The bounty of summer is starting to show at the city’s community garden, on a service road off 67th Street.

Candace and Dave Svederus’s plot has rows of leaf lettuce and Spanish onions sprouting like fountains of green, lacey-leafed carrot tops poking out of the ground and turnips that are so abundant they look like they’re on steroids.

“This is my second year. The people next to us got us into this,” Candace said. “I come out every morning, if it’s not raining, for a couple of hours.”

She said she enjoys the serenity of gardening and knowing she is getting fresh produce, with no weed killer on it.

Recently, the husband and wife were weeding around their plot and digging up the first of the new potatoes.

“I think (the community garden) is excellent. I’m sorry I didn’t start doing it earlier,” Candace said. “Each year you learn about planting and gardening. People are very open and talk to you. I was as green as those leaves when I came out.”

A few plots down the field, Laura Fodor and her daughter Taylor, seven, were also pulling at weeds. Taylor, who was wearing a big brown sun hat, was also tracking down ladybugs.

“I really enjoy it out here,” Laura said. “It’s nice and peaceful.”

She started to grow her own food because Taylor has such strong allergies to milk, eggs, nuts and peanuts. As a result, the family tries to eat basic meat-and-potato meals that consist of organic vegetables. Laura said she likes that the community garden doesn’t have pesticides in it.

For Jennifer Mazurkewich, who was cleaning up around her plot with husband Brian and son Carson, three, it’s the first time she has tilled the land since she was in elementary school.

By next year, the local gardeners will be spread all over Red Deer, with city staff working on opening three as-yet-undisclosed sites for community gardens.

The current location will be used for new housing — what the site is actually designated for — with building expected to start in late fall or early spring, said Trevor Poth, parks planning co-ordinator for the City of Red Deer.

“We’re really excited for the new program because what it will allow us to do is bring gardens closer to individual neighbourhoods so people won’t have to drive to far parts of unpopulated areas,” Poth said.

He said each of the three new sites will be between two and five acres in size, which will allow the city to increase the number of plots by around 10 per cent.

The city will also have a separate initiative, partnering with ReThink Red Deer, to create at least one of a couple of direct community gardens in the middle of some neighbourhoods as pilot projects.

Candace said she isn’t sure if she’ll move to one of the new sites. She said it will depend on where the new garden plots are located. She lives just a three- to five-minute drive from the current garden plot that she has worked hard to rid of weeds over the past couple of years.

The move is disappointing for Laura.

“It’s too bad. I don’t know if they can find a spot as nice as this,” Laura said. “It’s a different feeling when you’re out here.”

But she is relieved to hear there won’t be pesticides on the new sites.

Poth said they discourage the use of pesticides at the local community gardens, and the prospective sites haven’t had pesticides or fertilizers used on them this year.

Jennifer said she likes that the current community garden is away from the subdivisions because there is less of a chance of someone vandalizing the carrots, peas, lettuce and other items she has put so much time into.

Before she decides if she’ll continue to garden next year, she wants to see what this year’s crops look like.

Contact Stacy O’Brien at sobrien@reddeeradvocate.com