For the 16th year in a row, the NDG Food Depot is hosting its annual seedy weekend event at the Botanical Garden.
They’re expecting 4,000 visitors and this year people can buy and exchange seeds. There are also free workshops.
“I like to be in nature, it's good for the health and very interesting to plant something and look at it growing out. That's pretty cool,” said gardener Nathalie Clavel.
The idea is to make it easy for you to garden at home.
“There's no wrong way to do it, getting a garden going is really simple it's a great activity, it's a great way of getting a couple of plants on your balcony and in your backyard,” said Michael Warren of Earth Alive Clean Technologies.
Les Urbainculteurs, a group that promotes urban agriculture, is offering a quirky new product – mushroom-growing kits that come in a bag packed with organic coffee grounds.
All you need is a spray bottle to grow oyster, shitake and reishi mushrooms on your kitchen counter.
The NDG Food Depot says over the years, fewer small farms have translated into less diversity of crops.
“It's a lot of big farmers that want their broccoli to look the same, the tomatoes to feel the same and to ship across the country or across the continent. They've reduced the varieties they're producing so they ship better and look prettier so they're not necessarily the tastiest ones or the most nutritious ones,” SAID Lauren Porchereva, the depot’s urban agriculture manager.
This year, the depot added a third day to the event when mostly heirloom and organic seeds from across Quebec are sold. Everything wraps up Sunday afternoon. For more information, click here.
