Regenerative Agriculture
Kanata North regenerative Community Garden
(a goal project of the OSC's Kanata North Regeneration Stewards)
We envision creating an inclusive greenspace for all people to come together to grow nutritious vegetables, build healthy soil, share knowledge, and foster community in harmony with nature.
A place where people can engage in meaningful and authentic ways, while helping the Kanata Food Cupboard to support our neighbours facing food insecurity challenges. 100% of all produce grown will be donated.
What is regenerative gardening?
☀ Regenerative gardening uses non-invasive and sustainable practices to help build healthy soil while focusing on the garden as being part of the larger ecosystem.
☀ By rebuilding what has been lost from soil, a true ecosystem of balanced nutrients and beneficial organisms working together produces nutritious food.
☀ Restoring and maintaining good soil composition is key to enhancing soil health, reducing erosion, boosting yields, controlling pests, conserving moisture, and sequestering carbon.
☀️Fun Fact: New studies are showing that if you want to get rid of ticks in your yard, cultivating biodiverse soil helps. Most ticks lay eggs on the soil, and their larvae (the phase before the nymphs who plague us) are so tiny, that they can be eaten by soil invertebrates. A new study found that spiders, beetles, and large mites all eat tick larvae.
Where we hope to be located:
We're working with the City of Ottawa, Hydro One, and other stakeholders to determine where a KN Regenerative Community Garden could best fit within the developing community vision for the Morgan's Grant Hydro Corridor. All new community garden projects are currently on hold until 2025, so it will take some time before infrastructure can be addressed.
Next steps?
Once we receive formal permission to create our new garden, we will need to clear the area of non-native invasive plants and noxious weeds
Non-native invasive plants are tough to deal with because they have no local predators or pathogens to keep them in check, as they would where they originated
Invasive plants also have novel weapons like allelopathic chemicals (they produce their own herbicides) allowing them to wage chemical warfare to suppress native plants and fungi
These perennial alien plant species are difficult to keep at bay, so we will need to heavily sheet mulch to discourage regrowth🥀
After the area is sheet mulched, we'll apply a layer of compost and plant an annual pollinator supporting cover crop to further block the invasives from receiving light and nutrients for the rest of the growing season
We'll be ready to setup the new 🍆🥒🥕🥔🫑🍅 garden the following spring 😎
The garden will be surrounded by vibrant native wildflowers to support pollinators 🌼🐝🦋
Tell me and I forget
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn
~Benjamin Franklin
