Where friendships grow: South Zone Community Garden searches for new roots

For many, the South Zone Community Garden isn’t just where food grows – it’s where friendships, cultures and community take root.

But after nearly four decades on University of Regina land, the garden is preparing for one of the biggest changes in its history.

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“It hadn’t happened for 40 years, so you hoped it wouldn’t happen in the 41st,” said Dale Hjertaas, president of the South Zone Community Garden Board.

Hjertaas said the University of Regina has notified the board that it plans to redevelop the land in the future, and while no final timeline has been set, the organization has already begun searching for a new home for the garden.

Although it came out of the blue, Hjertaas said relocating was always a possibility due to the group’s lease agreement with the university.

“We’ve maintained a financial reserve to cover cleanup costs. It was a known risk – one we hoped wouldn’t happen,” he said.

For Hjertaas, the loss of the site means much more than finding another patch of land. He said the garden has become a place where people from different cultures meet over shared rows of vegetables, exchanging recipes, seeds and stories.

“The Indian family gardening nearby gave me some things to try and some seeds, so I could try growing a vegetable that they grow that I’d never heard of before,” he said.

“I think it helps build social cohesion, and a sense of community as well.”

He said that sense of community extends well beyond the garden gates.

“We have roughly 400 families gardening there, so that’s 400 families that are being less impacted by inflation in food,” he said.

The impact doesn’t stop there. Hjertaas said gardeners also donate surplus produce, providing fresh vegetables to families who need them most.

“Last year, just a little over a ton of food went to the food bank,” Hjertaas said.

Dale Hjertaas said gardeners donated more than a ton of food to the food bank last year. (Dale Hjertaas/Submitted)

Although Hjertaas is optimistic the garden will be able to find a new space, he said finding another suitable location won’t be an easy task.

“We’re a relatively large area. We cover to accommodate 400 garden plots. We have about four and a half hectares, and there aren’t that many sites sitting vacant that are that large,” he explained.

Hjertaas said the garden has begun discussions with SaskBuilds about a possible location near Saskatchewan Polytechnic, while also exploring grants and volunteer support to help cover the relocation costs.

“We’re not sure what it will cost to move, what it costs to put in a new irrigation system. We have equipment sheds we’ll have to move to a new site,” he explained.

“We will need to install new irrigation systems, survey out plots, mark them and probably build a parking area for gardeners.”

He said the City of Regina has already offered its support through a grant program.

Hjertaas said even when a new site is found, gardeners will be leaving decades of work behind.

“A sad thing for many gardeners is losing their soil,” he said.

Hjertaas said many gardeners have spent years hauling in compost and manure to transform Regina’s heavy clay into productive garden beds, and starting over means rebuilding that foundation from scratch.

However, despite needing to relocate, he said the university has indicated that gardeners may still be able to use the current site for another growing season while its redevelopment plans continue, buying valuable time for the garden’s board to find and prepare a new location.

Hjertaas said the garden has always been about more than vegetables. It’s about neighbours meeting neighbours, newcomers finding a community and families sharing the harvest.

“I’ve become good friends with people who I would have never met otherwise,” he said.