Sharing Backyards

Imagine a world where everyone has plentiful access to healthy, local, organic food. The goal of the sharing backyards program is to further that goal by making sure that anyone who wants to garden and grow food for themselves can. One of the biggest barriers to growing food in the city is access to land. A full 40% of North Americans do not live in single detached housing where the yard space is unequivocally theirs. The other 60% who do have access to land in the cities often leave it underutilized.

Sharing Backyards encourages urban gardening by connecting those who have space to garden and are willing to share with those who would like to have a gardening space. The program makes maximum use of city space by making sure that even those who dwell in apartments, condos, and shared housing have ample place to garden. It connects neighbours of different socio-economic conditions together in a atmosphere of trust doing something that beautifies the homeowner's yard and provides food for everyone.

So what makes an effective sharing backyards program? Location, location, location! Our program links people who are spatially close to each other. A garden that is close to where the gardener lives is more likely to receive the love and care it needs to thrive. Our system uses web-mapping technology to deliver a very intuitive interactive online map where users can instantly see which listings provides a potential partner.

Local Partners

The Sharing Backayards system's lifeblood is our local partners. We partner with local community organizations to help administer the program and champion the sharing of backyard space locally. We actively seek out local partners and give them administration of their local "Sharing Backyards Portal".

Local partners are also given materials to help them promote the program locally and ideas on how to engage with seniors and peoples with low-literacy who might be unable to access the online listings. We would also provide a forum for local partners to interact amongst themselves.

For information on becoming a Local Partner click here.