For many seniors, there was nothing more satisfying than working in the garden, something circumstances may no long permit. For many youth, gardening is a foreign concept.
Without the right circumstances, neither group may have a chance to spend time doing what they love — or could grow to love — but all can receive hands-on gardening opportunities at Know and Grow Farm (formerly the Creston Valley Community Greenhouse) at Creston’s College of the Rockies (COTR) campus.
Operation of the farm is currently in transition, with the Friends of the Creston Valley Community Greenhouse Society working toward renting space from COTR, but the farm is busier than ever, having recently wrapped up a series of spring programs catering to teens, children and families, which ran alongside school and seniors programs.
The seniors program has been running the longest, dating back to 2006, giving the greenhouse a purpose after the college’s horticulture course was cancelled two years earlier.
“The program has always been my favourite, so I just couldn’t let it go,” said Anita Sawyer, who was greenhouse manager from 2008-2012 and now volunteers a morning a week with seniors from the Swan Valley Lodge day program.
The seniors start coming in March each year, and often visit through early December.
“In December, they do all the transplanting for the winter harvest,” said Sawyer. “Some of them are so excited to get their hands back in the soil.”
They also spend time shelling dried beans or, on one recent day, plucking herbs — including lemon catnip and sage — from their stems, which will go to the Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors (TAPS) or the Creston Valley Gleaners Society food bank. While not a difficult task, it was a new activity for some.
“I’m used to harvesting with a chainsaw,” quipped Dan, who used to work on 100 acres of bush.
The gardening aspect isn’t always the most important part — some just enjoy the social aspect.
“It’s nice to be around good people,” said Harry. “It’s nice to have fun with them.”
One senior, Sawyer recalled, refused to miss the program by visiting with out-of-town family — so she brought them with her.
“It’s an incredibly meaningful program — they spent so much time feeding and caring for others, and they do less of that later,” said Laura Hannant, COTR facilitator of partnerships for community development, who is volunteering as co-ordinator of the greenhouse society during the transition period.
One program allows the seniors to pass on their knowledge, with TAPS members growing gardens with parents and kids from Family Place, which provides support and activities for families with young children.
Kids get to try gardening on their own, too with schools bringing classes during the day, and an afterschool program for ages 10-16, in which participants start plants for their own gardens.
Instructors always instruct the nutrition aspect of homegrown food, and Hannant said that the self-esteem that comes from direct connection to their food makes the kids happier to eat it — although some take a while to warm up to the idea.
“One boy took till his third time to eat a snack with the others,” she recalled with a smile.
The excitement is evident with the briefest look at classes on a scavenger hunt racing around the gardens looking for specific plants — even those washing pots had fun splashing around, with the boys in one group submerging their pots, leading to a discussion about the Titanic.
For the farm grounds, plans extend well into the future, with a 1,000-square-metre section reserved for Forest Farm, an outdoor learning space that will be planted with fruit, nuts, berries, shrubs and hardy kiwis, allowing for education in pruning and harvesting.
“This whole area, 10 to 15 years from now, will be a magical kingdom of food and berries and fruit,” said Nigel Francis, COTR facilitator of education for food security.
Programs at Know and Grow Farm have led to bigger things off of the COTR campus — students from the Yaqan Nukiy School started potatoes, carrots and corn for a Lower Kootenay Band community garden.
“The whole community was invited to come and plant the things they started in the greenhouse,” said Hannant.
The farm is now open to people who aren’t in a specific program, with drop-ins welcome each Thursday from 8:30-10 a.m. It’s an excellent opportunity to see the changes made to the greenhouse and gardens in recent months, with landscaping by Prince Charles Secondary School students, and an arbour built by Kootenay Employment Services’ Experience Workers program.
The involvement of other groups is fitting because Know and Grow Farm gives right back to the community.
“By running the program, the program creates all this fresh food, and we have all this surplus,” said Francis. “We give it to TAPS and it lowers their costs. There’s a great multiplier there.”
Volunteers are always welcome at Know and Grow Farm. For more information, contact Laura Hannant at 250-428-5332 ext. 4181 or lhannant@cotr.bc.ca.