Backyard Bounty

Peri-Urban Farm

The Peri-Urban Farm project is a collaborative effort between individuals, organizations and businesses within the community of Guelph and was conceived for the purpose of learning how transition land near city centers can be used to produce food for urban dwellers and in turn, how it serves to strengthen and build more sustainable communities.  Developers Mike Watt and Terry Ellery of Biltmore Homes own 45 acres of property behind the Salvation Army, on the corner of Gordon and Arkell, the majority of which is wetland space where development is restricted.  The remaining land is residential property.  Of this transition land, 4.5 acres has been donated to multiple stakeholders, including Backyard Bounty, for the purpose of creating an organic farming project.  Transition land is space reserved for residential construction in future years but that presently remains unused.

The gardens established on the site were created and are maintained by three groups – Backyard Bounty, Salvation Army and Future Watch.  While espousing their own unique goals and objectives for the project, our partnership involves knowledge and resource sharing as well as organizing and executing community outreach initiatives, such Master Gardener lectures and canning workshops.   The weekly harvests throughout the growing season are shared and each partner decides how their share of the produce will be allocated, whether it is to farmers markets, CSA and garden box pick-ups or food banks.  Each partner has targeted specific demographics to whom their share of the produce is distributed, as such a broad spectrum of community members whose access to fresh, local and organically grown produce becomes enhanced – from newcomers to low-income families to community members who are physically removed from the downtown core.  The urban farming project aims to feed the urban community and holds that everyone has a right to healthy eating.

While gardening is the principle focus on the farm, there are other initiatives underway, notably Urban Circle Living’s chicken tractor project.  Project leader Elisa Cooper and company are in the process of designing and building mobile chicken coops that serve to create tilled and fertilized land using chicken energy, so to speak.  The chickens feed on and thus dig up grassy spaces that become ready for gardening.  Not only are these chickens doing work for the farmer or grower, they are also laying fresh eggs for human consumption.  Talk about sustainable animal husbandry practices! The goal of the project is to develop a replicable chicken tractor that can be sold to residents of Guelph who are interested in raising their own chickens in their backyards.