The Super Jardin community garden is free to be tended after administrators tended to its health by testing for toxins. (Photo: Martin Alarie)
Taking stock of St. Laurent community gardens
No secrets in the weeds
St. Laurent community gardens, not content to just be tended by their occupants, have been given the once-over by the Montreal Director of Public Health. Generally, the fruit of these analyses indicates good health, but there are exceptions to every rule – which is where precautionary measures come into play. Three community gardens have been checked and are safe; the borough is still waiting on results for two more.
Having a secret garden is great, but having secrets kept from you regarding said gardens is less healthy. Earlier in the summer, reports that one out of every ten Montreal community gardens were closed due to contamination, as decided by the Director of Public Health.
St. Laurent managed to squeeze through the net, as no local gardens were deemed contaminated enough to be closed. That notion was echoed when administrators examined the reports from the Hartenstein, Noël-Nord and Super Jardin (behind CEGEP St. Laurent) gardens.
The studies, whose results came back in May, have reassured community-garden users. The concentration of heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons (HP) and aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons (PHB’s) were considered too low to be dangerous.
"The borough decided to advance the tests. There are very few doubts about the St. Laurent community gardens, because most of them were fields before we were using them," said Denis Roy, who oversees arenas and outdoor structures for the borough. "Most of the tests were done on the surface, near where the gardeners garden. In the alleys, we dig down deep, about ten feet deep, and that's how we get samples from many levels."
Cultivating doubt
Community gardens across the borough didn't all pass muster with the Department of Public Health. Results of tests run at Alexis-Nihon and St. Laurent community gardens are anxiously awaited by borough administrators.
Not everything is coming up roses at Cardinal community garden, the sixth one tested. Tests revealed "problematic" sectors in the garden, Roy admitted. A nearby metro vent can be blamed for some of the complications, but happily that problem was nipped in the bud. Raised containers were put in the garden, allowing horticulturists to tend to their plants without putting their hands in the potentially-contaminated soil. Areas where the soil is risky will be used only for grass and flowers.
Safe passages
The aptly-named Super Jardin can be considered a good example. Created in 1995, it sits between CEGEP St. Laurent and the Ste. Croix cemetery. A quarry once sat on the northwest corner of the site, but was closed in 1969. The borough was also apprehensive about the proximity of the rail lines, where dangerous materials were transported and occasionally spilled.
None of that worries Rosie, who has shared space in the Super Jardin community garden for the last few months.
The retired translator, after having cultivated six languages around the world, is now in the business of cultivating plants and vegetables.
"I'm not especially worried. I don't see anything toxic around here. We've already eaten the fruits of our labours, so to speak, without any worries," she said.
It's an attitude shared by the 195 St. Laurent community gardeners that use the six gardens in the borough. Waiting lists grow longer every day, and original ideas are taking root, like at Benoit Place, where a group of citizens has learned to love gardening in raised containers. It's still a good time to take advantage of the summer sun to taste fruits and vegetables that contain more vitamins than toxins.
Translated by Marc Lalonde
The six community gardens
- Hartenstein,
- Noël-Nord
- Super Jardin
- Alexis-Nihon
- Saint-Laurent
- Cardinal
Météo: Montréal, 6 juillet 2008 / 20°C
/ Généralement ensoleillé
/ Vents: 15 Km/h / Humidité relative: 60 % 
par Sylvain Sarrazin 
Steven Guilbeault - 
