Fresh veggies for Feed the Need

The Adopt-a-Garden program has produced more than 400 lbs of fresh vegetables for donation to Feed the Need in Durham, co-produced by Durham Master Gardeners and the Oshawa Garden Club. Seen here are Oshawa Garden Club members Ann Couch, Donna Lindsay and Monika Kachel.
By Courtney Bachar/The Oshawa Express/LJIReporter
More than 400 lbs of fresh vegetables have been harvested and donated to Feed the Need in Durham thanks to the city’s Adopt-a-Garden program.
The program saw nine of the annual garden beds on the north side of Oshawa City Hall converted into vegetable gardens led by Durham Master Gardeners and the Oshawa Garden Club.
Members of the garden clubs have been planting, maintaining and harvesting the gardens to produce fresh vegetables for donation.
Ann Couch, co-lead for the Oshawa Garden Club, says so far, they’ve harvested about 300 pounds of food from their five beds in front of city hall.
Couch says they began planting in early June with their first harvest on July 21. Vegetables include green and yellow beans, zucchini, cucumber, squash, hot peppers, and tomatoes.
Anne van de Velde, co-lead for Durham Master Gardeners, says they have done six deliveries to Feed the Need, one a week since July 9, with a total of about 172 pounds of food being delivered so far.
“The first [harvest] was such a boom for us,” says van de Velde, noting the first harvest garnered 82 pounds of crop for the first delivery.
“And we’re not done yet.”
She says the first harvest was Napa cabbage.
“We planted a whole bunch of cabbage and that’s why we had such a great weight.”
She says so far, they’ve planted cabbage, kale, peas, green and yellow beans, beets, hot peppers, spinach, Acorn and Delicata squash, and carrots.
“And that’s just with four beds.”
She says they’ve been succession planting, replanting after each harvest so that crops will continue to grow.
“Once we pull stuff out and donate it, we succession plant. That’s the really important part,” she says.
She notes the project has become a great example of how to use urban spaces to help serve community members who find themselves in less fortunate circumstances, especially now due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our real passion is getting our hands in the dirt so this kind of opportunity is really what we live for and then we can combine it with educating and giving advice, so it’s a perfect fit for us.”
As one of Durham Master Gardeners’ missions it to reduce the use of plastic, van de Velde says they felt strongly about not using any kind of plastic plant markers. They had some young volunteers – kids from the community as well as kids of some of the members – paint rocks as plant markers.
“The plant markers… some of them actually have the vegetables painted on them. They’re really quite darling,” she adds, noting they can be spotted throughout the garden beds to help label the different crops.
Van de Velde says another great aspect of the initiative is volunteers being able to engage with the community while tending to the gardens.
“We’re there twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays for usually one to two hours, so we have the opportunity to engage with so many people. It’s a great opportunity for us,” she says. “That is our mission – to engage with the public. We’ve been able to interact with so many members of the community, and then we get to combine that with harvesting this food and giving it to people that are less fortunate than us. I really hope this continues.”
Van de Velde says with the great season they’ve had so far, she hopes
they will be able to continue well into October.