A new community garden in Riel Park is helping a small team of novice horticulturalists gain valuable work experience while also producing excellent crops.
The effort is orchestrated by an Edmonton-based non-profit organization called Selections Career Support Services. It's a lot like this city's Lo-Se-Ca and Transitions, explained Adrienne Beaulac, its career development and marketing co-ordinator.
"We help adults with developmental disabilities find meaningful employment or volunteer positions. We support them if they need job training or just steady support on the job."
Part of the way that the organization is doing this is with a new initiative for four clients. Under Beaulac's guidance, they're running the community garden as an entrepreneurship boot camp. There are 19 varieties of tomatoes growing red on the vine but, more importantly, these enthusiastic green thumbs are growing a ton of skills that are sure to plump up their resumés.
"The clients here are learning quite a bit of job skills as well as marketing skills, and gardening skills. There's just a bunch of new opportunities for them," Beaulac said.
"It feels really good. It helps everybody," said a smiling Yvonne Kerz, one of the workers in charge of the operation.
The experience has given her self-confidence such a boost that she can't stop tending to the plants even when she gets back home. Her parents have started to bow down to her expertise with landscaping.
"They take my input with a lot of stuff and it turned out good."
Kerz has come a long way, Beaulac said, adding that she has never seen four people work so well together or with as much maturity. Kerz and the others often tend to their duties unsupervised, taking care of the rows and rows of plants in an efficient and organized way. The results of their work are clearly visible – some of those tomatoes are bigger than a fist.
Fresh blossoms
The pilot project started in May. There aren't any plots available to the public but the organization is calling it a community garden because it's looking for buy-in from the public. That buy-in has already been forthcoming from the local business community.
The garden is located on the property of The Rock Garden, a new landscaping business located on Riel Drive. Owner Al Svenson said that he firmly believes in the cause but he offered up the space because he sees the viability of gardening as a long-term business venture.
"It's the way of the future. It's a sustainable resource and eventually there's profit. I'd like to see everybody profit from it," he explained.
Hole's Greenhouses also offered up several thousand dollars' worth of plants to get them off the ground. Canadian Tire, along with some of the city's grocery stores, donated seeds and dirt.
Those donations have already had other positive spin-offs. The meeting with representatives at St. Albert's Canadian Tire location led to Kerz getting an offer of employment. She accepted, naturally. It's just one more reason that the young woman is irrepressibly upbeat and proud of herself.
All in all, it's been a great experience so far, one that has involved "many, many hours of blood, sweat and tears," Beaulac confided, but the amount of support has been phenomenal. She said that they couldn't have done it without the community.
"We built a little greenhouse. We've got a ton of vegetables! It just started off a little bit small on the May long weekend and it got to be about five times bigger. It's been really wonderful. It's just taken off. It's multiplied in the last month."
To top it all off, Beaulac said that all of the vegetables are organic as well.
Along with the 19 varieties of tomatoes, there are eggplants, zucchini, peas, red potatoes, strawberries, kohlrabi, cucumbers, leeks, celery, Swiss chard, and more.
"It's phenomenal. The beets are ready to go … the corn is almost too. Everyone that comes here is shocked."
The group has plans to build up the garden to be bigger and better next year. Svenson is also hoping to make improvements to the infrastructure by installing a greenhouse and solar panels.
"This has been an amazing pilot project," Beaulac exclaimed. "I can't complain when things are doing so well."
The garden is located at 7 Riel Dr., where The Rock Garden landscaping business is located. People can make their purchases on site (from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, weather dependent) or by making arrangements through Selections' Edmonton office.
