Volunteers needed to build containers

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This article was published 19/08/2011 (5545 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A surplus in building materials will be transformed into a surplus of garden veggies next season.

Last month the Brandon’s Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) group set out to construct 40 container gardens that will soon turn a piece of vacant land near Sixth Street North into a vibrant community garden.

Now, with leftover material for 20 additional beds, SIFE once again needs six hammer-wielding volunteers to help on Saturday.

“It is an expansion opportunity for us,” project co-ordinator CJ Grambo says. “It is something that’s powerful and beneficial to the communities that are involved with it.

“And it’s something that we want to keep growing and growing.”

The north end community garden is an expansion of SIFE’s successful Green Futures initiative, which saw a successful community garden established in Rideau Park in the summer of 2010 with the help of students from the nearby King George School.

Last year, the garden provided more than 800 pounds of produce to families living in Brandon’s east end and to Samaritan House.

The new raised community garden beds will give families in the area an opportunity to grow their own garden-fresh produce.

The assembled beds will be transported to the garden’s north end location once it’s dry enough to do so.

After construction of the beds and development of the Sixth Street North location is complete, Grambo says SIFE will look for ways to reach out to neighbourhood residents.

“We want them to come to us but we’re also working with Samaritan House to identify some of the families who live in the area and who could best benefit from the project,” Grambo says.

“It’s still a work in progress right now … and we’re also working on a better plan as to what works best in small gardening space … we hope to have education on that available to residents going into next season.”

Volunteers are asked to meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Cando Contracting, located at 830 Douglas St., where the beds will be constructed, weather permitting.

If you have a hammer or a drill, bring it along, Grambo asks.

More information on Green Futures and SIFE’s other initiatives can be found at sifebrandon.com.