Transplanted

After a long illness, my father, Richard Homme, has passed away. I am with family back in Cobourg, Ontario, staying in his home until we have sifted through everything and, eventually, got the house ready for sale.

My sister, Meta, and I felt that our dad would have wanted us to grow his vegetable garden one last time. He turned his front lawn into a productive vegetable garden with the help of a permaculture design consultant. Meta and I have revived his garden space and are planning to turn it into a zero- to low-maintenance vegetable garden for this growing season. Here is how it looks after being planted:

I'm planning to cover the garden in oat straw mulch, perhaps over a layer of newspaper, to make for very little weeding and watering over the summer. Watering will be a combination of sprinkler and soaker hoses on a timer. If a family member or family friend can stay on top of harvesting, then that should be all that's needed. Hopefully the result will be a tidy, productive vegetable garden that inspires future tenants to tend to it as such in the years ahead.

Here is the first part of a mini documentary that my father created describing the origins of his vegetable garden as it relates to food security: