This is our second in a series of Gardener Spotlights on various BPCG members who share with you their gardening stories. We hope you will be inspired.
On a sunny day you can find Maggie enjoying the rays, working on her laptop in the garden. As a current graduate student in the Department of Political Economy at Carleton University, she decided to get a plot at BPCG and tend to her plants on her way to the office. Instead, she has moved her office outdoors.
Aside from the reprieve that the outdoors provides her from research and writing, Maggie recognized that growing her own food was an affordable way to have fresh vegetables all summer. This impacted her decision to join the garden. In addition to the satisfaction of eating something that you grow, she also finds weeding to be therapeutic.
This is Maggie’s first year at BPCG but she has worked on other gardens in the past. Last year she helped out with her families allotment plot of which her sister planned and coordinated the planting. This is the first time she has had a garden completely on her own and it is thriving! Beets, carrots, radishes, beans, chard, kale, tomatoes, arugula, spinach, lettuce, basil, and two tiny marigolds (to ward off pests) fill her 8x4 foot plot creating a smorgasbord of summer produce.
While she does have a bit of experience gardening, she admits that most of the techniques and tricks she is employing are new to her. She planted radishes and carrots together which has given them more room to grow and has also cut down on the weeding that is required between them. She also had a colony of ants living in her plot this year so she had to find innovative ways to get rid of them. She made a homemade ant trap which captured most of them, while the rest she used vinegar to trap and scoop out.
Overall, her experience with BPCG has been very rewarding. She has learned that gardening requires a lot of patience, and says “it’s good for the head and the heart.”
Article photo by Ashley Prince
On a sunny day you can find Maggie enjoying the rays, working on her laptop in the garden. As a current graduate student in the Department of Political Economy at Carleton University, she decided to get a plot at BPCG and tend to her plants on her way to the office. Instead, she has moved her office outdoors.
Aside from the reprieve that the outdoors provides her from research and writing, Maggie recognized that growing her own food was an affordable way to have fresh vegetables all summer. This impacted her decision to join the garden. In addition to the satisfaction of eating something that you grow, she also finds weeding to be therapeutic.
This is Maggie’s first year at BPCG but she has worked on other gardens in the past. Last year she helped out with her families allotment plot of which her sister planned and coordinated the planting. This is the first time she has had a garden completely on her own and it is thriving! Beets, carrots, radishes, beans, chard, kale, tomatoes, arugula, spinach, lettuce, basil, and two tiny marigolds (to ward off pests) fill her 8x4 foot plot creating a smorgasbord of summer produce.
While she does have a bit of experience gardening, she admits that most of the techniques and tricks she is employing are new to her. She planted radishes and carrots together which has given them more room to grow and has also cut down on the weeding that is required between them. She also had a colony of ants living in her plot this year so she had to find innovative ways to get rid of them. She made a homemade ant trap which captured most of them, while the rest she used vinegar to trap and scoop out.
Overall, her experience with BPCG has been very rewarding. She has learned that gardening requires a lot of patience, and says “it’s good for the head and the heart.”
Article photo by Ashley Prince
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