To demonstrate how flower beds can be filled with things to eat and still be pretty, the Altona Community Action Network (ACAN) has planted an Incredible Edible Flower Garden.

Located in a town planter just north of Elmwood School beside the bike path, ACAN member Connie Heppner-Mueller says this small space is crammed with more than just traditional herbs and vegetables.

“We've also got a number of edible flowers. You can pick off the little violas, or some people might call them pansies, they're edible. You can put them on cakes and in salads, and they're just beautiful. We have something called borage, a native plant to Manitoba. It gives these beautiful star-like blue flowers that you can also eat. We've got poppies that you can harvest the seeds from, both for eating but also for planting next year," explained Heppner-Mueller.

“We are hoping to demonstrate that we can all grow some of our own food some of the year,” explains Heppner-Mueller. “The other box [the project] checks is, you know, we used to think of gardens as something you hide away in the backyard and that only flowers should be in the front yard or in places where it's seen by the public. We'd like to change that perception [to] any patch of dirt is available for any kind of planting, including your fruits and vegetables. Why not show it off? And why not look at it as just as beautiful as the traditional flower bed.”

Come harvest time, who will reap the produce from this unique garden?

“Anything that is ripe and ready, help yourself,” says Heppner-Mueller. “We've really tried to build it with things that you can eat on the go, because it's right beside a walking path. If you want to grab a handful of cherry tomatoes when they're ripe or a cucumber to munch on, or a few greens. Maybe pop a scissor in your pocket when you're on your walk if you need some dill for your pickling or some parsley for your soup. It's definitely intended for sharing with anyone.”

The food produced in the garden is intended not only for humans but for pollinators as well, like bees and butterflies. A related ACAN initiative is the Butterfly Way, a system of corridors throughout the town to help pollinating insects thrive. Heppner-Mueller says, “With most of our food coming from pollinated sources, if we don't feed them, they won't feed us.”

She adds the route is marked with signs, with a corresponding map coming soon to the ACAN Instagram and Facebook pages.