‘Brings a lot of joy’: Community garden initiative offers lessons on growing produce

The Growing Together program at the Alberta Avenue community garden is teaching people new skills and helping to address food insecurity. Marek Tkach reports.

The Alberta Avenue Community Garden is sprouting opportunities and free produce for gardeners-in-training.

A new program called “Growing Together” gives community members a crack at learning how to garden and grow their own food to take home.

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Jacob Ulickij, the lead gardener, told CTV News Edmonton the program is open to anyone looking to grow a green thumb.

“(It’s for) anybody who wants to learn, wants to strengthen the skills they already have or learn something new … this is a really great opportunity for them to see how a biodynamic farm can work within Alberta,” Ulickij said on Monday.

“Alberta Avenue is a very strong community and with lots of community gardens, but there’s a lot of food insecurity happening across Edmonton more than ever … so Growing Together is utilizing space that we had in order to provide free food for the community,” he added.

Would-be gardeners in the community will have to fill an online questionnaire to specify whether they are looking to donate their time, looking for free produce, or just gain knowledge for their own projects.

Additionally, whatever produce is leftover from the dedicated area of the gardens will be donated to charities across the city.

“We give out non-perishable food from the food bank every week, and we’ve been doing that for the last five years. We very seldom get fresh produce, and so whenever we do get it, we’re excited to be able to hand that out,” said Frank Parker, the coordinator for the Bethel Gospel Chapel’s pantry.

“It goes really fast. People really appreciate it, and it’s good to give out something that’s fresh and healthy rather than food that comes in cans and boxes,” he added.

Karen Mykietka, the operations manager for the Alberta Avenue Community League, told CTV News Edmonton how the garden is bringing new life to the space.

“It used to just be a grassy field because it was formerly an ice rink, and then slowly, from 2011 we just rototilled a patch of lawn and made some garden beds, and then we’ve been expanding ever since,” Mykietka said.

“Now we have 35 families that garden here, plus Jacob in the center, and any of the people who are coming out to help him.”

Ulickij said it “brings a lot of joy” knowing he’s able to pass on his knowledge for free to people who are benefitting from the program.

Visit the Alberta Avenue Community League website for information about the growing initiative.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach