Kindness, much like a garden, grows best when it’s shared. Gardener Rachel Gill is cultivating more than just vegetables; she’s helping thousands of people grow their own food online while helping feed neighbours in need. “Start small and don’t expect perfection. My garden is a hot mess!” exclaimed Gill, while looking around her greenhouse in Kars, Ont. The mother of two is keeping it real with sage advice on how to make a garden grow. “This is my first year growing in the greenhouse. My cucumbers are completely taking over. Every year, I’m learning something new as well,” she said. Gill’s gardening journey started nearly 15 years ago as a way to save money and feed her family. Now, her garden has grown enough to help feed her community. “I started really small. We had one four-by-eight-foot raised bed,” Gill explained. “Then, every year, every six months, my husband would build another one. By the time we left (our former) property, we had 42 raised beds.” For over a decade, Gill has cultivated a following on her ‘How Does Your Garden Grow’ Facebook page, as she learned how to grow fresh produce in her own backyard. As it turns out, a lot of people were hungry for advice. “I try to make it as accessible as possible. I grow a lot of things in containers. It’s not hard to do, you just need to know how,” she said. “I think that’s where people have a lot of questions, and I’m able to give that information in little clips.” Gill’s biggest harvest isn’t from her more than 100,000 followers, or from the carrots, peppers, or beets from her garden, it’s from helping people who need it most to feed neighbours in her community. With the help of her online following, anyone can donate or buy a “Pay-It-Forward Basket” of fresh produce that Gill personally creates for local families facing food insecurity. “It honestly makes be teary because a lot of (the families) I’m actually still in contact with,” said Gill, as she put fresh produce, herbs, and flowers in a basket. “The messages or the emails that I get from them, indicating what a difference it made in their life, just knowing that it’s made a difference in their life, is like, why else are we here?” Gill knows the power of community firsthand. While a family member dealt with a major medical issue, Gill remembered what it felt like to receive help from family, friends, and neighbours. That inspired her to pay it forward. “It made such a difference in my life that I want to be able to help other people in that way too, and then encourage other people to do the same,” said Gill. Last year, 74 baskets reached 17 families with local producers pitching-in with homegrown items like farm-fresh eggs, honey, soap, jam, and so much more. Proof that when one person plants a seed of generosity, an entire community can grow. “I’m not a master gardener. I’m just a mom who’s growing food and sharing with other people and trying to get other people interested in it as well,” Gill said.
