Growing Things next to the Road?

Just Food have a campaign to allow food growing on city boulevards.

It would allow food plants to be grown on right-of-way boulevards. These areas are the city-owned strips of land that encroach on most city residential front lawns (near a curb or sidewalk) it also includes verge gardens between the sidewalk and the road.

[Illustration of road and houses, showing where the boulevard goes]

Last Thursday the city’s public works and infrastructure committee voted in favour of changing the bylaw to allow growing food on these pieces of land.

A final vote on the bylaw will go to full council next month.

The city’s take on it can be found here: https://engage.ottawa.ca/residential-boulevard-gardening. Just Food have a few changes they’d like to see: https://justfood.ca/bylawupdates – Just Food wants a greater variety of plants while still keeping visibility for road users.

If you either support or oppose the bylaw you can contact Jeff Leiper as soon as possible before the vote goes goes before city council.

One thought on “Growing Things next to the Road?”

  1. The Just Food people report:

    Ottawa City Council officially passed the Residential Boulevard Gardening Bylaw this morning!

    We can now:

    • Grow food directly in the soil on residential boulevards—no permits required
    • Build raised garden beds (up to 45 cm high) to improve soil quality and safety
    • Use movable containers during the growing season
    • Replace turf grass with low-growing ground covers—even near fire hydrants and trees

    They’ll be posting more at https://justfood.ca/community-gardening-network/ including best practices for gardening there (like not digging up wires).

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