SPEC School Gardens Program

June sees the most exciting time for those involved in the school gardens projects - harvest festival!  The images speak for themselves...

Who says kids don't eat veggies?  The kids at QE couldn't get enough of the radishes and greens last week when they were thinning the crops.  Someone said that they just don't taste the same when mom makes us eat them - maybe that's because they were eating them fresh from the garden, or maybe there was no pressure, or just maybe it's because they planted that seed, watered it and watched it grow with anticipation of this moment?

The level of excitement in a grade 1 classroom was contagious when their teacher announced that Catriona was coming in for an Insect Workshop. The group asked and answered questions about insect morphology, behaviour and identification, before being told they were going to go outside and be real bug scientists. Heading out to the school grounds armed with pooters (bug catchers), magnifiers, and petri-dishes to collect bugs, they dived into the bushes and soon we heard ‘Look a green spider’, ‘cool an earwig’, ‘I think I swallowed a fly’ and ‘ahh, do we have to go back inside, this is fun’. Bug hunting was followed by a close up look at some live stick-bugs, mealy worms, QE’s butterfly collection and the favorite, a giant cockroach. The kids drew the bugs, labeled their body parts, and took away a new understanding and appreciation of the insect world and of real life science.

The SPEC School Garden Project team go out into the community to promote their projects.  Mother's Day weekend they were at the UBC Botanical Garden for their Growing Affair, spreading the word about their projects.

This workshop teaches about pollination and pollinators. Catriona explained the parts of a plant, then showed the class how to dissect and identify them. Tulips were handed out and taken apart with great care and skill, before being drawn and labelled. The pollination and the role insects play was discussed, and bee anatomy explained, as well as the role of mason bees, and how to make a mason bee house. The class took away a greater understanding of how a flower makes a seed, and an appreciation of bees. One grade 1 student who was afraid of bees before this workshop now approaches them to study and point out their body parts, in particular the pollen basket on their legs. She told her mother that you mustn’t kill bees, because they are important and help make our food.

A Grade 1 class was asked 'Why Grow Food'?

Thunderbird Elementary School is unique in that the entire school is involved with the school gardens project.  This gives the students ownership of the garden, and helps to nuture a sense of responsibility and caring for it.  The garden boxes were built by the woodworking students from Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School, and installed at a workparty in February.

Queen Elizabeth Elementary School obtained funds to install an orchard garden in 2010. The project was a collaboration of staff, students, parents, PAC, VSB, SPEC, Evergreen Foundation and others. The garden would not have been created without the enthusiastic team of supporters, who volunteered hours of time gathering rocks and logs, digging, planting, mulching, pruning and watering the garden. Ongoing workparties will ensure the orchard garden is pruned, maintained, weeded, and watered throughout the school year, and during the summer months.  The garden has created a unique outdoor classroom, and groups are often found there doing art, practicing their plant idenfication skills, or just enjoying nature. It will be a legacy for future generations of QE students and the local community.

Direct Seeding Cold Season Crops Throughout the day, groups of 4 students came out to the garden boxes to plant them up with cold season crops – they choose from greens, peas, radish, arugula, carrot etc. Catriona demonstrated planting technique, how deep, how much spacing and most importantly how to label the rows, then the students planted their crops. This year at Queen Elizabeth School, each class involved in the garden program gets their own garden box, and eagerly come out to check on their garden’s progress throughout the year. It has been cold, so crops have been slow, but they are now taken off, and the harvest party in June is looking good!

This spring a set of new garden boxes were build and installed at the Queen Elizabeth Elementary School Garden, adding an additional 5 gardens to their space. Woodworking students from Tupper Secondary School designed and prefabricated the boxes in their workshop, then brought them to QE School for installation. As part of the process the Tupper students mentored the QE students, teaching them woodworking skills and safe tool handling, and in return gaining supervisory and teaching skills. After completion, a workparty of students, staff and parents showed up, in the snow, to fill the boxes with soil. The following week they were planted up by the students, and a food garden is created. School Gardens are a true community effort! Laying out the boxes Close to completion Finished product Work party to fill the boxes - in the snow! Classes planting up their garden A food garden emerges

Potatoes are planted in tubs, and due to the unseasonable cold, they are kept inside the classrooms by ‘sunny’ windows until later in the month. The students watch carefully to see if they have sprouted, and very gently add new soil as needed. They potato crop last year was impressive, and eagerly eaten up at the harvest party in June. This year, more classes are involved, which means more variety and more potatoes to look forward to.

The SPEC School Gardens Project began as a pilot in two schools, in March 2009, reaching 190 students.  By April 2012 the project had grown to 7 schools, and over 1050 students have been involved by building, planting, learning, maintaining, harvesting and eating the fruits of their labours. The project has received over $20,000 in grants, donations and other support from various sources, as well as in kind-donations, and time from school PAC's, parent volunteers, teachers, students, local businesses and foundations. The purpose of this site is to share some of the stories and images from the project, to share information, and to inspire more schools to get involved in creating, growing and harvesting their own food gardens.  The site will document some of the events of the past years, then become an ongoing blog of activities by the school gardens project team.