Vision

Our Gr. 9 class made plans to revitalize our existing school garden. They identified four ways to help our garden succeed:
1. The garden requires soil amendments like compost or manure.
2. We need to attract more pollinators to the garden.
3. Mulch will inhibit weeds and help maintain soil moisture.
4. We want to plant vegetables that will be useful for our Nutrition program in the fall, like cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers.

Action

First, our Gr. 5/6 and Gr. 9 class planted cherry tomato, zucchini, pumpkin, and cucumber seeds with the Gr. 5 and 6 students. The Gr. 5 and 6 students cared for the plants as they germinated and grew. They watered the seedlings and put them outside to grow strong in the sunlight.

The Gr. 5/6 class learned about pollinators over the course of the school year. We invited a local expert, Laura Reeves from Prairie Shore Botanicals, to teach us about what plants support the pollinators in our area. She planted some seeds with us, and we also chose some plants from her native plant nursery. We cared for our seedlings until the weather permitted us to plant them in the garden.

The garden was very overgrown and needed lots of weeding. Many students volunteered over recess and the whole class found some time to tackle the job! Once the weeds were removed, we added compost and manure and mixed it in. Then we planted the vegetables and native plant seedlings.

Reflection & Celebration

Our students really enjoyed planting seeds and caring for them as they grew. They demonstrated understanding of importance of pollinators to our ecosystems and how we can support them. We had excellent germination rates for our vegetables, and that meant we had extras- many students were excited to take them to grow their own vegetables at home!