The Parkdale Horticultural Society is a longstanding non-profit organization with a mission to make community gardening accessible to people of all ages and physical and/or mental abilities. This is achieved  through a variety of programming, and this coming Monday they are hosting “Ecological Wellness Through Urban Agriculture”—a talk led by Nicola Thomas. 

As the Grand River Food Forestry Founder and a Community Capacity Builder, Thomas is both a respected environmentalist as well as an expert in restorative landscape design. We’re excited for her presentation that will  “explore the transformational possibilities of urban permaculture with a focus on how we can be the change to an ecologically sustainable future”, as outlined in event description. 

Being a ‘green thumb’ is definitely an aspiration of ours, but we’re not there yet (we had to look up ‘permaculture’ to understand further). On Wikipedia, it’s defined as “a set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking, simulating, or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems’. Or as this Ted Talk explains, permaculture is about trying to solve problems by looking at what already exists in nature. 

Curious? Everyone is welcome to attend their first Parkdale Horticultural Society for free! If you want to become a member, you needn’t be an avid agriculturalist, simply an enthusiast. The Society is proud to be an inclusive one, “Our members make gardens on roof-tops, apartment balconies, indoors, under glass and under lights, outdoors, and some only in their minds”. 

We all have the power to help make Toronto a greener and more livable city. 

Ecological Wellness Through Urban Agriculture will take place Monday February 24 at the Bonar-Parkdale Presbyterian Church (250 Dunn Avenue). Doors open at 7 p.m., talk begins at 7:3o p.m. Refreshments available. RSVP on the FB event page now, and find out more about membership here.