Apartment Gardens: Project Summary
Sustainability Projects Fund
Project Leader: Deacon Blue
Email address: deacon.blue@mail.mcgill.ca
Daytime phone: 603-731-4203
Date submitted: 03/21/2011
Activity Code: SP0001
How a culture of sustainability at McGill was fostered
This project increased visibility and awareness of sustainability on campus in
multiple ways. Students and staff were given the opportunity to garden on a small
scale, as well as supplement their diet with nutritious organic local foodstuffs. The blog
and time spent at three bares park gave people an opportunity to open up dialogues
and discuss organic gardening and sustainability issues.
Members of the McGill
Community who went to the farmer’s market were able to see that the SPF and its
projects were benefiting community members.
Additionally, by buying gardening
materials and nurturing the plants by the bulk, a great multitude of people were allowed
to enjoy the benefits of organic gardening at a minimal cost.
Involved parties
Various stakeholders were involved in the process of making this project happen.
Deacon Blue volunteered much of his time to come up with and develop the project, as
well as organize the tasks necessary to complete it, care for the plants and budget the
costs. Sasha Fostre-Andres helped by designing the poster advertising the project. Lilith
Wyatt was instrumental in helping to develop the project as well as acting as a liaison
between the SPF and Apartment Gardens. Arlene Throness and the rest of the people
at Concordia rooftop organic greenhouses made it possible to have a space for the
plants to be grown in by allowing volunteer time spent there to be traded for the use of
their space. The McGill Farmer’s Market were very generous in giving space for the
plants to be distributed every week.
How goals of the project were met
The progression of the project went as planned, however there were some
temporal and logistical changes that had to be made in order to adapt to unforeseen
challenges. Over fifty people received one or two plants, all of whose names and emails
were recorded such that they could be sent information regarding the blog and plastic
pot collection. The project was originally planned out to start planting in May and
distribute plants in June and July, however it was determined that not enough people
were on campus at those times and little success and visibility would be attained. As a
result, seeding was pushed back to late June and plants were handed out in September
and October, when more people would be around for the fall semester and the Farmer’s
Market would have started. This also meant that instead of having two seeding periods,
plants were prepared for early autumn. Only about twenty of sixty some pots were
collected in October, and thus some participants presumably couldn’t find the time to
return them and must have kept them. Perhaps in the future either the plants could be
sold for a minimal cost, or a deposit could be put down for the pot, and returned upon
reception of the pot later on. The rest of the tasks that went along with the project
(posters, blog, etc.) were also pushed back as a result of how things progressed. Many
plants (thin leaved ones like lettuce, spinach and beans) were unfortunately the victims
of bug infestations due to the organic nature of the greenhouse and project, and were
thus not handed out because people aren’t very enticed by eating bugs and ‘ugly’
plants.
Accountability
Apartment gardens has potential to be an effective economically sustainable
project. In its first year, plants were handed out free of charge and students were very
excited about the chance to garden. Materials were relatively inexpensive considering
the impact that the project had, as seen in the budget below. The volunteer work was
however very demanding, requiring many hours per week spent on tasks such as
watering and tending to plants. It may be more effective to therefore pay the workers of
the project, funded by charging a couple of dollars for each plant, which is still much less
expensive than if you were to buy plants at a farmer’s market or supermarket. If
enough plants were produced and sold, the supplies could also possibly be at least
partially paid for, and the project would be of little cost to the Sustainability Projects
Fund.
There is potential for this project to get some additional funds if the plants were
sold rather than given away, and if more plants were propogated. This year, only sixty
some odd plants were distributed, and at two dollars a pot would have paid for half of
the project cost. It took very little time distributing plants at the farmer’s market for the
them all to be handed out, and was done over only two weeks. The controlling factor
was most certainly supply, and if many plants were grown then they could be handed
out over six weeks and throughout the day, thus positively impacting a greater quantity
of people. It would be feasible to produce and distribute upwards of five hundred
plants.
