Vision

We started this project last year with the end goal of restoring our untended gardens into vegetable gardens. In science classes, we wanted students to be able to learn about ecosystems, and in particular, how to sustainably grow food. We wanted our grade 8 students to be able to research, design, and build self-watering garden beds, in order to reduce our water consumption.

Action

With our grant funds, we purchased 12 indoor growing lights, humidity domes, heat mats, and enough soil, pots, and seeds to plant over 600 seeds! We successfully germinated over 450 plants. About 90 of them ended up in our school gardens, and over 150 went home with students to continue planting in their own gardens.

We purchased two IBC totes to make 4 self-watering garden beds. These involve perforated agricultural pipes that deliver water into the bottom of the garden beds so that water is constantly available to be wicked up through the soil from below. We continue to compare the amount of hose water used in our IBC beds and our non-self-watering garden beds to see how effective it actually is.

Reflection & Celebration

It has been wonderful to see students getting excited about growing their own plants. For many students, it was a brand new experience to plant a seed, watch it grow, and see if produce food from start to finish. They learned problem solving skills while monitoring their plant’s growth, by looking at strategies to provide correct amounts of water and nutrients.

We were so happy to see students eager to take their plants home and continue their growing independently. We hope that students see how attainable it is to start their own gardens, whether its on a small balcony, or in a large ground space.