Youths Help Transform Urban Garden Using Old-Fashioned Techniques

Tag : Garden Tools

There's no heavy farm equipment and modern machinery, justold-fashioned hand-held tools and a little elbow grease.
A vegetable garden in the city's north end is undergoing a majortransformation with the help of a group of students - who aren'tjust learning how to grow food, but how to build a sense of self.
"Working outside an environment helped me to think a lot and mysocial skills developed a lot, and my leadership skills alsodeveloped a lot," Andre Livingston, one of the participants,admits.
Most of the young farmers involved in the project live in the Janeand Finch neighbourhood, not far from the garden's Jane and Steeles location. Most attend university or college, and in their sparetime they're helping to transform the old farmland back to itsoriginal use. It's intense work, but it's also character-buildingsays Solomon Boye of Toronto Parks and Recreation, which funds theprogram.
"The leadership is among them so we rotate," he explains. "So likeevery few weeks somebody else becomes the lead. There's nomotorized equipment. Everything is done manually. Requires a lot ofphysical work, but that is where the transformation occurs."
Abdi Razak, another participant, says it's made him morereflective.
"I feel like it simplifies life," he says. "When you're justworking with plants and working with the earth, like there'snothing complicated about that. It's just the way things are."
The group will harvest their produce at the end of the season andgive it to local food banks.