Vision

Our school is a heritage building, completely rebuilt 10 years ago with gorgeous cement planters paced on various areas of the school grounds. These planters had beautiful bushes in them but over time, because these planter boxes were not maintained by the school district maintenance facilities, these plants died. As an inner city school we have limited funds in our budgets to apply to new plantings. Our vision is to reinvigorate our gardens to the status they once were, contributing to the beauty and welcoming feel of our community school (a heritage building).

Action

The focus of this project was to replant in our two large planters that are positioned on either side of the main walkway leading to the school entrance and to also plant in the flower boxes at the gym entrance. The goal was to have students from a range of classes, engage in the preparation of the garden beds (weeding and soil top-up), planting, and maintaining (watering, weeding) of these gardens. Our Indigenous support worker and several Indigenous students were part of this select grouping of contributors. Thirty plants (combination of native and non-native, small bushes, ferns, and flowering perennials) were purchased and planted.

Reflection & Celebration

This project was significant in contributing to the renewed beauty of our school grounds, but more importantly, provided students with an opportunity they have never experienced before (weeding, planting). The students have now taken it upon themselves to be the caretakers of these plants, checking on them daily, weeding and watering. The project has inspired the continuation of the rejuvenation of our flowerbeds, with the application for more grants to fund the replanting in more of our planters and gardens. Students generally (all classes) are taking more interest in ensuring our school grounds are clear of garbage and well maintained so the impact has been wide-spread.