Vision

Being in an urban city centre, we see more and more how important the connection to land and living things are. We also see a need for hands-on and engaging lessons that encourage youth to be independent and work with one another. Gardening is a positive way to address these, and lean into our passions for climate action. There is a lot of eco-anxiety for high school students these days and providing something that is positive and within their control is an important part of hope in this time. Through an indoor gardening program, we seek to build community, curiosity, and care that relates to ourselves as individuals and to others. For now, we have focused on building this within our school, and hope to extend it to our shared communities through donations of produce, plants and more.

Action

Action that we took has resulted in four separate garden areas that we have been able to establish in our school. We have two seedling areas for smaller plants to develop more under grow lights. We used this project as a pilot program for something we hope to see as a natural part of our school infrastructure. At the end of the 7 weeks we have been working towards our goal, there has been clear progress that have brought us to over 150 edible and native plants growing throughout or school.

– We used two more formal check-in meetings, one in April and one in May, to establish our plans for the gardens and get students direction on what should be grown and how we can maintain them in our setting.
– Weekly small group brainstorms about what students wanted to learn through the garden
– We used Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the beginning of the day, lunch and end of day, to check on the growth in different garden areas
– We used Tuesdays and Thursdays to work with groups of 5-15 to plant and germinate more seeds, transplant seedlings to larger pots, water, prune and maintain various garden areas
– Set up a hydroponic system that was donated with submersible pump to maintain a responsible water use and to experiment with soil and hydroponic gardens
– Studied companion planting in large group meetings to help inform design of individual garden boxes (three sisters, night shades, structural needs)
– Learned to set and use timers for LED full spectrum light garden areas to conserve energy
– Visited garden centres to look at the types of plants that grow there as a way to determine which seeds should be bought
– Reflecting on how we could bring more food into our school through a garden and planning what we should grow considering salads and other healthy snacks
– Growing lots of cucumbers to pilot a pickling program and fundraiser for next year
– Working together and teaching each other with out staff support in the spirit of generosity

Reflection & Celebration

There has been a lot to celebrate as part of the outcome for the last 7 weeks. The school is greener and greener every day, and the community that has started to form in response to the gardens is a huge success. We have also had a lot to celebrate as a community and for individuals:

– Students with high anxiety and tend to withdraw in group settings and projects felt comfortable and excelled in these areas.
– Students feeling confident to take initiative in leadership roles and taking on the role to teach others
– Every student and staff in the school will be able to go home with a plant this summer – over 100 people total
– There will be plants to donate to community in the downtown area and in our students’ communities
– Each graduate of our 2023/24 class will be gifted a sunflower grown by our students over the last 7 weeks
– Students who have been uninterested in classes and projects choose to and enjoy participating in the garden program
– Having fun whenever we get to garden together

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