Vision

St. Patrick Catholic school is located in the centre of beautiful Schomberg which is the service centre for the agricultural community in King Township. Even though our school is surrounded by green space and farm land, we found that our actual school property is lacking biodiversity and a place for students to explore nature. Any former gardens we had at the front of our school were overgrown, weedy, and quite frankly an eye sore. Our initiative began with our Eco Panthers Club wanting to install a pollinator garden at the front of our school that would serve to educate the community about the importance of planting flowers that would attract bees, butterflies, and other insects. Our goal is to have others follow suit and plant flowers on their properties at home to encourage further habitats for pollinators.

Action

Our first plan of action was to decide on where the best option was to install our pollinator garden. We decided on the front of our school as there was a bare patch of grass near the entrance of the school that could use beautification. Once the location was decided upon, we began researching plants that would not only attract pollinators, but were also heat tolerant since this location is primarily sun. Our initial plan was to purchase and install raised garden beds at the front of the school. We reached out to a parent of our school who owns a landscaping company “Pathways to Perennials” for advice. She graciously agreed to come and look at our plan and provide us with suggestions and assistance with our project. Based on the location of our planned garden, she advised against installing the raised garden bed and to dig out the existing grass to provide the plants a better chance of survival. She also assisted us with our plant selection and all of the necessary materials to complete the project.

We recruited the grade 8 students to remove a section of the lawn at the front of the school. We replenished the area with nutrient rich compost. The grade 1 students assisted in planting the plants into the garden. They also learned the names and importance of each plant. Then we added mulch to the garden to finish it off. We are currently adding some finishing touches to the garden such as plant labels that educate the public about the names of the plants and what pollinators it attracts. We are currently awaiting delivery of an insect house that will be added to the garden to provide a home for various insects. We are very excited about our little pollination project. The plants are small now, but we are looking forward to seeing the garden grow!

Reflection & Celebration

We are thrilled about how beautiful and functional our garden turned out. It far exceeded our expectations. This project has inspired the Eco Panthers club and our school community to continue to plan for future initiatives at our school. For example, we are looking to fundraise additional funds to purchase a rain barrel for the garden. This will assist in saving water when watering the garden. A school parent also donated a butterfly kit for the grade 1 students. They are looking forward to releasing the butterflies into the pollinator garden. We were also recently informed that our school is a host of Chimney Swift birds that have been listed as threatened. The Eco Panthers are busy researching these birds and thinking about what plants we can add to the garden to attract insects that these birds eat so that we can help protect their habitat. We are very proud of our project and are very excited to see it grow and develop.