Bauta Initiative Profile: Deborah's Garden
Established in 2007, Perfectly Perennial is a home-based business based in Pouch Cove, producing locally acclimatized seeds and bedding plants for perennial and self-seeding annual vegetables, herbs and flowers. This year, with funding from the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, the business will be expanding their plant and seed production work, and have created 4000 square feet of new garden area, including space for 40 raised beds and field row crops.
The new space came with a bit of a surprise and turned out to be ideal for plant and seed production. Dan Rubin, owner of Perfectly Perennial, explains: “The really neat discovery was that rather than finding good old Newfoundland rock and gravel, once the grass was scraped away, we found an area that had been gardened and used for animals (a stable site) for more than a century. The soil at our site is rich and dark, which is a really good start on a growing mix for our plants.”
Deborah’s Garden will focus their seed production for food plants that can provide regional food security, including locally acclimatized brassicas, squash, grains, beans and potato varieties that do well in the harsh Newfoundland climate and which can be stored through the winter. “Most people don't plant out until June, because it can still snow through the months of May and June,” says Rubin. “We will be taking advantage of row covers, cloches and other structures to protect our plants from cold, so we will be going ahead as soon as the beds are ready.”
This great organization is one of nearly twenty across Canada that are working, as part of the Bauta Family Initiative, towards creating a network of seed banks that will act as regional sites for seeds specifically adopted for each area. The project’s goal is to create a national seed distribution network that is publically accessible for gardeners and growers, and continually expands the quantity and diversity of seed varieties that are grown across the country.
Perfectly Perennial Herbs and Seeds offers an annual workshop in mid-April focused on creating year-round gardens by combining raised beds with protective structure and planting different crops in succession. This approach allows gardeners to harvest food throughout the entire year.
To find out more about Perfectly Perennial or to order seeds visit http://www.perfectlyperennial.ca.
To find out more about the Bauta Family Initiative on Candian Seed Security visit www.seedsecurity.ca.
Photo credit: Dan Rubin.
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