Vision

For thousands of years, humanity has been incessantly connected with nature. Every blossom, every hardship, every storm; it has always been a part of us. We need nature, more than it needs us. Our future is defined by it. Yet now, we are separating ourselves from it more than ever before. Where pollinators once thrived, they are declining. Where trees once grew greatly, they fall. Maybe we can’t fix everything, but sometimes, the smallest things can turn into a mass of a million.

Our vision for this garden is that it continues to thrive, showing class after class of students the true beauty of nature. Showing them how every seed they plant, every flower they grow, leads to change. Our vision for Canada is that every blossom, every hardship, every grain of soil that was once separated from us, becomes a part of us once more. Our vision for Canada is a more sustainable future. A future of conservation and clean air. Our vision is that more gardens like our own will emerge, helping to create lasting change for all.

Action

At Hadfield, we have been dedicated to educating students on all of these issues, presenting to them the true beauty of nature, and teaching them to advocate for the better good. With our gardens, we are teaching students how to grow their own food, promote safe habitats for our native pollinators, and create an oasis that will thrive for years to come. In our garden, we have a huge bed copious of pollinator plants. Pollinators have been in a great decline in recent years, especially bees. Yet, our modern agriculture depends on them. Our entire ecosystem, the food we eat, the air we breathe, depends on them. Still, we are walking away from them, tearing away their habitats. At Hadfield, we have decided to support pollinators by growing our own pollinator habitats, as you can see in the pictures below. With the $200 grant, we plan on purchasing the material needed to expand on this pollinator habitat, letting it flourish in the near future.

Our gardens have been a huge part of our school learning for many years; we were shut out of our garden during COVID and a parent from the community and a couple of staff were able to get in to do a fall clean up. We are looking forward to a big spring clean-up and revival of our perennial and sustainable garden. We will be needing new tools, gloves and seeds, seeding trays and some new perennials to add to our collection.
Currently, we have raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes, strawberry plants and perennial lavender and chives. We have a small butterfly garden that we add to each year.
Our primary classes will sprout the seeds for the vegetable portion of the garden so we will need seeds and trays for sprouting.
We will meet and decide on some new perennials to add this year.
Gardening tools and gloves will need to be replaced and more added to allow for different cohorts to work safely in the garden.

Reflection & Celebration

Teaching students how to grow and nurture these gardens has also been one of our goals at Hadfield. Gardening is very eco-friendly, especially if you are growing your own food. Growing your own food means that you are using less water and soil. You are also producing less air pollution since there is no transportation required for your produce. By growing their own food, students can lower their carbon footprint, allowing for a more sustainable world. This can also be knowledge students can take with them in the future, and share with others along their path. This year, we plan to purchase the gardening supplies needed to help teach students how to take care of this magnificent garden.