Moreover,
New genre community gardens cultivate:
“They were there at 6:30 a.m., they will go back to sunset. Nevertheless, The days when they come to cultivate their garden. Nevertheless, they stay there until the evening, ”underline Gilles Raymond and Denise Brizard.
Hand in the air. Therefore, they greet the two Rwandans from afar to which we are heading, while we go together the property located in the Beauvoir sector, in Sherbrooke. Meanwhile,
Along the way. Therefore, the retired couple exposes me the main lines of the inspiring project they put on rails five years ago.
What germinated in their mind was both simple and daring. For example, It was also generous. However,
The idea? Nevertheless, Transforming a section of their private land of nine acres into community gardens. Meanwhile,
“We had new genre community gardens cultivate these fields in the hollow of a mini valley where the microclimate makes everything easily grow. For example, I couldn’t cultivate it all, but I told myself that we could do something useful, beautiful. Therefore, ”
— Gilles Raymond
Thread by needle, they thought of immigrant families who do not necessarily have access to cultivable land. Furthermore, They wanted to take a solidarity gesture. Furthermore, To open a door. Meanwhile, On their hilly land, they had the impetus to bring together a community of cultivators. Therefore,
The agricultural zone development plan (PDZA) was a lever. In addition, the Federation of Cultural Communities of Estrie (FCCE) has embarked on the project. Therefore, Five years later. However, they are now 14 African couples (and their families) to cultivate the equivalent of three and a half acres.
Marie Walikété is among the number. new genre community gardens cultivate Similarly, Originally from the Central African Republic, she arrived in the country 10 years ago.
“Before last year, I couldn’t find a place where I could have a garden. Nevertheless, It’s great, what exists here. Therefore, I missed it. For example, work the earth, and it feels good to be able to take care of a vegetable garden, to grow plants that the whole family will feed, “she sums up. However,
Next to it, Prisca Sunday comes out of new genre community gardens cultivate the rank where she is picking African spinach. Nevertheless, Her appetizing harvesting in her hands, she explains to me how she cooks the fleshy and serrated leaves. Similarly,
“It is cooked like spinach. Meanwhile, I often boil them or come back to oil, with spices. Similarly, I also cook them with meat. Similarly, It’s very good. “
In addition to beans. tomatoes, corn, squash and other varieties of current, amaranth, African eggplant, Guinea and Gumbo sorrel are some of the slightly rarer plants that are now growing on the farm.
“I discover new plants. it gives rise to beautiful exchanges because we learn each other,” emphasizes Denise. Each spring. I send the gardeners the sowing calendar so that they know how to put the tomatoes in the ground, after the last frost. And they too, they teach us certain agricultural techniques. ”
Techniques inherited from millennial traditions where everything is done by hand.
“They work a lot using a hoe. Instead of being torn off, weeds are buried deep underground, they will feed the ecosystem in the ground, ”explains Denise.
Circular look. Around, it’s green, green, green. The ecosystem is well, obviously.
“Five years ago, the earth was in the process of taking wasteland,” notes Gilles.
The invasive Nerprun was suffocating the field.
“It is a plant that extends its roots in the soil. gives off a toxin that kills the trees around,” explains Gilles. We have removed everything, we rotated so that everything is cultivable. ”
At the end of the first season, we had to face the facts: water supply was a problem.
“We couldn’t continue like this. During the first summer, Gilles was constantly filling and transporting new genre community gardens cultivate the only 1000 -liter container on his tractor that we had. He was really the water carrier, ”says Denise, smiling.
New genre community gardens cultivate
For sustainability
At the edge of the fall, that year, the couple brought together the gardeners. They thought about a solution together. The only way possible was to invest in an irrigation system. Otherwise, it was simply impossible to continue.
“We agreed that each family would pay the small sum of $ 25 per row of vegetables. per year, to help us absorb the costs of $ 14,000. That makes them all assume about $ 5. 000 of the costs together, over a period of five years, this is the only contribution that is asking, “notes Denise.
A few meters from us, Jean-Chrysostome and Xaverine cleanse the plot where small models of eaten peas new genre community gardens cultivate point.
“We feel good here. It reminds us of our childhood, when we helped our parents in the field, in Africa. I was always looking forward to returning from school to go to the garden. ”
— Jean-Chrysostome Uwimana
Xaverine looks in the distance, points out the horizon, underlines how soothing the green setting is. True that it feels like being in the hollow of the countryside rather than a few kilometers from the. city center.
“It is a passion for us. gardening, and when we are here, we forget everything and we are good, in this magnificent setting,” she confides to me. It’s a lot of work. yes, but we feel such satisfaction when the time comes from harvest that we forget how much we have put efforts. “
The innovative formula could spread elsewhere, if the political will to put in place facilitating measures was forward.
“A community garden on private land is not one of the current practices,” notes Gilles. There are commercial or agricultural zoning challenges, subsidies that we do not have access. ”
It is obvious: the formula is however winning. For everyone. If we put in place incentives. if we gave real impulse to similar initiatives, we would undoubtedly manage to revitalize plots otherwise left abandoned. new genre community gardens cultivate And we would allow families to have access to a vegetable garden. It seems to me that there is something to think about. What to act, too.
“In Switzerland, they pay farmers to maintain their fields because it is good for agrotourism. We could certainly find ways to revalue cultivable hectares. ”
— Gilles Raymond
The couple try to ensure that the example spreads. We have documented everything. so that if other owners want to embark on a similar adventure, if the city implements accommodating measures, we can share this expertise, ”explains the couple.
What he tries to sow, basically, is a vision of environmental sustainability. A way of doing things that feeds the collective. It is enough to then have the will to make it grow and flower.
New genre community gardens cultivate
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