One of the partners of Tiny Gardens is 'Refarmers', with projects in Vancouver, East Africa and Brazil, we share their vision and a bit of history behind Tiny Gardens.
This quote from Wendell Berry is what drives us as changemakers.
"Such a simple act with such a profound impact. The growing of food allows the eating of food to regain its social and political importance. When we grow food, it becomes obvious that by just simply eating we can shape the world in which we want to live."
Food is connected to everything we do and is one of biggest industries in the world. It permeates every sector, every life, almost every moment. It connects us to people all over the world.
How can growing food not be the tool we use to change the current social and environmental paradigm the planet faces today?
As REFARMERS, we lead by example. We demonstrate how regenerative agriculture works by building small farms at schools, community centres and other food system hubs in rural and urban settings.
We partner with dedicated community members who want to share knowledge about how to create food security, social justice and climate action through food growing.
Every project depends on local knowledge and participation for collaborative results. Working and learning together we install regenerative systems, plant crops to supply the local food program and share the many joys people reap from working together growing food.
The demonstration site always has a secondary purpose such as providing a food program at a school, a learning centre for the community, a location for indoor or outdoor workshops, a space for advocacy and/or a business solution for the organization.
We value indigenous knowledge, we value small-scale solutions, we value long-term regeneration, we value clear communication and transparency.
We envision a future where growing food can be the way we solve the world’s problems.
Sack Gardens and Small Space Gardening:
Kampala and Nairobi taught us the ingenuity of growing food in sacks and how to maximize scarce resources like land by growing vertically. This garden is perfect for when there is not much growing space available or the ground is contaminated. Plants will grow in any direction toward the sun, so planting food all around the sides and top of the sacks is a great way to densely grow a lot of food in a small growing space. All that is needed is some soil, sacks which are usually free from the local coffee roasters, compost, seeds and seedlings. For urban food growing, we like to use worm (or vermicomposting) compost which is a great way to create high quality nutrients for soil without needing much space and without creating an odour. In the short video featured below, Refarmers' MP Bilodeau shares the vision behind Tiny Gardens.