Vision

Our vision for Canada is… to attract butterflies, insects, birds and especially bees! As our bee population is diminishing all over, we’re hoping to entice them back by giving them something pretty to land on and feed off of. Our school community is surrounded by growing housing complexes and all the fertile farm lands are disappearing due to this. We want to have a garden that will be producing flowers throughout the entire growing season which will make our school look pretty enough that insects will want to come for a visit!

Action

After getting permission from our board, we were able to take an existing flower bed and add to it to make it a wildflower butterfly/bee garden. We had quite the time trying to weed the area as the weeds grew faster than we could pull them out. We had some students in our ECO Club who garden with their parents and took on leadership roles by showing others how to weed properly. As this garden is seen by the community as they drive by, we have to ensure that it looks clean and neat. This will require maintenance as the seasons go by. The first thing we have to do in the spring is to weed again to ensure the new plants have enough space to grow. With the plants growing and the flowers blooming, this will attract the butterflies and bees to the garden.

Reflection & Celebration

Our biggest challenge after finding adults to help was the weather. When we had community and parent helpers and we planned a time, the weather wouldn’t cooperate! As this is a new school, the beds are sitting on what felt like solid clay with a few inches of top soil so digging in it was extremely difficult! We are still waiting for the grade 3 team to plant the tulip and daffodil bulbs. After we clean up in the spring, we are hoping to extend the bed even further and take it all the way around the front of the school.

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