Southeast Newcomer Services launched its annual garden competition on Saturday, with participants planting seeds in the raised garden beds at the Estevan Community Gardens.
Stephanie Kane Davis, the program co-ordinator for SNS, said there will be nine participants involved this year. Whereas last year’s competition saw teams determined based on age, this year’s competition has participants divided randomly.
It means there will be people of different ages, genders and gardening experience levels on each team.
Kane Davis said the number of participants has doubled from a year ago.
“My hope is that next year we’ll have even more participants,” said Kane Davis.
Teams had to decide which seeds to plant, and then they planted them on Saturday. They also had to decide which part of the raised garden bed to plant the seeds, since that will determine how well they grow.
People will be encouraged to post pictures of their produce on a Facebook group throughout the competition, allowing them to see progress. Once harvest is complete, the team with the best produce will be declared the winner.
Kane Davis hopes the competition will be a good learning experience for younger gardeners in particular.
“We will have more seasoned, experienced people, with the older crowd, so hopefully there will be a nice mix, and they will be able to teach the younger ones how to grow vegetables,” said Kane Davis.
The Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan is funding the project.
