Vision

We are making raised garden beds to have outside our greenhouse. We are creating a Secret Garden with pollinator plants, shrubs, fruits, and vegetables. The raised garden beds are first on our list because we ran into issues last year not having a place to transplant the bigger vegetables like beans, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Now, we will also be able to grow carrots.

We partnered with Rothesay High School and they are building the 8 garden beds for us. They have built one bed for us so far, but they are building eight of them for us to go on each side of our greenhouse.

These raised gardens are a part of our Secret Garden design that came from a parent in our Greenhouse Committee. We have a group of parents and teachers that meet usually once a month. I took this project on because I want to see their vision come to life. It is a beautiful design. I also love the idea of having another outdoor classroom area besides the greenhouse because it gets very crowded with 21 students, and it would be nice to be able to have some students working in the greenhouse and some working outside.

Action

The overall goal for the school is to teach sustainability by having the students grow plants from seed. They learn how to take care of and transplant to produce food. They are experimenting with different kinds of mediums (soil and hydroponics) to see which way produces more food.

We recently had a student-led Plant Sale. Students organized the plants into groups and used their Math skills to run a cash float. They really enjoyed it. Hopefully, by learning all these skills, they will grow food for their children in the future. Maybe even become farmers or create a new way of producing food.

The garden beds are a critical part of our design because our intention is to have a Community Garden that anyone can visit during the Summer months and help themselves to the produce. We want to bring in Seniors (we have started that already and have had a few Seniors come help in the greenhouse and run clubs with the kids, but most of the Seniors we asked are still a bit nervous about coming to our school after COVID) to tend to the gardens if they want to help. Gardening is very therapeutic, and plants also seem to raise people’s spirits.

My students love gardening and we have had three Salad Days this year. They have tried so many things that they have never tried before. We even grew Dragon Fruit from the seeds of one of my student’s Dragon Fruit from her lunch.

We have a Lomi in our classroom. The students put their compost in the Lomi and it makes compost within one day. We use that compost to add to our soil for the plants.

Reflection & Celebration

My students loved hosting the Plant Sale. I think it was more meaningful to them because they helped grow, care, and transplant plants. They also helped to prepare for the sale but organizing, pricing, making posters, and labelling all the plants. They enjoyed being able to identify the plants for buyers, add up the totals, give change, and bag the items for transport. We raised enough money for our Grade 3 Field Trip. The rest of the money is going to a charity of the student’s choice.

Gardening is the best thing that has happened to me as a teacher and my students, who have learned so much this year about growing healthy foods. There are so many different ways to relate it to the curriculum and different subjects.

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