Guest: Khaled Majouji, Ingenius Farms
Big Idea:
“Give access to quality food at an accessible price to everyone” says Khaled, better known as The Plant Charmer among his 86,000 fans on Instagram and YouTube.
Posting interesting tidbits about how to grow food in rain gutters on his urban farm in LaVal, Quebec is an ongoing project but this gardener to gardener chat digs deep and answers a lot of the questions his existing and soon-to-be fans are asking.
“Plants are always pleasant” he says in this interview, “It’s free food, it’s entertainment, it’s beauty….so I just went for it.” Initially sponsored by one of his followers on Instagram, Khaled moved his crop from his urban back yard to the Ingenius Farm three years ago.
“I tried on the ground, like most gardeners, and it was a shocking experience” he says of his first season when he planted broccoli and then spent the rest of the summer looking for it. As a businessman in the Hotel industry before he became a farmer, he simply didn’t know a dandelion plant from a broccoli plant.
Now, the plant charmer warms our hearts with tales of growing strawberries and other food in his rows and rows of rain gutters where fully 40% of the crop are day neutral strawberries.
Main Strawberry Grown for flavour and appearance: Albion
Netting used to protect crops: 80 gram insect netting
Newest enemy of all soft fruit across North America: Spotted Wing Drosophila
Organic Chicken Fertilizer used for strawberries: Acti-sol
Instagram: @theplantcharmer
YouTube: The Plant Charmer https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX-A9OEDehZBqwWAcLm8x0w
