EDMONTON -- Edmonton community gardens are going ahead, but physical distancing restrictions are in place to keep gardeners safe.
The city is offering 30 pop-up gardens, in addition to yearly community gardens, enough to support 350 interested parties.
The Oliver community garden only has 60 plots, and with 18,000 residents nearby, it's got a waiting list of over 200 people.
Like every community garden in the city, no more than 15 people are allowed on site, and they must all stay at least two metres apart.
"We really want to encourage people to continue to use spaces, as we know they're really important for both mental health and important source for community pride for so many Edmontonians," said Shannon Wagner with Parks and Roads Services.
The city also says not to share tools, and people with even-numbered plots should only show up to the garden on even numbered days.
"You put all the guidelines in place you want, it depends if people are gonna follow it," said Ottwell gardener Dan Savage.
The benches along the garden are off-limits for the time being.
"Otherwise we'd be needing to sanitize them every time someone touched them so nobody can sit there? They should be roped off! We roped it off once we will have to do it again," said Savage.
The city is asking that any extra produce grown in the pop-up and community gardens is donated to any local food bank or charitable organization.
Pop-up garden applications are open until May 18.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Dave Mitchell
