This is a great topic to add to your list of New Year's resolutions: discover once and for all if it is worth it to cultivate your own food. If it is, start planning for the growing season of 2025!

If you are involved in the grocery shopping for your family, you are aware of the rising costs of fresh food, particularly since the pandemic. It seems every week there are increases in the basic foods we take for granted. Why do they cost so much? Are we imagining this cost increase or is it real? Have a look at the table and graph below to observe how some prices have changed in recent times.

Average Price of Basic Produce in Canada

These specific foods have been chosen for several reasons. They can be grown almost everywhere in Canada, there was adequate information for every column, and they are easy to grow, harvest and store. For comparison purposes, note the inflation rate for Canada during the pandemic years was 3.4% in 2021, 6.8% in 2022, and 3.88% in 2023. To say that we are living in unpredictable times is an understatement. As you can see from this table and corresponding chart, some items such as apples, carrots and canned tomatoes have increased at a more reasonable rate than onions and potatoes. Now that you have the data on the average cost of purchasing produce across Canada, how much would it cost to cultivate these crops yourself? Because we promote organic growing at Gaia College, we can also pursue organic seeds and tubers.

Average Cost of Cultivating Basic Produce in Canada

There are many variables to consider here. Soil, compost and amendments have not been accounted for where I live in Medicine Hat, for example. I would have to use the maximum amount of water; however, I can make my own compost. Perhaps you live in an area with enough moisture but may have to augment your soil. Clearly, it is not always less expensive to grow your own produce unless you have optimum growing conditions where you live and moisture for the season is plentiful, or you can collect and use rainwater. It is less expensive to buy apples until fruit trees start producing - usually that is not for at least three years. Perennial plants are an investment. 

So, I ask again, is it worth it?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term 'worth' is defined as: 

1. "worth something having a value in money, etc.
2. used to recommend the action mentioned because you think it may be useful, pleasant, etc. 
3. important, good or pleasant enough to make somebody feel satisfied, especially when difficulty or effort is involved. 
4. worth something (of a person) having money and possessions of a particular value"

If it is not solely money that motivates us, what are some other actions or values of 'worth' that could justify the growing of our own food? How about these fifteen?

Pros	Cons
Improved diet
Increased exercise	It is hard work
Time spent in nature	Time
Reduced stress levels
Social connection (family and neighbors)
Reduce your carbon footprint
Control how your food is grown
Learning opportunities for you and your kids	You may make mistakes
Superior flavor
Share the bounty	You may grow too much
Convenience
Improved diet
Self sufficiency
Try new things
Support pollinators
Learn about insects	Insects

While you digest some of those fifteen reasons, I will share some of the reasons I grow my own food. I was raised on a mixed farm in central Alberta with five siblings. It took a giant garden to feed us and every Spring our mother would plan the garden and purchase all the seeds we would need. Then we would all help plant, maintain, harvest and eventually store the bounty.

We had a huge root cellar with a large window in the adjacent room that was completely removable. This window was removed twice a year in the Spring and the Fall. In the Fall we would haul in truckfuls of carrots, potatoes, turnips, cabbage, rutabagas, garlic and onions from the garden. And while the window was open, we would shovel in a load or two of coal for the stove. This was our heating source for the house before we had a gas furnace installed.

Once everything was stored properly, the window was buttoned back up, the garden debris was buried in a trench, and planning for the next year would commence. If we had a surplus of a certain crop, we would trade a truckful of carrots for a truckful of potatoes (for example) with a Hutterite or Mennonite colony down the road. Sometimes they would show us around their compound, and we would be amazed.

When Spring arrived the window popped back out and everything that did not get eaten was taken back out again in the opposite process and fed to the pigs! This task left us exhausted. My father believed in the ‘more is more’ philosophy.

Why plant two acres of carrots when you can plant eight acres? While we are on the carrot-rant; he used to send us out singly into the carrot field for weeding duty with a hoe and an alarm clock. He told us that when the alarm went off, we could come home. I think it was only an hour or two, but I was too young to know. I found out only recently that my siblings went out there and napped in the carrot fields! I may have been the only one weeding those eight acres of carrots.

