LITTLE CURRENT—The Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands Community Gardeners is celebrating a significant anniversary with its “Sow a Little Sunshine” project this spring.
“We decided to build on the celebration this year to celebrate the “Year of the Garden, 2022,” and the NEMI Community Gardeners 10th anniversary,” said spokesperson Glena Roy. “The community gardeners have been looking after the (Little Current) waterfront beautification for the past 10 years and we wanted to do something special.”
“We decided to undertake a community project in Little Current,” said Ms. Roy. “It’s about our sunflower seeds campaign. Community gardeners can put these seeds in the pockets and then plant them so everyone has beautiful sunflowers all over town.”
Ms. Roy explained the sunflowers chosen for this year met with some success last year as a NEMI community spirit project. The community garden group has prepared packages with three seeds each with instruction on growing sunflowers and people can choose from sunflowers which will grow one, two or two and a half metres tall. The seeds will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at the NEMI town office, beginning Wednesday, May 18.
Sunflowers are easy to grow, carefree and showy, perfect for all ages to grow,” said Ms. Roy. “Gardeners can plant them in full sun somewhere where passersby can see them and enjoy them.”
“All community gardeners are invited to “Sow a Little Sunshine,” said Ms. Roy. She pointed out, “we have some students from Little Current Public School involved in the program as part of their science curriculum.”
“The sunflower is rich in symbolism, they are cheerful looking and represent all that’s good about summer,” continued Ms. Roy. She pointed out growers could even enter them in Adam’s Sunflower Challenge at the annual Providence Bay Agricultural Fair.
The NEMI Community Gardeners is made up of a dedicated group of volunteers who meet every Tuesday evening to plan and care for the garden areas along the waterfront in Little Current. Also, part of this group of town gardeners are four individuals who sign up for a particular garden space and look after it for the season. New gardeners are welcome.
