Sudbury Community Garden Network

Since Seedy Sunday will be held virtually this year, we thought it would be great for you all to meet the awesome women organizing the event. We will be sharing... a video each day this week leading up to the event day on Sunday February 21st at 11:30am. Please pre-register through the eventbrite link to receive an email invitation for the live zoom event. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sudbury-seedy-sunday-tickets-13

Does sorting seeds sound fun...maybe even relaxing!? The Teller family is one of the many volunteers helping package seeds for the upcoming Virtual Seedy Sunday Sudbury. If this is something that youd like to help with (in the comfort of your own home), please call Seasons Pharmacy and Culinaria to prepare a bundle of seeds to further package at home. Distribution and swapping of seeds will happen after the event onFeb 21 (more details to come). Likewise, if you have surplus seeds to swap and exchange within the community please drop off at the pharmacy. We appreciate all the community support to make this event possible

Did you miss our last meeting with our conversation with special guest Peggy Baillie of Three Forks Farms talking about seeds? Peggy helped us to better understand what to do with seeds and demystified the terms used to describe seeds - hybrid, heirloom, open pollinated and GMO. Watch the video on our Youtube channel! https://youtu.be/a75Dk6EwrKY

While we will miss gathering together for Seedy Sunday in person, we are excited to share that the event will still go on VIRTUALLY this year! There are many great speakers, all experts, both local and from across Canada. If you want to be inspired this season, check out this event and tune in live. You must pre register following this eventbrite link below.

Hey Sudbury! Your opportunity to swap and purchase local seeds will still be available in 2021! The event will be virtual this time around and seed swapping will be done in a safe, socially distanced way. Please share this post to get the word out, this event is free for all.

Community project to help people grow a garden during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Community Garden Network gave away free soil and seeds to encourage people to grow and share local food. #mynewdigs #sudbury Note: Been fighting all morning to get these photos up in our album. Not sure what's been happening, but we think we got it right finally. The interface was doing some weird things. So apologies for multiple posts today when trying to get our photos up!

Photos submitted by participants of the Home Garden Project in 2020 #mynewdigs #sudbury We've added everything we've got to the Home Garden Project 2020 album. Happy to share more!

Adding more pics to our Home Garden project album! Community project to help people grow a garden during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Community Garden Network gave away free soil and seeds to encourage people to grow and share local food. #mynewdigs #sudbury

Welcome to fall gardeners! Community gardener, Paulette Langlois Macdonald from the Westmount 4-H Club Community Garden hosted Ron Lewis in the following discussion on how to put your garden to rest this fall. See this informative conversation below: https://youtu.be/8xjVy7F2u_o

#mynewdigs #sudbury #fallharvest

More photos from the Home Garden project! #mynewdigs #sudbury #fallharvest

While there are still frost Hardy vegetables available in the gardens, it's time to start thinking about preparing your garden beds for winter

Thank you Jo Anne for sharing with us! We had a blast with the Home Garden project this year. #mynewdigs #sudbury #fallharvest

I want thank you for the soil you provided us with . We made a raised bed and planted tomato plants we had started ourselves in the house .. We were very excite...d with the results and we were able to share tomatoes with family and friends .Enjoyed many and still are enjoying the fruits of of our garden.. Have quite a few bags frozen for the tomato sauce and salsa this winter . It was a great opportunity and we were very pleased with how it was delivered and unloaded. See more

We just posted a bunch of photos that participants in the Home Garden project sent us! It's not too late to send us some if you participated in this project. Or post on your FB, twitter or Instagram with the hashtags #mynewdigs #sudbury #fallharvest. We'll go searching for them and post them here too in the next few days.

Some feedback from a new gardener who received soil and seeds from the Home Garden project this year and who is planning on doing a garden again next year! "It was very successful! My first ever vegetable garden. I received both the soil and seeds and what I really enjoyed was that I didn’t have to worry about what to plant, what vegetables I should try, I just used what was in the seed bag and it took away a lot of stress about picking the right items my first time round. ...It was fun just to plant what was provided, see how they grew, and then learn from that what vegetables I really made use of, which had the best harvests and when, and what I might change for next year. I learned a lot about how much space vegetables take, and to leave a lot more room in between them for when they grow! And also that they do grow! So more strategic trellis use will be planned for next year. Also fun to get some flowers as well so I’ve been enjoying fresh cut zinnias as bouquets all summer and bringing them to friends. I’m now saving seeds from the flowers for next year!" " I shared with many people. Neighbours in each side of my house (well to be fair my beans did kind of take over our shared fence so they get to pick anything on their side lol). I also gave Some regularly to my tenant who was off work during covid. My parents and friends also benefited, basically anyone that I saw at any point was made to take a portion of my harvest." We're adding these pics of her garden to our Home Garden photo album. #mynewdigs #sudbury #fallharvest

You may enjoy the reflections below from a community gardener.

Maybe it happened weeks ago that your tomatoes and cucumbers needed to be tied up? A great way of repurposing raggedy cotton shirts or pantyhose is to use them as support ties in your garden. I like to keep a supply on hand so they are ready when I need them

Please take the time to fill out this letter of support.

With the abundance of veggies growing in our gardens, it is time to start thinking about seed saving. I am in love with some cucumbers we have grown and am going to try saving their seed. I was glad I looked up the pro tips, as I would not have thought to soak/ferment to clean of any goo or fungus. If you see a great seed saving article, please share on fb so we can grow our locally adapted seed collection, and share and swap within our community!!