Cultivating Community: Plants and friendship bloom on St. Paul's Hospital rooftop

Hidden from the street, and way up on the fourth floor of St. Paul's hospital in downtown Vancouver, is an oasis. 

It's a community garden where residents of the downtown grow just about any vegetable you can name.

The Downtown Intercultural Gardeners Society project — or DIGS for short — began in 2010.

"[Our aim] was to bring together a community that's representative of Vancouver's diversity, and having immigrants as well as Canadian-born gardeners come together and share their cultures and ways of gardening and growing food and preparing food," Kai Chang, president of DIGS, told CBC's Matthew Parsons. 

Chang has been gardening for 15 years. Previous generations of his family were farmers in China. Today, his main focus is producing food in a more sustainable fashion. Most of the plants grown on the rooftop are edible, although there is some lavender to feed the bees. 

Chang grows collard greens, kale, garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots and more. He says the diversity of gardeners means a diversity of food — Chinese, Japanese and Kenyan vegetables grow on the rooftop, among others. 

Sense of community

About 40 per cent of DIG's gardeners are Canadian-born, and 60 per cent are immigrants.

For Chang, the community aspect of the garden is just as important as growing food.

"We like to say the word 'community' comes before 'garden.' It is a natural thing that people do together. I think it's primordial for people to grow food together and eat together."

A common complaint you may hear in Vancouver is that it's difficult to find community in the city. Chang says you find community where you create it, and that's what DIG is all about. 

A healing space

For many, the garden has a healing quality. It's at a hospital after all. Chang says the elderly and ill are drawn to watching green things grow. 

"You can imagine if you were stuck in a room for weeks on end what it would feel like to come out here," he said. 

The roof of St. Paul's is filled with raised beds and small boxes that line the rooftop. Chang says the space gets a lot of sun and benefits from the famous Vancouver temperate rainforest environment.

"It's a natural gathering place and there are a lot of people in some distress. This is something that soothes the soul and people who are going through very difficult transitions at times."