A group of students from Laurier are putting their love for the outdoors to good use this summer.
KW Urban Harvester is a group for students who want to garden, but don’t have the space, to unite with community members who would like gardens, but do not have the ability, energy or time to maintain one.
“Our three main goals are to promote health, community and education,” said Erin Epp, KW Urban Harvestor’s summer coordinator.
“Health because it gets people outside, community because it connects Laurier students with the community through gardening and education, just teaching people how to garden.”
The group consists of approximately 10 to 15 active volunteers and is currently working with five lots, but hoping to pick up a few more before the summer begins. The idea started in 2006, when
Laurier student Kyla Cotton created the group as a business model, with the main goal being to sustain herself through gardening.
It has been a dormant working group under Laurier Students’ Public Interest Group [LSPIRG] for the past few years.
“We started it up again last year as less of a business and just a group for people to get out and garden,” said Epp.
The students have been given a plot of land on the Northdale Campus from Physical, Plant and Planning.
“We’ve given them some land on the Northdale campus,” said Gary Nower vice-president of physical resources. “They wanted to grow food locally…I told them to not make a mess, don’t bug the neighbours and have fun.”
According to Epp, the group plans to plant pretty much any type of vegetable that will grow in the area and they are 100 per cent organic.
“We use a technique called companion planting, which means we plant things together that compliment each other. For example certain plants add nutrients to the soil that aren’t naturally there,” said Epp.
The vegetables that are grown will be shared between the volunteers and the landowners.
“It’s like one big community garden, and you can trade stuff between everyone,” concluded Epp.
