Green superhero
Sampath Walgama’s gardening prowess catches eye of Environment Lethbridge
It’s a little late to harvest your green veggies, even though winter has failed to arrive. But now’s the time to start planning a garden in the spring, says Sampath Walgama.
An instructor in the agricultural sciences school at Lethbridge College, Walgama was recently named a “green superhero” by Environment Lethbridge.
But you don’t have to be a college graduate to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of your labours. You can enjoy fresh-from-the-garden produce for months, he says — then freeze or can the surplus for winter meals.
Thanks to southern Alberta’s abundant sunshine, Walgama points out, home gardeners can succeed with a wide range of family favourites. And there are plenty of garden centres and nurseries around Lethbridge for seeds, supplies and advice.
Walgama started work on his own backyard garden shortly after moving here in 2010. He’s originally from Sri Lanka, where families don’t rely so heavily on supermarkets. Their produce isn’t trucked in from growers 2,000 kilometres away.
“We do a lot of home gardening there,” he explains.
So he was a little surprised to see no signs of cultivation behind his new home in Copperwood.
“It was very barren,” he says — just grass poking through the hard soil. It needed help.
Walgama mixed several truckloads of topsoil with some composted material to create more favourable growing conditions. But no chemical fertilizers were used, he adds.
It’s just an average-sized lot, he says. But he — and anybody else who’s interested — can grow a significant amount of food over the summer.
Of course, gardening is an ongoing process.
“I try my best to be with nature,” and that means tending to the garden daily — providing water, pulling weeds, checking for any problems. Like “bugs,” for one. They played havoc with one of his first cabbage crops. But rather than reaching for the Raid, he planted mint — which attracts another kind of insect, one that can keep the cabbage attackers at bay. “That took care of those bugs.” Hail can be another destroyer, and so is frost — something that’s not an issue in Sri Lanka, where crops grow yearround.
His solution, Walgama says, will be to build a small greenhouse were his juicy tomatoes can safely ripen.
Lethbridge residents without much gardening experience can get started by joining one of the community garden groups, he notes. There are a number of locations in the city, including sites at both the college and University of Lethbridge.
“And there’s one in Copperwood,” next to the new school and Family Centre.
Walgama is also a tea expert, tracing that passion back to his homeland. He’ll be making a presentation — tracing the tea leaves from their grower to your cup — at the Lethbridge Horticultural Society’s meeting on Jan. 22.
He’s also well aware of the opportunities and challenges awaiting food producers here in southern Alberta, where growing conditions are far different than in southeast Asia.
But now that he’s learned to succeed here as a backyard gardener, Walgama wants to spread the word. He’d be more than happy to speak to other organizations and groups.
And to spread the joy of planting, harvesting and serving your own backyard crops.
“It’s great to see a blossoming garden instead of just a patch of grass.”
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