🌱 Reimagining Vancouver: From Pools to Permaculture
Neighbours Feeding Neighbours — One Garden at a Time
By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
What if instead of pouring millions into maintaining a giant chlorinated pool — we filled it with forest, food, and life?
What if Kits Pool, iconic but seasonal and exclusive, was transformed into a coastal permaculture garden, a community-led food forest where children learn, elders rest, birds return, and neighbours feed each other?
That’s the kind of future I dream of — and I know I’m not alone.
🍓 Why We Need to Rethink Public Space
In Vancouver, we face a crisis of disconnection.
- Food insecurity is rising — while lawns, lots, and boulevards lie unused.
- Seniors, disabled people, and youth are isolated — while developers hoard empty land.
- Climate stress, mental health struggles, and social divides are growing — while big box stores import what we could grow right here.
It’s time to reclaim our neighbourhoods, not just with protest signs, but with soil, seeds, and solidarity.
🌿 What’s Possible Right Now
✅ You can grow food in your yard — and even your boulevard.
✅ Community gardens are supported by the City of Vancouver.
✅ Vacant lots can be transformed — with enough vision and people-power.
✅ Everyone can help — watering, harvesting, planting, storytelling, cooking, teaching, sharing.
This is more than gardening — this is urban regeneration.
Inspired by people like Ron Finley ("Gangsta Gardener") and Jenny Pell of permaculture fame, I believe we need a city where:
- ✨ Everyone contributes — and everyone is nourished.
- ✨ Children and youth get hands-on education.
- ✨ Seniors and people with disabilities have a purpose and a place.
- ✨ We grow beyond survival into abundance.
🌊 What If… We Filled in Kits Pool?
Let’s play with the idea:
Instead of 2–3 months of limited pool access each year, what if we planted:
- 🍇 Native berries (salmonberry, huckleberry, salal)
- 🌾 Edible and medicinal plants (camas, yarrow, mint)
- 🌲 A grove of trees for oxygen, shade, and quiet
- 🎶 A community gathering space for music, healing, learning
- 🧺 Raised beds, compost systems, solar lights, community fridges
It could be our city’s first oceanview permaculture park — feeding bodies, minds, and spirits all year long.
🛠 Let’s Get Growing
🌻 I’m calling out to neighbours, artists, gardeners, cooks, elders, youth, and anyone who believes another world is possible.
📍 Let’s map local vacant spaces
💬 Let’s talk about how to help each other — not just ourselves
📦 Let’s grow our way out of dependency — and into community resilience
If you’re interested in:
- Helping start a boulevard garden or shared food plot
- Donating seeds, tools, compost, or time
- Hosting a conversation, film night, or skill-share
- Just sharing your dreams for a greener, kinder city…
👉 Please reach out. Let’s make it real — together.
🌿 "We are the ones we’ve been waiting for."
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📝 zipolitazcv.blogspot.com
📷 @zipolita | 🎨 Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
#FoodJustice #GrowYourOwn #KitsReimagined #PermacultureVancouver #NeighboursFeedingNeighbours #RonFinley #JennyPell #CommunityAbundance #ResilientBC
