JoatU: A Gardening Initiative in Montreal

September 16, 2014

love.joatu.com  Grass to Gardens Initiative

Urban agriculture is a movement that is growing in urban Montreal.  Every year there are more and more public spaces that have vegetables and herbs growing in them ready for neighborhood consumption and cultivation.  The greater vegetable yields we can produce locally, the more we will save on transportation and distribution costs.  Families will be able to save a few dollars. Communities will be able to educate themselves first-hand on the cycle of vegetable life and people will become increasingly inspired with the concept of being self-sustainable.

Now enter JoatU.

JoatU (which stands for the Jack of all trades Universe) is an altruistic online classifieds that builds and strengthens community through bartering, trading and giving of skills, materials and time to others in your neighborhood.  JoatU also encourages individual participation in community projects by offering tradable “community points” as acknowledgement for their help!

Watch this short walkthrough for a greater understanding.

Now that you see how JoatU can help you and your community, let us explain how we at JoatU can directly help our communities today with an urban agriculture initiative!  We want to reach out to our community by planting vegetable gardens in our neighbours yards and split the produce with everyone who helps!

Food brings people together, we know this. So let’s plant the seeds (literally) to bring people together!

Here’s how you can help:

  • Offer a portion of your sun-rich lawn in the Plateau Mont-Royal region in Montreal to plant a vegetable garden box.
  • Make a small contribution (We only need 30 more people donating $20 each to reach our goal!)
  • Spread the word on social media, in real life, or however else you can imagine!
  • Lend us your tools when we need them, a space to work, a van to borrow, or by donating some of the necessary gardening products (e.g. soil, seeds, seedlings, etc).
  • Help us build the garden boxes in Spring 2015.

We’re counting on you!  This campaign is running until September 22nd!  Have any questions? Contact us.

Here is a list of tools that we will need:

  • Space to work
  • Soil
  • Compost
  • Wood (12ft 2×8 or scrap)
  • Table Saw
  • Drills
  • Truck (for delivery)
  • Shovels
  • Wheelbarrow
  • Seedlings
  • Seeds
  • Chicken Wire
  • Irrigation Tubing
  • Timers
  • Perlite
  • Level
  • PVC Piping
  • Mesh
  • Soil Rake

Want to learn even more about JoatU? Enjoy this interview I just did with Valhalla!


Jamie Klinger is the founder and CEO of JoatU (Jack of all trades Universe). He is also a professional photographer with his own company, Honestly Marketing.