In Saturday’s long shadow of Occupy Nova Scotia a small community event celebrates a new community-operated four-season greenhouse in the middle of a parking lot.
The greenhouse, sitting over two spaces in the old Bloomfield school parking lot on Almon, is a joint project of Ecology Action Centre and Imagine Bloomfield and is the latest venture in an urban agriculture movement that has seen more than a dozen community gardens blooming in Halifax. But organizers say that until now Halifax has lacked an accessible greenhouse for year-round growing in a harsh climate.
“There are a few greenhouses around town but a lot of them aren’t really accessible to community members or community gardens and that is a pretty big gap here in Halifax,” says Garity Chapman, Ecology Action Centre’s urban garden coordinator.
The greenhouse is membership-based and has five member plots, plus one space reserved for EAC staffer Rebecca Singer, who will grow native plants for community gardens throughout Halifax Regional Municipality.
Members Anita Price, who is sharing a plot with her sister-in-law, Angela Day, a long-time gardener, Lindsay Garrett and Melissa Dean are on hand to celebrate and all express great excitement at the prospect of gardening year-round. Garrett cuts the official ribbon draped over the polygal glazed front glass, which faces south for maximum sunlight exposure.
The building is designed and built by Full Cycle Builders, which specializes in sustainable energy and materials. Owner Zak Miller says the building is “completely off-grid,” using solar panels and high-efficiency insulation to jack today’s greenhouse temperature to 25 Celsius at the floor – the coolest part of the building. [By comparison, air temperature is listed at 15 Celsius outside.]
“It’s using solar design principles that lets the heat from the sun in and keeps it inside the building to use it for the space heating or hot water,” Miller says. “What you see here is a huge glazing wall and the sun just pounds in and once it’s here we keep it inside.”
He estimates the building has a very high R-value (measuring thermal resistance). “The floor and the roof and all the interior walls have about an R 35 to an R 45 insulation value.” He describes several other efficiency features including photovoltaic solar panels, an in-floor heating system, re-used bricks courtesy of Shaw Bricks, Nova Scotia slate, and recycled wood from an old barn in Amherst.
Miller says that the greenhouse is designed to be independent of city power sources, and could easily be replicated in other locations. “It can really be transported anywhere in the city and function. It’s a functioning machine," he says.
The building is designed largely to heat the roots of the plants. Even if the temperature inside drops to five or 10 degrees, the roots will stay warm enough to keep plants growing all year. And that’s a major bonus for people concerned with reducing their food miles.
Food security
Chapman says the greenhouse is part of a bigger plan to improve Halifax’s food security. “It was something that was part of my five to ten year vision of what I thought Halifax could really use, which was part and parcel of … community food centres, the basis for mid to large-scale composting, greenhouses, places to be able to teach and learn and access food and learn about food and grow food.”
Councillor Jennifer Watts points to the greenhouse as an example that can be followed as Halifax experiments with low-carbon food systems. “This is a shining example of looking at an urban situation and how we can be involved in producing our own food and sharing it within the community. It’s such an important statement at this time in the life of our community to have this greenhouse here producing food.”
First growth in Imagine Bloomfield
Susanna Fuller, speaking for Imagine Bloomfield, emphasizes that the greenhouse is also part of a long-term community-driven planning exercise to create a hub of sustainable development and activity around the once-neglected Bloomfield School. She thanks a diversity of funding bodies, city councillors and Halifax MP Megan Leslie, who also attended the opening.
“I’m excited because it’s the first building on the new redevelopment of the Bloomfield Centre,” Fuller says to a round of applause. “It sets the tone around community involvement and local food.”
Councillor Jerry Blumenthal emphasizes that the building is also part of the lauded Imagine Bloomfield process, which has created a plan for a North End hub of development and activity. “This was a project that is part of a big, big project that Susanna [Fuller] and Imagine Bloomfield have been working on for years to turn this into an arts and cultural centre … it’ll pay for itself, with condos and town homes and affordable housing. We get a chance to have a centerpiece in the north end.”
For the moment, though, funding comes from the city, the province and a community health board. Ecology Action Centre owns the building and rents the two parking spaces for the greenhouse from the city.
Planting will start next week. “If they plant radishes we’re harvesting in a month,” Chapman says with an excited smile.
The greenhouse is open to the community and the public is welcome to drop by for a look.
Chris Benjamin is a freelancer in Halifax.
