A vision for a community garden as a place of healing

When Trent Stokes came back from vacation, he arrived to a scene that he describes as uprooted plants and vandalized plots at Fort Smith’s community garden.

Some produce grown at the garden is earmarked for donation to the local food bank and church.

Stokes, the garden’s agriculture technician, said he found multiple plots damaged, food strewn across the ground, plants tossed around, and branches bent and broken.

Destruction was spread between plots dedicated to donation and research as well as some private plots tended by residents. Stokes believes the damage occurred last weekend.

One resident had a habanero plant uprooted and tossed from their plot, with peppers hanging on the plant. Six heads of cabbage were destroyed from the community plot, while flowers were snapped at the stems, Stokes said. Carrots were pulled from the ground and dropped.

He believes the destruction was no accident, nor an animal attack, pointing to examples of food was destroyed but not eaten.

“It’s depressing, but it’s something that I’m here to work on now,” said Stokes.

“They never grew a plant, harvested food, and put it on their plate and then ate it. When somebody does that, they recognize the amount of work that goes into it.”

‘Say it without destruction’

Stokes said he would have preferred people take the food rather than leave it to rot.

“Maybe they come and eat here — that doesn’t bug me. It’s just the sheer destruction that they leave behind,” he said.

“I’m about ready to even call one plot, to grow the heck out of it, and say: hey, if you want to destroy something – or eat and destroy something – come and do that here.“

The vandalism doesn’t seem targeted, which leaves Stokes wondering why it happened in the first place.

While the incident was upsetting, Stokes says he believes it is a symptom of larger issues in the community.

Now, he’s trying to make sense of it. He believes there’s potential to utilize the garden as a place of healing for residents living with the trauma of colonization through residential school and other assimilation tactics.

St Joseph’s Cathedral and Fort Smith’s health centre are connected by a path that winds through the community garden, located near the centre of town. Stokes wonders if this could be a trigger for some Indigenous residents.

“Instead of this place being a wart in the middle of town that is stabbing the hearts of people that are affected by it, we should grow from it,” said Stokes. “It can be a place of healing.”

He wants feedback on ways to make the space accessible.

“There’s no need for silence and destruction,” he said. “You can come forward and talk.”

Food for thought

This season still has its successes. A 30-foot row of potatoes will be donated to the local food bank along with onions, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, corn and cabbage.

Stokes says while the community garden is a fair size, he wants to see it grow even bigger.

“We want to give back as best as we can,” Stokes said. “If people could start coming through here, using it as they want without destroying it, that would be something else. It would be awesome.”

Stokes says he has been inspired by food growing in private plots nearby, where gardeners are growing lettuce, radicchio, flowers for bouquets and more.

He wants to hear from gardeners on how things can improve.

“If there’s people having success at their gardens – even if it’s pests, rodents or foxes or what have you, if they are not having those issues in their gardens – maybe we can implement them,” said Stokes.

“I need to get everybody together and say: hey, what’s the next approach?”

Stokes says gardening has been a source of healing in his life and has the potential to be so on a community scale.

“It’s a sanctuary, it’s quiet, it’s huge. There’s lots of life thriving where a lot of people put a lot of hard work into,” Stokes said.

“When you see people putting in their hard work to pull life from nothing, from dirt, it’s rewarding, and we all get to share in it.”