Growing community one vegetable at a time

What does being a part of a community mean to you?

To Crystal Sturgeon it means sharing a common interest or goal. A collaboration of big and small gestures ultimately ending in kindness for the people around you. Sturgeon spent an afternoon with an old friend of hers, Phillip at Foothills Advocacy In Motion Society (FAIM) planting a community garden at Strathmore's Main Street Market.

This is Sturgeon and her husband's second year here in Strathmore; they moved for her husband's career from the Okanagan and Sturgeon got a full-time job working for FAIM.

"I love working for them, we did a lot of walking down the streets, we walked around Kinsmen and while we were walking I noticed that there were just some areas that were just not so loved."

Sturgeon says she is a maker of things, a grower of things, and a herbalist, so when Main Street Market moved in she sold some of her items there. One day when she was on her way to the Market she noticed a planter that she thought could use some extra care.

"I asked them (Main Street Market) if I could sponsor this planter and start a community garden."

So, that is exactly what Sturgeon did. "While we were planting, there was a handful of people that drove by and saw us. There were some people who were walking out of the insurance building next door and they were snatching some of the strawberries and that is kind of what it is all about. People can also learn about some medicinal herbs that they didn't know about before and watching vegetables grow and just bringing joy to the community."

They planted more than 200 sunflowers that will be in full bloom in late July or early August. There's a wide variety of things like vegetables, fruits, herbs like mint, chamomile for tea, and more. Sturgeon says she hopes this will inspire the next person to spread joy and love.

"There's a whole bunch of planters around town that could use some love, so I hope that makes more people want to pitch in around the community."

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