Container Vegetable Gardening: The Joseph’s response to the COVID-19 Virus

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Over the last three months, the Coronavirus took the world by storm and shook it up in a way that perhaps no one alive now had seen before. It appears that every country has suffered from the effects of this pandemic. This includes Guyana and rest of the Caribbean and Latin America.
Beverely Coppin helping with the garden
Because of the historical, geographical, cultural and economic linkages with the USA, many families in the Caribbean and Latin America have lost loved ones who used to live in the US as a result of COVID-19. 

 The Joseph / Coppin family from Linden, Region 10 and West Coast Berbice, Region 5 in Guyana is no exception. They lost three relatives who used to live in Brooklyn, New York, to COVID-19. This has been very difficult for the Joseph / Coppin family, particularly for the older ones, not only because of the death of their loved ones but also because of the fact that the family did not have access to the bodies to say the customary final goodbyes. 


Jelani and Hadiya participating

Back in Linden, concerned about keeping themselves both healthy and safe, Jermaine Joseph motivated his wife Colleen, his mother and teacher, Beverly Coppin and his two children, Jelani and Hadiya to embark on a container vegetable gardening initiative. They set out to plant basic vegetables at home; thereby reducing the need to go outside of their yards. 

This type of activity was of course not new to Jermaine. He is currently a Field Officer for the Partners of the Americas Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Guyana and a veteran at container and shadehouse vegetable gardening. Having graduated from the Guyana School of Agriculture, he has been in the vanguard of agricultural production initiatives for more than 20 years, and previously worked with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, and the Inter America Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. 

Colleen preparing the grow box
Jermaine is an innovative, productive and driven professional with a passion for rural development and food security; with a high technical aptitude, and unyielding commitment to completing his assigned duties in an efficient and timely manner. 

Colleen, Jermaine’s wife, explained that she first started her garden by using seedlings that germinated from rotted vegetables in her compost heap. She then transplanted these seedlings from tomatoes, celery and peppers into containers that would have otherwise been thrown away. In addition, she had her husband (Jermaine) construct grow boxes from discarded material taken from a builder’s waste pile. Boxes were prepared according to the guidelines of the Partners of the Americas container gardening manual. Mrs. Joseph along with her children then transplanted the seedlings into the grow boxes. The garden is currently being carefully cared for by the Joseph family and harvesting will begin in mid-June.

Colleen shares a few thoughts with us: “Container gardening has taught my family about the preservation of our environment, self-sustenance, and healthy eating. The general practice of caring for our plants has provided a form of physical exercise for my children while igniting their interest in agriculture. I therefore believe that this practice will definitely be beneficial to other families, communities, and the world by extension during and after this pandemic.”


Hadiya with harvested organic tomatoes and celery


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