The same ‘more is more’ philosophy applied to most other vegetables and fruits. Potatoes and strawberries come to mind first. When we hauled the unused potatoes out of the root cellar in the Spring, we used them for seed potatoes, as they had shriveled up nicely. Even though we had more than enough, our father thought it would be best if we cut these up to make MORE tuber cuttings. “Because you don’t want to run out - that would be embarrassing”.

He had crop rotation down to an art: I think he may have invented crop rotation. Fields of carrots became fields of cabbage, then potatoes, then strawberries. One year he decided the goats should be where the strawberries were, and we had to transplant acres of them to another field (the strawberries, not the goats). Most farmers use crop rotation as a tool to control pests and to protect the soil; I think my father used crop rotation to keep his children occupied and his goats confused.

Obviously, things have changed a LOT since I was a young girl. However, feeding our families remains a top priority for everyone. All the fifteen items listed above in the ‘Pro’s’ column were addressed when I was growing up with fresh food from a garden; I just did not know to appreciate it at the time.  

If growing food sounds interesting to you, consider signing up for some courses at Gaia College today, and get started on your own list of pros! 

Annette Vierling

Sources:

Australia, G. o. (2019, 05 07). Irrigating carrots for profit and environmental management. Retrieved from Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's Agriculture and Food: https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/water-management/irrigating-carrots-profit-and-environmental-management?nopaging=1

Barker, B. (2010, 02 10). Understand crop water use to guide management. Retrieved from Top Crop Manager: https://www.topcropmanager.com/understand-crop-water-use-to-guide-management-4937/

Canada, S. (2022, 03 16). Monthly average retail prices for food and other selected products. Retrieved from Statistics Canada: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000201

Canada, S. (2024, 11 20). Food Price Data Hub. Retrieved from Statistics Canada: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/topics-start/food-price

Canada, S. (2024, 12 04). Monthly average retail prices for selected products. Retrieved from Statistics Canada: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810024501

Center, W. A. (2018, 04 02). Apple Orchard Irrigation. Retrieved from Montana State University: https://agresearch.montana.edu/warc/guides/apples/Apple_Irrigation.html

Dictionary, O. L. (2025, 01 01). Oxford Learners Dictionary. Retrieved from Oxford Learners Dictionary: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/worth_1?q=worth

Hat, C. o. (2024, 01 01). 2024 Utility Rates. Retrieved from City of Medicine Hat: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.medicinehat.ca/en/home-property-and-utilities/resources/Documents/Utility-Rate-Brochures/Utility-Rate-Brochures-2024/CMH-2024-Utility-Rates.pdf

Market, U. R. (2022, 05 25). The top 5 benefits of growing your own vegetables. Retrieved from Urban Roots Garden Market: https://urbanrootsgardenmarket.ca/the-top-5-benefits-of-growing-your-own-vegetables/

Nations, F. a. (2021). Land and Water - information on water relations and water management of onion. Retrieved from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: https://www.fao.org/land-water/databases-and-software/crop-information/onion/en/

O'Neill, A. (2024, October). Canada: Inflation rate from 1987 to 2029. Retrieved from Statistica: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271247/inflation-rate-in-canada/

Ontario, G. o. (2008, 04). Irrigation scheduling for tomatoes. Retrieved from Government of Ontario: https://www.ontario.ca/page/irrigation-scheduling-tomatoes#:~:text=An%20average%20cultivar%20requires%20about,total%20from%20May%20to%20September.

Perfect, P. (2022, 07 11). 10 Reasons Why You Should Start Growing Your Own Food. Retrieved from Planet Perfect: https://plantperfect.com/why-you-should-start-growing-your-own-food/

Seeds, W. C. (2024, 12 30). Vegetable seeds. Retrieved from West Coast Seeds: https://www.westcoastseeds.com/collections/vegetable-seeds

Shahbandeh, M. (2024, 11 29). Statista. Retrieved from Food price inflation in Canada - statistics & facts: https://www.statista.com/topics/9659/food-price-inflation-in-canada/#topicOverview

Wimmer, L. (2022, 07 22). Dig into the benefits of gardening. Retrieved from Mayo Clinic Health System: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/dig-into-the-benefits-of-gardening

If you are a plant professional, or interested in becoming one with Gaia College, there are consequences to be aware of. You may soon be looking far too closely at plants everywhere you go; lush, forested backgrounds in swaying exotic trees on inviting travel brochures. You will be trying to identify that awesome palmately compound leaf in the background that would look great in your foyer. 

