Despite being off to a little bit of a rough start, vegetables growing in the greenhouse and gardens at Lennox Island First Nation have been doing very well. “Some of them struggled because we are super sandy here,” said Mark Ellands, manager of the greenhouse and gardens, referencing the greenhouse’s location at the site of the community’s former baseball field. “We brought in a lot of mushroom compost and topsoil to try to amend the beds. By adding topsoil, you’re going to have more nutrition in the soil, and then you have better moisture retention too. We find you can water the plants in the morning, and six hours later, they’re bone dry just because the sand is so draining.”
Hot weather hasn’t helped with that. Mr. Ellands said keeping everything watered is a steady job throughout the weekend and even through the week. On days when the weather gets into the high 20s and low 30s, the greenhouse staff is out for about two hours in the morning and evening to ensure there’s enough moisture in the ground and the plants are getting enough water.
The greenhouse and gardens are part of an Atlantic Canadian pilot project that began in 2021 through Digital Mi’kmaq, a grassroots initiative under L’Nuey Development Group, to help deliver integrated programs, projects, and initiatives aimed at helping to build capacity and establish regenerative economies for Indigenous communities. One of the goals of the project is to bring food security and sustainability to the respective communities involved.
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