Humber is becoming a greener campus and everyone is participating! Humber Sustainability Highlights feature people and departments around the College integrating sustainable practices. This month’s focus is the Greenhouses and the Locavore Garden run by the Humber Arboretum and Centre for Urban Ecology. It is the way of biology: all plants on Earth begin as little seedlings. Valeria Wuschnakowski, Humber’s Greenhouse Technician, and her team of work study students from the Landscape Technician program start gardening by planting seeds at the College’s Greenhouses. As the plants become bigger, some are transferred over to the Locavore Garden in the Arboretum. Whether it’s the plants or the setting, the Locavore Garden has many purposes.

• The Landscape Technician and Horticulture Apprenticeship programs use the garden as a living classroom to identify edible plant species.
• The Culinary Management students use produce from the garden for their culinary labs to create food and drinks for the Humber Room.
• The Aboretum Nature Summer Camp and the Early Childhood Education program use the garden to teach children how food is grown.
• The Aboriginal Resource Centre uses the garden to grow Indigenous plants.

The Greenhouses and the garden are maintained using innovative sustainable practices.

• Two rain barrels are set up at the Greenhouses which are used to water the plants.
• Only compost and manure are used as fertilizers.
• There are no pesticides used.

On top of all the garden uses, the Humber Arboretum hosts two plant sales throughout the year: one in the winter and one in spring. However, this year we get a treat because the autumn semester will have the first ever plant sale! Alexandra Link, Director of the Humber Arboretum and Centre for Urban Ecology, and Savio Colaco, Business Manager from the School of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism, say there are talks about expanding the garden within the next three years to grow more food to support the College’s programs and local community. Vegetables grown in the Locavore Garden Herbs grown in the Greenhouses and Locavore Garden Other plants grown in the Greenhouses

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Squash
• Garlic
• Lovage
• Kale
• Cucumbers
• Beans
• Cabbage
• Zucchini

• Basil
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Oregano
• Borage
• Chives
• Sage
• Parsley
• Nasturtium (edible flower)

• Geraniums
• Spider plants
• Snake plants
• Ficus trees
• Aloe Vera
• Cacti