For the summer of 2019, Éco-quartier Peter-McGill has created 5 new collective vegetable gardens.

All the work of sowing, planting, cultivating, maintaining and harvesting is being carried out by Éco-quartier Peter-McGill and its volunteers. The goal of this project is to give back to the community by donating part of the harvest to local food banks such as the Welcome Hall Market, which gives vulnerable populations access to more fresh vegetables.

Éco-quartier Peter-McGill is currently managing 9 such collective gardens in the district.

Some of the gardens focus on edible plants attractive to pollinators, which have the dual benefit of providing food to humans as well as to bees and other pollinating insects in downtown Montreal.

Others promote traditional Indigenous knowledge and skills:

Working with members of the Indigenous community in Peter-McGill district, we have created two gardens dedicated to edible and medicinal plants used in traditional Indigenous culture.

The aim of this project is two-fold:

• to give community members access to fresh produce
• and to highlight traditional cultural practices relating to native and medicinal plants.