Planning

Questions

When we first started, we had lots of questions. We read a lot on the internet, and looked at lots of school garden photos.

Team

Our adult team is teachers, admin, librarian, educational assistants. Of course custodians are consulted constantly. Some of us are experienced gardeners. Some are just beginning.

We established goals:

• Connect with nature. As David Suzuki says,  "Unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can't expect them to help protect and care for it."
• Make less waste, through composting and growing food - no packaging!
• Grow healthy food and enjoy eating it. We're an Apple School. 
• Be good global citizens by growing some of our own food. 
• Appreciate and support the farmers who grow our food. 
• Develop leadership skills. We're a Leader In Me school.
• Get exercise, get outside, breathe fresh air, get healthy. 
• Enjoy the process. The product won't be perfect, and that's just fine.
• Engage the school community and share our learning.

Student Leaders
When we first started the garden, we invited volunteer student Gardening Leaders (Kindergarten to Grade 6) to:

• research school gardens in other communities
• draw dream garden pictures
• create lists of things we'd need (eg. trowels, potting soil, gloves...)
• make lists of things they'd like to grow
• go on a sun walk to see where the sun, trees and shade are, to decide on a location

This is our staff dream garden!

Dreaming
Students and staff drew lots of dream gardens. 
There are fun possible themes:

• pizza garden
• taco garden
• stir fry garden
• soup garden
• salad garden
• herb garden
• fairy garden
• aboriginal garden 

Location
Our garden is at the front of the school, to encourage interaction with it, and reduce vandalism. Students come off the buses, head over and look at it. We're close to but separate from the playground.  

Water

• Water is very important!
• Our water source is from a tap at the side of our school
• Students love to water with gardening cans
• The hose is essential for summer watering
• It would be great to have a self-timing solar power, multi-bed watering system from a rain water catchment system. 
• On the other hand, it's very meditative to water with a hose for an hour on a hot summer evening. It's just birds and green things. Peaceful!

Beds

• We are so grateful to the our city, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo for making us our garden beds!
• Raised beds reduce weeds, but do dry out more quickly. 
• We have 5 raised beds, 2' high, so the little kids can see over them
• They are 4' x 12'
• They're made with solid untreated wood
• We did no ground prep underneath, just filled them with dirt
• They're minimum 4' apart, for walking, strollers, wheelchairs, and wheelbarrows. 

Vandalism
We were concerned there might be stealing and wrecking. The first year there was none. The second year there were a few extra people picking. There's been no graffiti and little wreckage of plants.  

Shed and Fence
Some schools have a fence around their garden. We decided not to, so kids and adults can interact with it. But we did put a fence around our experimental outdoor composting area. A shed holds our supplies and tools. 

Summer Care
Since we plant in early June, and then school is closed during July and August, volunteer families care for the garden for a week at a time. They enjoy the food that is ripe at the moment, like herbs, peas and lettuce.  

Trees
The first two years we had the beds near trees. The roots sucked up too much water, and actually grew up into the beds. We had to move the beds over to a new spot away from the trees. 

Animals
We wondered if the deer would eat the garden, as their poop is around there in the winter. But they spend the summer in the forest nearby. The raised beds keep out rabbits. All other animals are important to our learning: insects, worms, birds, bees, ladybugs. We plant some seeds to encourage butterflies. Birds drop sunflower seeds which grow into volunteer plants. The garden is a very dynamic world.

Community Gardens
We checked out the city community garden with 25 family plots and asked lots of questions. They give us lots of excellent advice for growing in this 
environment and give ongoing support. 

Our Farmer Mandy of Meadow Creek Farms teaches us how to grow food
and support the farmers who feed us. Farm to Fork!

Mentorship Farmer Mandy of MeadowCreek Farms teaches us about farming. She's an awesome woman encouraging people to build relationships with the people who grow their food. She's done workshops for our students and we sell her veggies as a healthy fundraiser in the falls. 

Money
It costs money!
This would not have been possible with the kindness of: 

• BP Oil's A+ For Energy grants for fence, shed, composters, worms, tools, bedding out plants. Thank you!!!!
• Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, parks department for making our raised garden and filling them with dirt. Amazing.
• RMWB Waste Management branch supplied us with start up Red Wriggler Worms, brochures and workshops. They support our efforts to be a greener school, with curbside pick up of recyclables
• Communities in Bloom supplied every child with Bloom of the Year seeds and includes us in their Judge visits
• We did a composting workshop for Fort McMurray Environmental Week  

Process
We have to be patient. There was a lot we didn't know at the beginning,
and we had to be okay with that. Every year is a new adventure. It's a learning process, for everyone. 

There will be some very experienced gardeners around to give advice which is wonderful. But it's also really important that the garden belong to the students. Therefore it will be messy and imperfect and less productive than a professional garden. That's a good thing. This is learning and it's good science.