We have several different demonstration and functional gardens that are used both for education, seed production and more. Our gardens include:

• Seed Saving Garden and Seeds Alive! Project
• Permaculture Garden
• Biointensive Garden
• Cut Flower Gardens

Medicinal Herb Garden

We're looking for a volunteer gardener for the Medicinal Herb Garden. A local person with gardening skills would be perfect for this position.

Seed Saving Garden and Seeds Alive! Project

The Seeds Alive! Project aims to help preserve our global plant genetic heritage and promote hands-on, experiential learning of seeds and the diversity of plants. At the core of the Seeds Alive! Project is our half-acre seed garden where we grow and save seeds and conduct hands-on workshops on seed saving.

Seeds Alive! has been made possible with the commitment of three parties: Carrot Cache (provides financial support), Everdale (provides the garden site at its organic farm), and Bob Wildfong, president of Seeds of Diversity (the gardener and workshop instructor).

Objectives

Everdale and our Seeds Alive! Partners have taken the first steps toward our long term vision of establishing a first-class seed facility here in the years to come. Our goal is to have an ever-expanding seed saving garden; a seed bank; seed research facilities; as well as continuing our work in the sphere of public and farmer education.

We are striving to meet the very real need of protecting and enhancing the seed bio-diversity that is under threat from GMOs and other consequences of the failing global system. Our seeds are the diverse living genetic code that makes sustainable agriculture and healthy ecosystems possible.

1. To grow rare and heirloom vegetable seeds in order to provide them to farmers and gardeners in our bio-region. We focus on vegetable varieties that are at risk of becoming extinct due to the practice of mono-cropping and the influence of GMOs. By continuing the propagation of these rare and heirloom varieties we are preserving the diverse living genetic code that makes sustainable agriculture and healthy ecosystems possible.
2. To teach everyone from school children and the general public to farmers and consumers about the seeds: why they are critical to a healthy, sustainable food system; why GMO technology is unsuitable; and how we can work together to protect and enhance the world's natural seed bio-diversity.

Highlights

• Education in the Garden

  • Over 60 regional farmers and farm apprentices visited and helped out on our Seeds Alive! Garden in 2002.
  • In 2002 over 400 school children and urban youths got their hands dirty while playing and working in the Seeds Alive! Garden.
  • Our public workshops on seed saving are a great way to get your own backyard seed saving project started.

• Seeds of Diversity
  

  • From 2002 to 2005, over 150 different varieties of fruits and vegetables have been grown in the Seeds Alive! Garden.
  • Organically produced seeds harvested from the Seeds Alive! Garden are available to members of Seeds of Diversity through that organization's annual Seed Exchange. Look for seeds available in Everdale's store!
  • The Seeds Alive! Garden is a testing center for Seeds of Diversity's new Plant Description Keys. With funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and with technical assistance from Plant Gene Resources of Canada, this toolkit for observative gardeners will allow people across Canada to document the vast diversity of garden plants in a consistent, systematic way.

• The Great Canadian Garlic Collection

  • The Seeds Alive! Garden is a hub of Seeds of Diversity's Great Canadian Garlic Collection. This collection of over 30 kinds of Canadian garlic is maintained and studied at fifty sites across the country, and the complete collection is grown at Everdale Environmental Learning Centre. Garlic is one of the most popular "new" crops in Canada, but only one variety makes up over 90% of commercial plantings. We intend to diversify the garlic that you can buy, by increasing farmer's knowledge about this exciting plant. Because Canadians deserve Great Garlic!

• Canadian Tomato Project

  • The Seeds Alive! Garden is a multiplication and observation center for Seeds of Diversity's Canadian Tomato Project. There are over 100 varieties of tomatoes with a Canadian origin or introduction. Volunteers are growing, multiplying and documenting these varieties in bio-regions throughout Canada to promote their use and to identify the best growing conditions for each variety. Your favourite tomato should be a Canadian tomato!

Permaculture Garden

Such a garden exists at Home Alive!^TM

The permaculture landscape of Home Alive!^TM is designed to function as one interconnected, self-organizing system. Each component from the dwarf fruit trees, grape vines, edible flowers, pond, beneficial bacteria, dragonflies, rain barrels, arbor... they all play a role to clean waste water, purify air, build soil, help reduce green house gas emissions and provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds. This garden is designed to mimic the complexity of natural ecosystems in ways that help us prosper, reduce our ecological footprint and make a positive contribution to our environment.

This beautiful, diverse and highly functional landscape is ideal for the environmentally-aware home owner or developer who wishes to cut maintenance costs, help reduce green house gas emissions, and contribute in a positive way to improved water quality, air quality, soil fertility, and a friendlier environment for beneficial wildlife and our whole community.

The permaculture principles behind the Home Alive!^TM landscape are widely adaptable to any greater or lesser degree, from home garden, cottage, condo balcony, organic farm or industrial park, to an entire neighbourhood or ecovillage. In many cases important landscape functions, such as waste processing, composting, organic food production and microclimate protection achieve greater efficiencies as the scale of the application increases.

The Permaculture Garden was designed and built by Environmental Landscape Architect Brad Peterson. Peterson has over twenty years experience in environmental management, and over fifteen years experience in landscape architecture and environmental design. Brad can be reached in Guelph at 519-763-5260 or by e-mail at edc@sentex.net.

Biointensive Garden

The Biointensive Garden is designed to address the issue of how we will feed more and more people on less and less land. It enables backyard gardeners to grow all of the vegetables that they will eat in a year on only 200 square feet. This method of gardening also uses much less water, energy and time than conventional gardening. Learn about space-saving techniques, companion planting and proven soil preparation methods in this garden, and try them out in your own space!