Our goal with this project was to teach young families with kids how to create a sustainable food source, while learning about the benefits of companion planting (nature’s best friends!). With the help of a friend, we designed simple instructions on how to plant tomatoes in a pot or garden plot, with the vegetables, herbs, and flowers that should be grown with them, to optimize flavour and health of the plants. It’s so easy to reduce watering, eliminate herbicides and pesticide, while boosting the taste of the tomatoes using this method!
We made a post on a local buy and sell Facebook group, looking for 10 local families who wanted to learn alongside us, with their own starter gardens. Within a few hours, we had a list of 10, with 10 additional families on the waitlist. On the weekend of July 9/10, we visited local farmer’s markets and locally owned plant nurseries, filled the car to the brim with a variety of 8 different plants, and went home to assemble the packages. Families arrived at our home to pick up their flat of locally grown plants with printed instructions to learn more about gardening. Mums and grandmothers were ecstatic to have the opportunity to teach their kids about growing food, with many sharing how difficult this year has been, and that this was the first good thing that had happened to them in a while. With many of the plants being perennials, families will be able to watch them grow for years to come.
Project Leader: Adrianna Stange