Institutionalization
There is vast potential for carrying this project into the future and it would be a
nice yearly tradition for returning students and staff. Logistically, it was not terribly
complicated to run the project and although the project coordinator may not be able to
indefinitely carry on the project, it could easily be passed on to another community
member to be managed and continued in the years to come.
What was learned
Apartment Gardens has offered lessons about localized food sources, people’s
opinions about sustainability issues, urban agriculture, small project management and
much more. By employing organic methods and localizing food production, resources
like oil, water, electricity, chemicals and more were conserved and left almost entirely
out of the production process. The challenges posed by urban agriculture in a rooftop
greenhouse and people’s apartments were confronted head-on, and many lessons were
taken from this process.
Discussions were constantly being held with various
stakeholders in the project, and people’s thoughts, questions and opinions were always
considered as things moved on. The project had many management tasks such as
financing, task organization, and coordination with the administration. There are still
many interesting investigations and lessons to be learned pertaining to this project into
the future.
Budget
The original budget for the project was as follows:
Expense Description
Estimated Cost
Sustainably sourced peat moss/organic soil (6 bags)
$ 15 * 6 bags = $ 90
Square four inch recyclable plastic pots
$ 1 * 120 pots = $ 120
Seeds mail ordered from Johnny’s Selected (6 varieties, 1 packet each)
$ 5 * 6 = $ 30
Organic nutrients (compost, organic nitrogen)
$ 40
Transportation costs (gasoline), promotional poster printing, tabling
$ 20 + $ 20 + $ 10 = $ 50
Grand total
$ 330
The budget ended up being a bit less than what was originally estimated. The
soil was significantly less than originally estimated. After shopping around, cheaper pots
were found than the original quote that was given. Nutrients cost a bit more than
originally thought. Posters and other costs ended up being a good deal less than first
quoted. Additionally, cheap stakes needed to be purchased for the bush beans.
The actual expenses for the project were as follows:
Expense Description
Cost
Organic soil mix (black earth, peat moss, vermiculite)
$ 49.50
Square six inch recyclable plastic pots
$ 56.43
Seeds mail ordered from Johnny’s Selected (6 varieties, 1 packet each)
$ 33.95
Organic nutrients and mycorrhizae
$ 74.92
Promotional poster printing
$ 20.00
Bamboo stakes
$ 5.63
Total
$ 240.13
Hours
The original estimation for the hours to be spent for the project were as follows:
Type of Activity – Task
Estimated Time Required
Group Member in Charge
Acquisition of materials
4 hours
Deacon
Preparation of seedlings
5 hours * 2 seedings = 10 hours
Deacon
Weekly distribution
5 hours * 15 weeks = 75 hours
Whole Group
Pickup of used pots
1 hours * 8 weeks = 8 hours
Whole Group
Correspondence and promotion 2 hours * 20 weeks = 40 hours
Whole Group
Total Hours
Whole Group
137 hours
The actual number of hours spent on the project differed in a few ways, most
notably that a lot of time was spent on watering the plants and upkeep of the
greenhouse space and plants. Acquisition of materials also took longer than originally
thought. Although there were not two seeding periods as thought, they were planted in
a staggered fashion and ended up taking about as long as was originally thought.
Weekly distribution only occurred over the course of two non-consecutive weeks in
September and October, as plants were ready, and thus took much less time than
thought.
The actual hours for the project were as follows:
Type of Activity – Task
Estimated Time Required
Group Member in Charge
Acquisition of materials
7 hours
Deacon
Preparation of seedlings
3 hours * 3 seedings = 9 hours
Deacon
Weekly distribution
5 hours * 2 weeks = 10 hours
Deacon
Pickup of used pots
1 hours * 8 weeks = 8 hours
Deacon
Correspondence and promotion 2 hours * 16 weeks = 32 hours
Sasha and Deacon
Watering and upkeep
4 hours * 12 weeks = 48 hours
Deacon
Total Hours
114 hours
Deacon (114), Sasha (2)