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Jardin botanique de Montréal – Espace pour la vie
Photograph: © Espace pour la vie (Raymond Jalbert)

The Montreal Botanical Garden will now grow vegetables for food banks and offer gardening classes

With initiatives like flipping a hectare of land to produce food, self-sustainability is on the agenda for the city

JP Karwacki
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JP Karwacki
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Following the City of Montreal's announcement about the reopening of community gardens, collaborative plans to work with the Botanical Garden and the Space for Life (Espace pour la vie) museum district organization surfaced: A hectare (or 10,000 square meters) will be repurposed for the production of fruit and vegetables for Montreal food banks.

The plan will enable the organization to give twice the usual quantity of food for Montrealers in need.

Beyond that, the Botanical Garden has socially-distanced summer programming in the works, including online videos on how to start a vegetable garden at home and ways to access tips and tricks from expert gardeners. If you're getting impatient on getting some advice, note that they've already started to field questions from the public:

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C’est un rendez-vous botanique à toutes les semaines sur Twitter!⁠ ⁠ Michel Labrecque, chef de division recherche et développement scientifique du #Jardinbotanique répondra à vos questions sur la botanique tous les mardis de 14h à 15h sur Twitter, juste à temps pour le printemps 🌷 ⁠ Interpellez-le via son compte @MichelPhyto et n’oubliez pas d’utiliser le mot-clic #QuestionBotanique 🌱⁠ ⁠ Pour connaître ses domaines de recherche et expertise, cliquez sur le lien dans la bio @espacepourlavie⁠ ⁠ *****⁠ It’s a botanical rendez-vous every week on Twitter!⁠ ⁠ Michel Labrecque, Head of the Division of Research and Scientific Development at the Jardin botanique will answer your questions on botany every Tuesday from 2 to 3 p.m. on Twitter, just in time for spring 🌷 ⁠ Get in touch directly through his account @MichelPhyto and don’t forget to use #PlantChat 🌱⁠ ⁠ For more info on his research interests and expertise, click link in @espacepourlavie bio⁠ ⁠ ⁠ 📷Espace pour la vie (Michel Tremblay)⁠ ⁠ #botanique #botany #phytotechnologie⁠ #phytotechnology #botaniste #botanist #science

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This all forms part of the ongoing strategy of the City of Montreal has in the works to provide more food to Montrealers as the world continues its relative shutdown. While Quebec has plans to reopen businesses this month, that doesn't mean that commercial businesses won't be affected by extended closures and—along with reduced levels of incomes among Montrealers hopping onto the Canada Emergency Response Benefit from the federal government—possibly leaving local enterprises like grocery stores in Montreal in the lurch.

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