During the summer, McGill's architecture department teamed up with Roof-Top Gardens to illustrate how urban agriculture can be a real possibility by growing an assortment of vegetables and fruits over the concrete steps of the Burnside building. Last Thursday, the architecture department and the local organization held a Harvest Festival in front of Burnside building.
"The vegetables are all organic, pesticide and hormone-free," Roof-Top Gardens volunteer Julie Lanctot said. "Roof-Top gardens are an option for any household. We have workshops to teach people how to grow vegetables in the containers and make compost. It's also a great way for people to find out where their food is coming from and witness the growing process."
McGill's architecture program made it possible for Roof-Top Gardens to find a space on campus both by getting the project approved and by researching where to set up the site.
"We helped locate adequate spaces by doing sun studies for optimal plant growth," architecture Ph.D. student Leila Farah explained.
"Both the architecture department and Roof-Top Gardens share a common desire to integrate productive planting as a permanent feature in cities," architecture professor Vikram Bhatt said. "By cutting down on imports, which travel 3,000 km to get here, a considerable amount of energy can be saved."
One of the many benefits of this project include reducing the amount of pollution caused when importing vegetables. Aside from its ecological and health benefits, the space dedicated to the gardens aimed to bring nature to an otherwise metropolitan landscape. Bhatt felt that the Roof-Top gardens helped to beautify the McGill campus.
Lanctot agreed, adding that the garden is a good social area as well because those involved tend to share ideals and common interests.
Armel Névo, kitchen manager of local NGO Santropol Roulant, was thrilled with the project's success.
"We wanted to show the world that it's successful and that it's very possible," he said. "The gardens grow an assortment of vegetables including fresh tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplant, onions, herbs and even some edible flowers."
The Roof-Top Garden helped supply Santropol Roulant's Meals on Wheels service, a program dedicated to bringing dinner to house-bound elderly people, with up to one-third of the vegetables needed during the summer months. This success had encouraged Roof-Top Gardens to spread the concept of the gardens to city dwellers for a more ecologically oriented and healthy urban society.
Encouraged by the success of Burnside's garden, Bhatt hopes to bring the project to new heights.
"Why can't Place Ville-Marie become a place like this?" he asked.
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