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Canada: Vegetables aren’t all that grow in Whitehorse’s community gardens

Groundshare participant Dianne Nolan shows off a previous season’s haul of carrots. (George Green/Submitted)

Social bonds, a sense of accomplishment and healing all spring from the soil

By Jim Elliotjun
Yukon News
June 1, 2023

Excerpt:

Dianne Nolan is one of the growers tilling a Groundshare plot this spring. She’s been at it for the past three years. She has access to some raised garden beds and says she tries to introduce something new to her harvest each year.

“I just keep going and going and going like, what else can I do? So last year was brussels sprouts. This year I’m going to try turnip,” Nolan said.

She also plans for a variety of vegetables, including cabbage, carrots, potatoes, kale, radishes, herbs, greens and more. Her favourite produce from the garden is her beets — both the deep purple roots and the greens that show above the ground.

“It’s very therapeutic for me. It’s my safe space. It’s my own personal healing working with the soil and nurturing my heart, my soul,” Nolan said of her time in the garden.

After nurturing the plants in the garden beds, she passes the care on to people around her, providing food to friends and family, including her four children and three grandchildren.

“It just makes me feel good that I’m helping them in that way. You know, some of my family don’t have a lot of space or don’t have any space, right? So they’re really grateful for what I bring in the fall and throughout the summer,” she said.

Read the complete article here.