A refuge from city life
Four King’s alumni reflect on their employment at Edmonton’s Lady Flower Gardens.
On a plot of land northeast of Edmonton sits three acres of agricultural refuge cocooned by an old-growth forest. “Caring for the land and each other,” Lady Flower Gardens (LFG) is a non-profit community service that works with various agencies to provide a place of work and healing for disadvantaged Edmontonians. Wander through the garden aisles and you will see the work of community members in full bloom; follow a path of hand-painted stones through the New Jubilee Forest and you will learn of the flora and fauna that support a rich, ancient ecosystem.
And talk to manager Kelly Mills, and you will hear about the legacy of employees who have made a lasting impact on the non-profit. Muriel Oostenbrink, Abbi Hofstede, Kaleigh Greidanus, and Sarah Greidanus are only a few of the names you’ll hear from Mills. All alums of the King’s University, Mills says the four women “were pivotal in making LFG grow under their unique directions.”
Oostenbrink came to LFG shortly before Covid and spent two summers there. With Mills, she coordinated, educated and welcomed up to 12 agencies into the three acres of land. On days when it rained or the garden needed a rest, Oostenbrink would coordinate alternative activities with the agencies, such as building newspaper seed pots, playing games or painting rocks to line the forest path. Even as she continues in a new career and builds a family, Oostenbrink says she draws on her two summers at LFG to “practice the humbling experience” she learned during her employment.
Hofstede began her involvement while interviewing staff for an undergraduate research project and then completed an internship at LFG. Now a professor of political science at King’s, Hofstede recalls how her work at the farm fostered her passion for making a difference in the community. “LFG allowed me to further my understanding of what it really means to do justice in an everyday, community-based context,” she says. One of her favourite responsibilities as an employee was leading forest tours, where she learned about plants and in turn shared “just a little bit of the magic that grows there” with those she toured.
Harvest for the Food Bank
Hofstede describes LFG as a refuge from city life, a sentiment Kaleigh Greidanus echoes. Since many of LFG’s community members reside in the downtown core of Edmonton, the farm and forest offer a unique peace for them. Involved from 2020 to 2024 in various volunteer, part-time, and full-time capacities, Kaleigh looks back on her time with appreciation for the sense of community LFG creates. The weekly timeslots she led with various agencies allowed her to see community members transform over the course of the season. She describes how the first sessions included icebreaker questions regarding favourite flowers and vegetables, while the final ones opened deeper conversations about personal stories. Kaleigh lives in the UK now, and hopes that each community member can carry this sense of belonging with them wherever they go, just as she has.
Kaleigh’s time at LFG always felt like “more than a job” for her, and had such an impact on her life that she encouraged her sister Sarah to become involved. Inspired by her sister’s experience, Sarah started as a volunteer and quickly landed the role of garden manager.
“LFG is a place of respite for people,” she says, as many “are currently struggling with mental health problems, addiction and poverty.” They come to LFG through various agencies to experience the joy of growing produce and harvesting it for the Edmonton Food Bank. This allows “the gardeners to feel a strong sense of purpose in giving back to the Edmonton community.”
The future of the farm
While staff describe Lady Flower Gardens as a retreat from the city, its peace has not always been guaranteed. Before Covid, New Jubilee Forest was threatened by the City of Edmonton’s plans to build a highway through it toward Fort Saskatchewan (see “Edmonton Farmer Battles to Protect Prime Land from Urban Sprawl” by Cheryl Mahaffy, CC May 2017). Through fundraising efforts, city meetings and the rallying of local politicians, Mills and LFG owner Doug Visser successfully placed the forest under a conservation easement with the Edmonton & Area Land Trust in 2020 (“Paradise Saved” by Cheryl Mahaffy, CC May 2024).
Whatever is in store for the non-profit, the community members who impacted it – from employees to inner city residents – will continue to speak of it as a place of refuge, and the forest will remain protected from development no matter who owns the land in the future.
At Lady Flower Gardens, the struggles of Edmonton’s margins soften into something quiet and healing. The red lines of gentrification transform into garden aisles, addictions are met with handfuls of seeds instead of stigma, and the demands of survival find solace in the bird song of New Jubilee Forest.
Thanks for the descriptive reveal of this acreage plot, Jennifer, appreciate it. I’ll check out the mature forest cover component of it on one future visit or another, across the way from NW BC. Always interesting for my retired forestry part, strolling through this and that regional forest eco- dynamic, compared doing time in big-ville. I have a higher appreciation of the former environment to the latter one, for my biased part. My mental health seems to tell me that there’s a reason for that….I’m so small, I’m not even small-town haha. Thanks again.