My love of dogs and plants have combined into a pursuit that has lasted over the twenty years that I have lived in this Southern prairie location. One of my consequences of plant inquiry has been cataloging native plants and lichen colony locations everywhere I hike through the growing months. 

I have two enormously energetic dogs that must run off-leash everyday for  as long as there is breath in my body. Usually, a daily hike means 20 kilometers for them and one or two for me. While they are out looking for whatever it is that dogs are seeking, I am taking photos, environmental notes and sometimes samples of plant material and soil that are indicative of a new or interesting area. 

This practice of cataloging exact locations, plant and soil features, and habitat conditions for species detection is called a Plant Survey. There are often singular reasons for plant surveys, and they can include looking for rare, new, and invasive species, but the one purpose above all is to preserve and protect the habitats where they are found. 

Based on the average of the 20 years I have been doing this in "my" Medicine Hat coulees, I could walk with you from my home to where and when: 

An entire hillside of Delphinium bicolor (low larkspur) will bloom on a South slope the same time as chokecherry shrubs (Prunus virginiana).

And first blooms of Penstemon nitidus (smooth blue beardtongue) will  appear on the East slope in sand texture among rockslides.

This photo has a few treasures: Cymopterus glomeratus (plains cymopterus) is the largest plant with white flowers, and underneath it in the upper right (and throughout the coulees) is a Lycophyte Selaginella densa (lessar spikemoss). In the upper left corner, you can also see the silvery leaves and pink flowers of Cmandra umbellata (bastard toadflax). Comandra is hemiparasitic; it photosynthesises, but on days when it is feeling tired, it can also obtain nutrients from other plants!

This is another of natures' palette that could not have been designed more beautifully. Here we have Erigeron pumilus (shaggy fleabane) with Eriogonus flavum (yellow umbrellaplant). And yes, under it all we have more Selaginella!

The entire plateau of the South coulee is covered in Allium textile (prairie onion - the round ball-shape flower) with the panicles of Penstemon albidus (white beardtongue). This Allium is edible - it is very small, but delicious!

On occasion I will preserve a plant sample by pressing, mounting and labeling it for use in workshops and classes. These are herbarium specimens and can last for decades. 

How can you not love Lichen; how beautiful are these? A Lichen is not a plant. It is a sandwich species made with a fungus (dominant) and an alga. 

My husband (former horticulturist) and I have also named 'our' coulees based on what plant material they boast. When I ask where we are walking today, an answer could be "The Rare Allium Plateau". This is a sarcastic dig on some taxonomy texts that refer to native plant material in our area as 'rare', when in fact we find the specimens completely overtaking some areas. 

Cracking the spine of a new (or new to you) book is a beautiful way to learn new things. But there is no better learning experience than spotting a plant in its natural area that you do not recognize and solving the puzzle of its identity. Using environmental and habitat clues like soil texture, hours of light, wind tolerance, slope and topographic location on a hill, aspect (N, E, S, W) amount of litter (or bare ground), moisture needs, and my favourite - associated plant species (what is growing around it), gives you so much information about what that plant could be (if you do not know). It also gives you a lot of information about what that plant cannot be. 

If this sounds interesting to you, consider signing up for a course and get started on your own consequence of plant inquiry!

Plant survey links to learn more about what's growing in your neighbourhood:

E-flora BC
Alberta Native Plant Council
ABMI

Submitted by Annette Vierling. Annette is a landscape designer and course facilitator of Organic Master Gardener and Ecological Landscape Design. Read Annette's full bio. 

Shorter days give us a chance to come in from the garden and enjoy a good book. And we've got some lined up. 

Gardening in A Changing World: Plants, People and the Climate Crisis 
by Darryl Moore 

From the book: “An examination of the relationship between gardens and current environmental issues, and how ideas can be explored that create positive and holistic ways of engaging with the natural world.” 

