Together We Grow

Update: As of 3:00 pm Friday, May 1st school and community gardens will now be accessible. Thank you Dr. Robert Strang and Premier McNeil.

A wise individual once said that gardening adds years to your life, and life to your years. At Nourish, we couldn’t agree more! Gardens offer a place for hands on learning, where children can find answers to questions like “Where does my food come from?”, and where they can cultivate preferences for healthy foods. Gardens can teach them about the journey of fruits and vegetables from seeds to plate, and give them the opportunity to taste new foods. For many in the light of COVID-19, access to healthy food has become a challenge, and starting a garden at home offers a way for families to learn to grow their own food.

We want to help. We are creating resources to guide families in creating their own ecological and sustainable garden space, whether that be in their backyard, balcony or windowsill. Particularly, we want to create resources for the home classroom that have curriculum links across many subjects and grade levels.

Spring is upon us, and that means planting season is too! Our first resource is a lesson that children and adults alike can follow along: making an Egg Carton Seed Starter.

For those that face barriers to growing a garden, there are community garden spaces. Whether on municipal property or school grounds, these spaces represent more than just a place to gather and connect with nature: they give a community the power to grow their own sustainable, healthy and culturally appropriate foods.

Many community gardens have been closed in accordance with Public Health safety measures due to COVID-19, but we know how important these spaces are to the communities that house them. Local garden leaders, supported by Nourish, have come together to address this need in a letter to Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang. This letter asks for community garden spaces to be deemed as essential and opened for safe, limited use that follows Public Health guidelines and recommendations. Find the letter here.

Help us to bring attention to and support Keeping Community Gardens Open by signing and sharing this petition! Together, our actions can ensure that community garden spaces will continue to feed and support communities across Nova Scotia.

Alyce Casey - Program Development Coordinator