A small group of Pontiac residents convened inside the Poupore Elementary school cafeteria in Fort Coulonge for a gardening workshop presented by a local expert in the field.

Hosted by the Jardin Educatif du Pontiac and the Table de Development Social du Pontiac, the event provided locals with the opportunity to learn how to start a home garden in order to grow vegetables without the use of pesticides, saving money on groceries and eating healthy.

The first of the organization’s three workshops on gardening this summer, the presentation was headed by local resident and gardening aficionado Jean-Philippe Blier who showed attendees the dos and don’ts of home gardening.

From knowing what products to avoid purchasing, to determining the right location of your garden to plant your seeds to get their maximum yielding potential, Blier offered all kinds of useful knowledge to help growers get a bang out of their buck this summer.

According to the event’s overseer Martin Riopel, the three-part workshop is an important one for locals when it comes to their well-being.

With so much of food contaminated with pesticides nowadays, he believes proper home growing methods are the best step towards healthy eating.

“For us the idea was helping people to be able to start again themselves, to have fruits and vegetables so they can eat healthy,” he said. “A tomato that goes around the world three times, shot up with pesticides is not the best thing.”

With a wide array of plants, soils and planters among other gardening accessories spread out on the tables in the room, participants were each given a starter kit with $60 in equipment, that included a tissue bag made for planting, planting trays and pocket journals among other things to help them kick off their growing season on the right foot.

Participants listened attentively and asked questions, while Blier revealed a number of tips and tricks for beginners like the importance logging their garden’s progress and plans in a journal and properly storing their soil in buckets instead of bags.

Considering an underwhelming level of participation to the workshop so far, with everything the event has to offer in terms of value, Riopel was somewhat disappointed with the turnout.

“It’s fun that people signed up,” he said. “But I find it disheartening that there weren’t more people. It’s great that we can offer this, but we would certainly appreciate it if the population could participate and support these kinds of initiatives.”

The next workshop, set to take place later this month, will focus on maintaining a garden once it’s already up and running, Riopel said.

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