Greenwood 
by Michael Christie

From the book: "It's 2034 and Jake Greenwood is a storyteller and a liar, an overqualified tour guide babysitting ultra-rich vacationers in one of the world's last remaining forests.

It's 2008 and Liam Greenwood is a carpenter, fallen from a ladder and sprawled on his broken back, calling out from the concrete floor of an empty mansion.

It's 1974 and Willow Greenwood is out of jail, free after being locked up for one of her endless series of environmental protests: attempts at atonement for the sins of her father's once vast and violent timber empire.

It's 1934 and Everett Greenwood is alone, as usual, in his maple syrup camp squat when he hears the cries of an abandoned infant and gets tangled up in the web of a crime that will cling to his family for decades.

And throughout, there are trees: thrumming a steady, silent pulse beneath Christie's effortless sentences and working as a guiding metaphor for withering, weathering, and survival.

A shining, intricate clockwork of a novel, Greenwood is a rain-soaked and sun-dappled story of the bonds and breaking points of money and love, wood and blood—and the hopeful, impossible task of growing toward the light."

Personal opinion: If you didn’t want to hug a Douglas Fir before reading this, you will want to afterwards. Readers will be able to relate to the changing climate and an epidemic that alter our ecosystem and humanity.

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
by Robin Wall Kimmerer (available November 19)

From the book: “As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.””

When Ken Nentwig was growing up, he remembers his grandparents had a cistern in their house to store rainwater. An age-old practice has become a modern necessity as we learn how to adapt to changes in climate. 

Harvesting rainwater allows for the water to be kept on site and used as a resource, rather than letting it runoff into the storm system. “Rainwater harvesting is almost like a new industry and yet it’s an age-old method of capturing the rain and using it from cisterns,” Nentwig said.  It reduces the demand on municipal or well water - aquifers- when it is available, instead of using treated water which is brought in from far away, we are able to capture the water and put it back on site. As an example, he said “We don't have to use treated water for flushing toilets, we can use rainwater for that.”

A concept schematic for a private residence in Hornby Island, B.C. Ken Nentwig photo

 

As a retired landscape architect, with four decades of landscape related experience, and sixteen years as a college professor at Ridgetown College in Ontario, Nentwig has shifted his work into independent consulting and education. 

Based in Victoria, B.C., Nentwig specializes in conceptual design and feasibility to help people determine how a rainwater system will work on their property and what parts will be needed.

With longer and heavier bouts of rainfall, we continue to see excess stormwater runoff from roads and buildings, especially in urban areas where the dated infrastructure is unable to keep up with climate changes. That’s why we have flooding, Nentwig said. “As storms become heavier and less predictable and as droughts become longer and deeper, we’re finding that rain water harvesting is one of the tools we can use to help mitigate the extremes that we’re witnessing and solve some of the problems of old infrastructure that does not handle the new way things are happening around us.”

A downspout-to-pipe connection in a community garden at the University of Victoria. Ken Nentwig photo

 

Most municipalities have a treatment plant that brings in water from wells, lakes or the ocean. After treatment, the water is sent off to buildings, Nentwig explained. “If we don’t have to do that, we don’t have to spend all the energy and we don’t need to have that infrastructure if we can keep the water that lands there, on site and use it.”

The City of Victoria has a rebate program for those who practice sustainable rainwater management on their property through the use of rain gardens, green roofs, bioswales and other systems. When harvested in a sustainable way, rainwater becomes a resource and helps the man-made watersheds in urban landscapes mimic the function of natural systems, which allows water to be diffused back into the water table naturally.

 

This is an in-basement tank array at a private residence in Victoria, B.C. Ken Nentwig photo

 

“People are starting to realize that rain water is an alternate source that is now being dumped into the sewers,” Nentwig said. “So interrupt that and make use of it.”

Nentwig has developed and facilitated online courses in Rainwater Management and  Landscape Design Basics with Sketchup Pro through Gaia College since 2011. He is also the Lead Trainer for CANARM (Canadian Association for Rainwater Management), where he developed a Canadian-based certification course, and is involved in the training programs of  the U.S. based group,  ARCSA (American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association). 

