest[8].

Tree Planting Programs

The City of Ottawa offers a Community Tree Planting Grant Program for schoolyard greening, city parks and green space rehabilitation, and for greening on non-city owned (private) property. However, only two tree species, the Turkish Hazelnut and Crabapple tree, are considered ‘food producing’ amongst the list of available tree species[9]. The full list of tree species that qualify for this program is included as Appendix K1 – City of Ottawa Forestry Services.

Adopt a Park Program

The City of Ottawa offers an “Adopt a Park” program, which encourages care and maintenance of public spaces by individuals or community groups. Since the program’s establishment in 1998, 120 parks have been adopted. However, this program does not allow for citizens to improve parks and green spaces through planning and design. Instead, groups merely maintain the adopted space as it currently exists.

Community Initiatives

The Community Harvest Ontario program in Ottawa, and initiative of the Ottawa Food Bank, connects farmers, volunteers and food banks to provide local, fresh and healthy food to Ottawa residents in need. The program organizes volunteer groups to collect edible food remaining in farmers’ fields after the commercial harvest season. This process is known as gleaning. The produce that volunteers pick is then distributed to local food banks. In Ottawa, several local farms have hosted gleaning events yielding thousands of pounds of fruit and vegetables to the Ottawa Food Bank.

Gleaning can also be done in an urban context. Projects like Toronto’s Not Far from the Tree, Edmonton’s Operation Fruit Rescue and Richmond’s Tree Fruit Sharing Projectare examples of urban gleaning where volunteers connect with homeowners and the city to collect surplus fruit. Volunteers mobilize to harvest the bounty and divide it equally between homeowner, volunteers and food banks. Many Ottawa properties support bountiful fruit and nut trees that might be integrated into a city-wide gleaning project, and there are currently gleaning projects in the planning stages[10].

Appendix K2 – Evidence/Precedent

Although there are no examples from within Ottawa of an ‘edible planting strategy’, there are a number of other jurisdictions that support edible landscapes at the municipal level.

Municipalities

• The City of Victoria is currently reviewing and developing the Urban Forest Master Plan, aimed at strategies to invest in, and maintain Victoria’s 40,000 trees.  There was significant public support for food-bearing trees at public consultation sessions. Section 4.3.2 proposes investigating the planting of fruit and nut bearing varieties in public spaces. Additionally, the City of Victoria is reviewing its Parks Master Plan with an eye on edible landscaping and community gardens on public lands[11].

• The City of Victoria has 2 community commons with edible landscapes (in addition to its community gardens, school gardens, farmers’ markets, rooftop gardens, etc.) as a component of its Urban Agriculture Resolution. The two communities that incorporate edible landscapes are the Haultain commons and the Springridge commons.

• Additionally, the City of Victoria replanted the gardens at City Hall with food-producing plants first in 2009 and again in 2010 with active participation of the community. These “demonstration gardens” are maintained and harvested by the community group LifeCycles Project Society.

• Neighbourhood Greenways program in Vancouver, BC encourages citizens to organize and propose ‘green’ plans for corridors that connect public spaces. The City provides assistance in the design, development and construction of Neighbourhood Greenways, however, the community is expected to take the lead and to maintain the space once completed. Aspects of the Neighbourhood Greenway project include pathways, lighting, public art, and food-producing gardens. Proposals are submitted to the Greenways Branch of the City’s Engineering Services.

Not-for-Profit & Community Organizations:

• Not Far From the Tree is a volunteer group that harvests urban fruit in Toronto and gives 1/3 to food banks, 1/3 to private homeowners, and 1/3 to volunteer pickers. When it began in 2008 the group harvested 3,000lbs of fruit from 40 trees with the help of 150 volunteers. In 2010, the group harvested over 19,000lbs pounds of fruit from 228 different trees thanks to over 700 volunteers and 8 staff members. In 2010, the harvested produce was shared with over 25 different social service agencies that reached over 8,000 clients.

• Volunteers and researchers from Santropol Roulant, Alternatives, and the Minimum Cost Housing Group of McGill University’s School of Architecture developed the guide, Making the Edible Campus, which details their efforts and successes in integrating edible landscaping and container gardening into the built environment at McGill University.

 

Appendix K3 – City of Ottawa Forestry Services

City of Ottawa Forestry Services – Recommended Tree Species for the Ottawa Area

Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee – Ottawa Native Trees and Shrubs Database.

 

Appendix K4 – Edible Landscaping Plants

Short reference summary of some potential edible plant species that can be used for landscaping purposes – See Appendix A (p. 10) of City of Vancouver Urban Agriculture Guidelines.