Branching Out: Examining the Possibilities and Challenges of Community Garden Expansion
Abstract
The North Central Community Gardens (NCCG) – the urban agriculture program of the
North Central Community Association (NCCA) in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada – introduced
the Branch Out Project (BOP) in the summer of 2020. After several years of conversations with
community members and discussions among NCCA staff, BOP was designed as a participatory
action research project that would promote the expansion of the NCCG into residents’ yards and
schoolgrounds as well as facilitate research on the practical and theoretical implications of this
initiative. Amidst the many regulations, upheavals to local and global economies, and disruptions
of social and cultural lives brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, BOP resulted in the
construction of eight new gardens: six in residents’ yards and two on schoolgrounds. Findings
from an initial interest survey of NCCG participants (N=21) are presented here, in addition to
conclusions from post-season interviews with BOP participants (N=8). By analyzing the survey
and interview findings, I aimed to address the question: what are the opportunities for,
possibilities of, and challenges to the expansion of community gardening in urban spaces under
neoliberal capitalism? Four key themes emerge from this investigation: consumption,
community, capacity, and control. Applying the extended case method to BOP, I situate these
themes within the food justice and food sovereignty literature to understand community garden
expansion as a counter-neoliberal, anti-capitalist response to crisis. I argue that BOP, and similar
initiatives, have the potential to provide a radical grassroots alternative food system, but that
challenges of land access, funding, and power remain.