THUNDER BAY — The Matawa Heath Co-operative celebrated the grand opening of its Wellness Garden, located at the Matawa Training and Wellness Centre at 523 Algoma Street North on Thursday. Myles Armstrong is a horticulturist who has developed the Wellness Garden from the beginning. “This is really a beacon of a food sovereignty program.
We’re really getting staff engaged in the wellness aspect of the garden, and it's really quite an abundant and beautiful place that's coming together here. “We're really working towards a closed loop system where we're able to grow the things that we need, use the things that we grow very efficiently as we process and harvest them, using the compost organic matter,” he said. Armstrong said they have a giant compost pile to build the soil, collect seeds and be ready to grow the following year.
“A lot of the things that are planted here are perennial crops that are going to come back year after year. "We have a tremendous variety of medicinal herbs, culinary plantings. We've got some hardy fruit trees and then a lot of really high-value ceremonial plants like tobacco, sweetgrass and things of this nature.
” Everything has come to life since this past April, Armstrong said. “The domes themselves were constructed nearly two years ago by Four Rivers. They're a program within the Matawa organization.
“We started talks and planning for this particular project over the winter, and we just got started on the ground here early in April,�.