Regenerative landscape design on a farm

Grow Your Own Food

There is nothing quite like harvesting and eating your own vegetables, the freshness and nutrient density are unparalleled. Not only that but growing your own food is an enjoyable experience where we get the opportunity to connect with both plants, soil and other members of the soil food web. Growing your own food brings a sense of freedom that is quite liberating,  you can plan on eating what you wish versus what is available.

WHY, NOW?

Why should you consider growing your food today?

• Food Prices are Rising and are forecasted to continue to do so.
• The food supply chain is fragile and during times of interruption – like during a pandemic – that fragility is fully experienced sometimes causing fear, panic or despair.
• Grocery Store/Industrial food isn’t always safe for consumption – yet we consume it all the time. These processed foods make up a high percentage of the food available.
• Food is the front line of our health, if our food is contaminated, so are we.
• Knowing how to grow your own food is the cultivation of ourselves more so than the cultivation of the soil.

VALUE?

5 benefits of growing your own food?

• Fresh local food is the best quality, tastes better and healthiest for you.
• If you grow your own food you know what’s in it.
• Growing your food means you’re building food security and sovereignty from the grocery store.
• The peace of mind knowing your grocery store is right outside your front door.
• Build and deepen your community connections by sharing your surplus with family, friends and neighbours

Promised Land?

Imagine you walk up, stretching off the restful sleep from the night and there’s not a worry in your mind if you have food in the house. Your garden, the time invested in the soil and your ability to coax food from it, has paid off. You have fresh food in the garden, on your countertop and in your fridge.

You notice that you’re looking trimmer than you have before, and your skin looks a little tighter than yesterday.

A local diet, just outside your backdoor, eating fresh in-season veggies from the garden has had a miraculous effect on you and your life. You sleep better, eat better and have a sense of solace and security you’ve never felt before – the food you need, is within walking distance and it’s the best you’ve ever tasted.

Sound like a fantasy?

It isn’t.

It’s how our ancestors lived.

And it’s possible to begin to grow your food, this year.

The Journey?

What’s the step by step journey you’ll take?

What our service includes:
• We will meet with you in your garden and discuss with you your goals for starting or improving your existing vegetable garden. This is a Covid safe meeting which is held outside and social distancing of 2 meters is maintained.
• We help you with your garden layout (the location and bed spacing), helping you choose the ideal spot based on your solar aspect. We even have a helpful phone app that confirms the amount of sunlight that a given area will receive at any time of the year.
• We’ll talk about what are the best types of vegetables to grow in your garden.
• How soil health and how it relates to your plant health and nutrient density. We’ll show you some simple best practices that will ensure you continue to build soil and soil health which will, in turn, increase your yields and reduce your water needs and labour.
• Different ways to start your new plants, might be direct seeding or starting young plants off in pots before they are planted. I’ll even demonstrate this so you’ll have plants in the ground on your first day.
• Crop protection for the shoulder seasons, how to extend your growing season with some simple steps.
• Water management, how to irrigate your crops and how this changes throughout the growing season.
• Harvesting the bounty, the best time and some tools to help.
• We’ll also touch on some simple food preservation techniques that will get you started and provide you with the tools so that you can easily enjoy your harvest when it’s not in season.

Here’s our step-by-step process:
1. Book an appointment to start the process with your in-person (Covid friendly) garden consultation.
2. We will confirm your appointment with a follow-up email.
3. On the scheduled day, we will meet with you in your garden and further discuss your plans.
4. We will show you the steps you should take, and perhaps we’ll even demonstrate how you would plant some seeds.
5. Once we have discussed the steps you take in creating your new vegetable garden or enhancing your existing garden,
6. We follow up with you and provide you with some written instructions as well as a large list of resources so that you can continue your journey of learning how to grow food on your own property.
7. The final step in our service is a follow-up zoom meeting with you once your garden is up and growing. We can check in with you and answer any questions that you might have as well as celebrate your success.

 

 

Some common questions and answers

Q: I know nothing about growing food  

A: You don’t have to know anything about growing food for this offering. I’ll be walking both complete newbies to growing through this process and those you’ve already tried.
Q: I know nothing about growing plants

A: You don’t need to. I’ll be helping you to know what to do and when to do it.
Q: I don’t want to look stupid

A: Me neither! I’ve asked every dumb question in the book and I now know after two and half decades of growing those questions aren’t dumb, they were the steps I needed to take/ask to learn.
Q: I don’t want to ask dumb questions

A: Are you in my head?! Me neither!!! For me, there are no dumb questions only questions not thought about or expressed.
Q: I don’t want to fail

A: I don’t want to fail either, HOWEVER, when you are learning something new, it’s inevitable that there will be some experiments that don’t work. The only way we fail is if we don’t consider what didn’t work and learn from it. This is a process of trying, making mistakes, learning from our mistakes, and from other’s mistakes and growing our competence and thus confidence.

The cost of the journey not taken?

• You’re one year further from learning how to grow your own food in a system, at least in my opinion, where you will EVENTUALLY HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD.
• It’s not a matter of IF YOU NEED TO, it’s a matter of WHEN YOU’LL HAVE TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD. Our food system is fragile, centralized and ultimately not dependable. If you were alive in 2020, you saw that we are 9 meals away from going hungry if there are no supply trucks feeding the grocery stores. Disruption will happen again and maybe more severe next time.
• Knowing this, why wouldn’t you invest in growing your own skills in providing you and your family with food?

The cost of the journey?
What’s the cost (time, money, effort) for taking the journey?

• Cost of the service
• Time in the garden 5-20hrs a week depending on the size of your garden this year
• Sore muscles
• A bit of worry if things will grow
• Pride and ego WHEN things DON’T GROW or DIE
The cost of this service is $440.00 + GST

Who’s taking me on the journey?

As a principal of JAAN Design, I’ve been growing our own food for over 25 years providing just over 95% of our fruits, vegetables and eggs every year for a family of four.

This year, after seeing friends, family and clients struggle with accessing food during the pandemic I’ve decided to take a few extra hours from my own garden and feeding my family to offer 9 people tailored guidance on setting up their own family food gardens.

I don’t have a lot of extra time but I love helping others and want to share what I know helping my community grow their personal food security and their health by growing their own food.

I’m excited to pass my experience and knowledge along to my friends, family, clients and community.

Angela Giuriato
Regenerative/permaculture designer
• 25 years experience
• Organic master gardener
• PDC certificate
• Homesteader who grows 95% of her own vegetables and eggs
• I’m a designer who actively assesses, designs and implements garden design for others.

Who’s a good fit for this offer?

This offer is for someone who
• Is a total beginner
• Has a lot of enthusiasm for growing their own food
• Is open to trying and failing
• Have very little to no experience
• Has a lot of Interest in the garden
• A keener!

 

 

This service is offered to those living from Parksville to Ladysmith. 

Angela Giuriato

Regenerative/permaculture designer

  • 24 years experience 
  • Organic master gardener
  • Homesteader who grows 95% of her own vegetables and eggs

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