It has been lovely getting to finally have a chance for our group members to meet and chat with each other. Over two sessions held in June, seedsitters, project partners and friends came together in my backyard to bring in seedlings for exchange with others as well as donations to community gardens and , pot them up if needed.
Our first session was held on Saturday June 17th, 10am-1pm, but the party continued until 3:30pm!
Attendees from our first gathering: (L-R) Susan, Catherine, Rekha, April, Linda S., Farha, Christing, Sayeh, Donna, Linda D., Elaine, Judith, Sanam, Pat, Liz and Veronica.
Our second session was held on Sunday June 25th, 4-7pm. We had two special guests: Anthony and Cate who have been documenting the bee species foraging in my garden as part of Anthony’s PhD bee studies As their visit coincided with our meeting, I invited them to participate in our gathering. One interesting research project he is working on is a survey on how people feel about bees. I’ve attached the pdf poster which includes links and information for you so if you have a chance, please participate and also, please feel free to promote and share with all your friends.
Our second gathering included seedsitters: Ann T, Anne P., Jenniffer, Shawn, Christine and Farha, and Project partner from Brian PS: Zakia. Guests included: Aki, Trixie, Anthony and Cate
I have to give a shout out to two members who brought in seedlings in advance of our sessions, the first being Mag ( pictured above with her donations) who drove in from Port Perry and has been the project lead for adding our plants to the Port Perry Share and Care Permaculture garden. Olivia also dropped off seedlings but I forgot to take a picture with her.
In each session, members also shared information about their past and current projects and provided excellent examples of obstacles that had been encountered and some ways they had been overcome in projects. In the following weeks, I will be hosting additional sessions for our registered seedsitters to continue this important conversation.
Next Steps
It’s time to begin thinking about projects we want to donate our seedlings to. To help you think about the types of projects that could be taken on, in our next blog post, I will be sharing pictures from the recent planting at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute as an example of successful collaboration. I will also share pictures of a talk I gave to 100+ students at Brian Public School as well as details of their upcoming planting and engagement in the Fall 2023.
We also have updates from projects underway at Shirley Ave. Public School and Perth Public School.
I’m also looking forward to sharing details of a project with Holland-Bloorview Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital as we look at donating plant and possibly helping with the planting of them at the Spiral Garden on the grounds.
Final thoughts
Over time I have come to realize that gardening is not a neutral activity as it has previously been weaponized to erase cultures, peoples and rewrite history, and who gets access to the seedlings we have grown itself can be used to empower and build equity with vulnerable segments of society. We touched upon these topics a bit during our discussions, but to give you a sense of why I see gardening as political action, you can take a look at this video I made about a talk I gave on March 31, 2023:
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with possible project ideas. Let’s make this an excellent summer for our group!
