Image Credit: Facebook / Open Door Group

By Ashley Legassic

COVID-19

Open Door Group’s annual plant sale going ahead — with some changes

Apr 15, 2020 | 12:59 PM

KAMLOOPS — With physical distancing and isolation measures in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people are occupying their time with different hobbies.

One of the activities gaining more popularity is gardening, and the Open Door Group’s Gardengate program is hoping its annual plant sale will be better than ever.

Robert Wright is the program coordinator for the Gardengate Horticulture Program with the Open Door Group. He says in light of the COVID-19 situation, there will be some changes to this year’s annual plant sale.

“Obviously we’re going to have to be following all the rules that relate to what public health officials have been saying, so that’ll be relating to all of the social distancing as well as we are preferring to go with cashless sales, so we do have methods of doing that this year which is different from the past,” Wright says. “We’ll be limiting the number of people on site and all of that kind of stuff as well.”

This year, the sales will be May 9, May 16, and May 23 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at 915 Southill Street.

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Gardengate is a mental health program funded by Interior Health.

“We work with people, with adults who are living with mental health or addictions,” Wright says. “The garden is a meaning of work. We’re supporting them in areas of vocational rehab, life skills and pre-employment training. All of the revenue that we generate, the proceeds that come out of our plant sales, goes back into the program.”

Wright says with more people spending time at home and taking up gardening, the program is prepared to guide people through the basics.

“We’re always open to assisting people who are new to that process or who just need a little bit of a helping hand to start out,” he says. “There’s a lot of different purposes (gardening) does serve, so whether that’s first and foremost being able to grow your own food, but you know getting all of the benefits of the physical exercise, as well as getting that mental health break that a lot of us are, I’m sure, needing right now.”

The plant sale will support the expansion of Gardengate, which has a cost of $500,000.

Certified organic bedding plants grown by Gardengate participants and volunteers will be sold during the sale.

For more information on the plant sale, keep up with the program’s Facebook page.