Young idealists helping to make a better world through 21st-century gardening
Idealists want to change world with innovative growing projects
They’re highly informed about global issues. They pass knowledge and skills among each other. And they want to change the world.
Sound familiar? Those kind of sentiments have driven youth movements for years. For a new generation of young Canadians, however, that idealism is manifesting itself differently than it might have in the recent past. They are trying to make the world better through gardening.
But it’s not the kind of gardening grandma does. True to their upbringing in a community driven, tech-savvy world, these young gardeners, residents of Calgary, are fuelled by environmentalism, concern about the way our food is produced, and Internet culture, and they are bringing innovation and an urban mindset to an age-old practice.
Take Kelsey Morin, for example.
The 24-year-old environmental science student takes an urban, do-it-yourself approach to every aspect of her food-growing operation.
“I make my own fish food,” Morin explains. “You steam some vegetables, then add sardines and gelatin, then freeze it. It’s the best food for fish.”
Morin cares about what her fish eat because it’s their waste that’s fertilizing her food. She has a mini aquaponics system at her house growing kale, arugula, butter lettuce, beans and mint.
Morin became interested in alternative ways to grow food when she studied watershed management and issues affecting conventional agriculture for a school project. She cofounded Calgary’s Mount Royal University’s community garden to become more involved in the food system, learning gardening basics from other students. Soon after, she discovered aquaponics, mainly through online research, as an ideal way to produce some of her own food.
Aquaponics combines aquaculture and hydroponics to grow fish and plants together. The fish waste provides a food source for the plants, while the plants provide a natural filter for the water the fish live in.
She’s now running Calgary’s only aquaponics collective, sharing her knowledge with a membership of other 20-and-30-somethings. And she’s converted a 90-gallon fish tank into an aquaponics system growing peas, beets, carrots, squash and herbs for the kids at a local Boys & Girls Club to help take care of and harvest.
“I hope this will help kids develop an appreciation for food and spark an interest in alternative technologies,” she says.
Most of Morin’s work with aquaponics is voluntary, or as she says, “a labour of love.” She sees growing food as a way to actively and productively address social and environmental issues.
“What’s going on around the world right now stirs us to want to do something.”
Adrian Buckley walked away from his career as a planner for similar reasons. A friend convinced him to take a permaculture course.
“I was fascinated by the course,” says Buckley, 32. “It triggered something in me. I kept hearing negativity about the situation we’re in globally, but the course was empowering. It showed me we can design solutions.”
The concept and practice of permaculture began in the 1970s as a scientific way of modelling landscaping and housing after natural ecosystems, but it’s seeing a rebirth.
Buckley has been running his business, Big Sky Permaculture, for three years, teaching permaculture courses, designing gardens and facilitating permablitzes.
Permablitzes are one-day events during which participants come together to install a project designed using permaculture principles. A homeowner’s front yard, for example, could be transformed into a “food forest” in a single day by a community of participants. Permaculture is all about community.
“It’s a community of people looking to apply positive solutions to water, soil and food issues,” he says.
“The environmental movement has created so much awareness and that’s energized a lot of people. There’s a real clear demographic of new farmers and gardeners.”
Luke Kimmel is one of those new gardeners. Working as a tour manager, he was passing through the Slocan Valley in B.C. when he picked up a permaculture course brochure. His parents saw the brochure and offered to pay for the course, which introduced him to the idea of selfsufficiency.
“I knew when I took that course that it was a path I was going to follow,” Kimmel says.
Kimmel has added to that course a long list of other urban agriculture-related training. The 25-year old now designs and installs permaculture gardens.
“I like to help the backyard grower succeed the first time,” he says. “The backyard garden can provide physical activity, healthy food and a way to interact with the land in a meaningful way.”
Kimmel with three partners — they call themselves the Leaf Ninjas — also grow food for sale.
The Leaf Ninjas don’t grow their food on a traditional farm, though.
Their half-acre urban farm consists of backyards and unused lots they borrow from local communities.
In exchange for a weekly supply of produce, partners lend their land based on a handshake agreement to be used for SPIN (Small Plot Intensive) gardening.
The rest of the produce is sold to markets and restaurants. The reception for his products wasn’t instantaneous.
“I’d walk in with a bag of greens and a price sheet and get a sideways look,” Kimmel admits, as some chefs were skeptical when they heard he was growing his produce in the city. “Then they’d try it and buy it.”
Like Morin and Buckley, Kimmel was drawn to gardening to make change.
“If you really want to get serious about creating a better world, gardening is one route you can take.”