 

Ken Nentwig is an educator and concept design specialist for rainwater harvesting systems. Ken Nentwig photo

 

The Rainwater Harvesting and Management course at Gaia College can be an important asset to many tradespeople and areas of work including landscape architects and garden designers,  engineers, educators and decision makers within government. The next semester begins January 10, 2022.
 

To learn even more about Ken, some of his illustrations and conceptual design projects can be found here: https://www.behance.net/KenNentwig 

By Brenlee Brothers

It isn't just us feeling the ill-health effects of environmental degradation. Climate change and biodiversity loss are among the human-caused factors contributing to the rise of infectious diseases among people, animals and plants. From a meta-study reported in the New York Times.

In this article, author and Gaia College instructor David Tracey explores how Living Green Infrastructure can help mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events on urban environments. Thanks to integrative nature-based solutions, municipal leaders and citizens alike can feel hopeful about combating the climate crisis. 

Living Green Infrastructure is now a study stream offered through our Diploma in Organic Land Care. 

Even long term climate crisis watchers would have found the news this summer particularly troubling. 

They had to close the Acropolis to prevent tourists from suffering heat stroke in Athens, a city which has also hired Europe's first Chief Heat Officer (CHO). Canada's worst fire season in history led officials from New York to Chicago to issue air quality warnings. In lower South America temperatures reached nearly 40 degrees Celsius during what was supposed to be their winter, a phenomenon climatologist Maximiliano Herrera called one of the "most extreme weather events the world has seen." Even our most reliable temperature regulator to date, the sea, is in peril with the BBC headlining, "Ocean heat record broken, with grim implications for the planet."

Grim yes, but hopeless, certainly not, if enough people commit to the solutions such as Living Green Infrastructure. This innovative approach to city-building takes a holistic, ecological approach to development using nature as a guide. While grey infrastructure channels excess storm water through a system of curbs and gutters and pipes to a treatment plant or large body of water, green infrastructure means adding areas of healthy plants and living soils to absorb stormwater in place. This can not only reduce construction and renewal costs of massive concrete networks, but also improve health and quality of life for human and non-human urban dwellers.

"Grim yes, but hopeless, certainly not, if enough people commit to the solutions such as Living Green Infrastructure."

Living Green Infrastructure (LGI) can go by various names, including Green Infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development (LID), but the principle of working with rather than against nature is the same. No matter what scale – from a rain barrel to water the garden around a single home to a conduit of wetlands linking a region, Living Green Infrastructure adds life while softening the harder edges of urban existence. 

Doing it right, naturally, all comes down to the details. As a holistic approach, it requires people with the vision and skills to collaborate with like-minded colleagues across boundaries. Designing the living city our planet needs doesn't mean you must master each part. Someone trained to help living soil ecosystems thrive amid crowded urban conditions may not have the time or resources to become an expert in how city trees grow differently than their forest counterparts. But gaining a fundamental knowledge in the value of the components and how they all fit together is crucial for anyone hoping to join the growing list of those working for a better planet. 

 

"This innovative approach to city-building takes a holistic, ecological approach to development using nature as a guide."

Urban designers, planners and engineers, as well as urban growers, educators and anyone else looking to improve our living conditions at home and planet-wide will find a rich source of study materials through Gaia College's course in Living Green Infrastructure. Besides providing a chance to develop the skills and language required to work with Living Green Infrastructure, it may also offer something rare for our challenging times: hope. 

Remember Athens? It too is looking at Living Green Infrastructure to tackle the climate emergency, including a plan to revive an ancient Roman underground viaduct to water parks and create more green and blue spaces. Another example of a nature-based solution, a good idea whose time seems to have come again. 

About the Author

David Tracey is a designer, writer and community ecologist. He is also an adjunct professor for UBC's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the author of six books including Vancouver Tree Book, a BC #1 Bestseller. He will facilitate the Living Green Infrastructure course for Gaia College from September, 2023.

Read more about David Tracey.

Learn more about our Living Green Infrastructure course, and our Diploma stream.