Thriving Crops in the Dead of Winter?

The punishing Montreal winters make conditions for growing plants or raising vegetables outdoors nearly impossible. But despite the harsh climate, Alex Hu ’22, Pre-U ’23, Tengyi Xu ’22, Pre-U ’23, and the other Pre-U Green Team members set a goal of planting throughout the year.

During the winter and spring months they could be found in LCC’s Centre for Discovery building cold frames, transparent outdoor boxes that protect plants from the cold weather while allowing in sunlight. These frames were placed outside the Webster Learning Activity Centre and are heated with an aquarium heater as well as a heating mat placed under the soil. The heating system and watering system are both automated. The intention, at the time this article was written, was to plant a variety of vegetables, such as peas, carrots, onions, and tomatoes.

We want to do our part in ensuring that the environment is healthy.

“We wanted to raise awareness about the waste in the food industry, and how the transportation associated with it creates a lot of emissions,” says Tengyi. “We are starting small with these two cold frames, but hope to work our way to creating a bigger impact.”

The team received help and guidance from the Centre for Discovery faculty, who showed them how to cut materials and offered meaningful advice on what to plant, the type of equipment to use, and other useful information on flowers and plants.

The motivation for embarking on this pilot project was quite simple. “We want to do our part in ensuring that the environment is healthy,” says Alex.

The next goal is to assess the feasibility of installing solar panels beside the cold frames.