plant it forward

Kashi is building and supporting community gardens across Canada and encouraging Canadians to grow their own food. In partnership with Evergreen, Kashi is helping to increase access to fresh, healthy, locally grown foods for urban communities across the country.

Members of the Toronto Kiwanis Boys & Girls Club kicked off the Kashi Plant it Forward initiative by attending a planning sessions facilitated by Evergreen’s urban gardening experts, tilling the soil and sowing seeds.

How can you plant it forward at home? Gardening expert Tara Nolan shares her tips on growing your own edible garden.

Here are 6 Tips to Grow an Edible Garden:

1. Plant Your Grocery List: While it’s fun to grow a variety of fruits and veggies, think about what your family likes to eat the most. If you make a lot of pasta sauce or salsa, for example, grow lots of tomatoes and herbs.

2. Eat The Flowers, Too: Plant edible blooms like violets and nasturtiums, which look lovely as a garnish in salads or to add some pizzazz to an ice cube.

3. Grow Up: If you have a small growing area, maximize space by choosing vining crops such as peas, squash or cucumbers. Use trellises or stakes to train the plants to grow upwards.

4. Grow Salad Bowl: Lettuce is a great cool-season crop that you can plant now. Fill a bowl (be sure there are holes in the bottom) or old colander with soil and sprinkle with lettuce seeds. Lightly rake the soil to cover and water regularly.

5. Keep It Contained: Be wary of voracious spreaders like mint and chamomile, which can take over your garden. Keep these types of plants in pots and out of the garden.

6. Hang It Up: Another way to maximize growing space is to plant certain fruits and veggies in hanging pots. Strawberries, for example, do well in hanging baskets. And keep an eye out for upside down tomato planters.

ENTER TO WIN

To support this initiative, we’re pleased to be giving away a Kashi Plant it Forward prize pack which includes:

· A selection of new Kashi Cereals and snack offerings

· Kashi Plant-it Forward Seeds

· Colours of California Rainboots

Please use the Rafflecopter below to enter this giveaway.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kashi’s Plant it Forward initiative

With May finally here, it’s time to start thinking about gardening season. We grow tomatoes and basil in our backyard every year. Usually we’ll buy about 12 tomato plants and 4 basil plants – garden tomatoes are delicious to have on hand in the summer for our yummy Greek village salads or for fresh salsa. The basil we use to make pepper sauce, and the rest I make into a pesto and freeze.

One year we planted a pumpkin seed that my son brought home from school – it was amazing to see how quickly and vast the plant grew! If we had a bigger backyard, we would plant so much more and grow our own real food.

Did you know that a year’s supply of vegetables and fruit for one person can be produced on an area as small as 100 square feet?!

This spring, Kashi is inviting Canadians to help make a positive difference by getting real about food and helping to improve the natural health of their community through a unique program called Plant it Forward.

Kashi is building and supporting 18 community gardens across Canada by partnerning with Evergreen, a not-for-profit organization committed to green cities and a healthy planet. Together they are increasing access to fresh, healthy, locally grown foods for urban communities across the country. Community residents will take part in the planning process and help build a garden!

Members of the Toronto Kiwanis Boys & Girls Club are getting involved by attending planning sessions facilitated by Evergreen’s urban gardening experts, tilling the soil and sowing seeds. Once the garden is planted, it will be the responsibility of the boys and girls to maintain and nurture their garden. All summer long, they will enjoy growing their own real food, watching their own vegetables grow and enjoy eating them when they are ready.

Kashi is also making a donation to support Evergreen’s mission to inspire and enable action to green cities. Every time a Canadian watches Kashi’s Real Food Manifesto video, $1 will be donated to Evergreen (to a maximum of $50,000).

To help you get started growing your own garden and growing your own real food, look for the organic seed packets that are currently on specially marked boxes of Kashi products as part of the Plant it Forward program.

Join me and take part in the Plant it Forward movement and grow your own real food at home!

Disclosure: I’m working with Kashi to promote their new line of products and the Plant it Forward movement.

Kashi Introduces New Gluten-Free Cereals

6 Tips to Grow an Edible Garden (Giveway)

Here are 6 Tips to Grow an Edible Garden:

ENTER TO WIN

Plant it Forward at Home This Spring

Join me and take part in the Plant it Forward movement and grow your own real food at home!