Tender care: keeping CSI green during the pandemic – Centre for Social Innovation

So, what does caring for an entire building’s plants look like? 

Veronika is our Greenery PECA. A PECA is a Project Exchange Community Animator (you can learn more about that on the Exchange Animator page). She is in charge of “greening” our space through special projects and initiatives. Deenie calls her “our resident plant lover extraordinaire” and for good reason: Veronika can often be found tending to her planted trees in the alley or feeding the indoor plants worm compost she makes from all of our food waste.

Deenie is our tried and true CSI Annex Caretaker. She was kind enough to take over for Veronika from March to September in the early stages of the pandemic. Her master key certainly proved useful! Many CSI members would have lost their personal office plants otherwise, not to mention a few of CSI’s rather finicky hibiscus trees Deenie says she had to save. 

Any Favourites? 

Deenie admits, “my favourite plant is a twenty-five year old grapefruit tree I grew from a seed. My daughter and I loved to peel and  eat grapefruit like an orange. We were sharing one when she was nine. We found a seed that had a little green trying to poke through. Now, this tree is too large to winter inside my home but enjoys a sunny welcome inside the Whole Note office on [the CSI Annex building’s] fifth floor. 

Veronika says, “my favourite is the Yucca tree in the second floor meeting room that was donated by Trainer’s Gym. It has branches winding in many directions, crossing over and under each other. Members have suggested I cut the branches and re-root them so that they can grow straight, but I tell them that the tree reminds me of the CSI logo in its defiant messiness. Sometimes life is not linear, and is a bit haphazard, but that is what makes it interesting. The tree is a reminder that the path to a goal is important, not just the goal; that adaptability is of value, and that life can take you many ways before you flourish.”

Veronika’s words are a helpful reminder as we make our way through the third wave of the pandemic. It’s comforting to know that eventually when the path is cleared and we can finally re-enter the space, our community will find a lot of life, fresh-faced and blooming, ready to welcome us back. We all have Veronika and Deenie to thank for that.