The New Face of Gardening

2015 Virden, Manitoba, Canada

At Virden Collegiate Institute, students Ethan and Jake, were concerned about flooding in the area. A flood impacted the town of Virden in 2014 wiping out the school’s learning garden and the town’s community gardens. In re-building the learning garden, Ethan and Jake considered going vertical, a sure way to protect plants from rising waters.

“This would benefit the watershed in many ways such as the aesthetic, direct economic, indirect economic, and scientific values. The scientific values allow for the garden to be studied by the Biology class, while the indirect economic values contribute to a reduction in carbon dioxide.”

Thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, Ethan and Jake have created a wall of miniature gardens, using pop bottles. This new face of gardening demonstrates how we can re-think new uses for old things; recycling pop bottles is a great way to start such a unique project!

Sustainable Food Garden

2014 Portland, Victoria, Australia

Students from Portland Secondary College were finalists in the 2014 Caring for Our Watersheds competition, with their proposal to implement a Sustainable Food Garden that would help supply the community kitchen connected to their school.

This kitchen is used by hospitality students from Portland and Heywood Secondary Colleges, the Re-engagement center and community at large.

The garden has multiple benefits including: reduction in the purchase of packaged goods, less food waste, and increased biodiversity in the Portland community.

Thanks to the Caring for our Watersheds program and community partners the students were able to:

Construct eight raised garden beds filled with edible native and common food plants.
Set up an organic waste recycle system with composting and chickens to sustain the garden and minimize waste.
Conduct native tree and shrub planting around our school to increase biodiversity in the corridor.

The garden has now been in full swing for several months with students maintaining and using the seasonal vegetables and herbs. The students are also composting their food waste and collecting eggs from the chicken coop!

Regular bird monitoring also takes place to keep track of the wildlife within the school grounds.

Edible Vegetable Garden

2014 Alexandria, Virginia, USA

Students in the Garden Club at Glasgow Middle School proposed to create a raised‐bed vegetable garden in front of the school cafeteria, to reduce the environmental impact of food choices made by students and to promote healthy eating in the school community. Where once an unused grassy area they built was wood raised beds, planting tomato, pepper, eggplant, and other vegetables.

Although their Caring for Our Watersheds proposal did not make the finals round of the 2014 competition, they went ahead with the project using the school participation reward of $250 provided by Nutrien to purchase materials and seeds.

Lacombe Educational Aquaponics Food System (LEAFS)

2014 Lacombe, Alberta, Canada

EcoVision is an environmental-based club for students at Lacombe Composite School. EcoVision has built and runs a greenhouse growing fresh herbs and vegetables in a geodesic dome on the school’s property. A sub-committee of this group is called LEAFS- Lacombe Aquaponics Foods System. LEAFS entered the 2014 CFW Contest with its goal is to build an efficient and sustainable aquaponics system in the greenhouse. The system benefits the Battle River watershed by raising awareness about watershed issues, promoting community involvement, and increases the schools ability to grow their own healthy food. The water used in the aquaponics system will be re-used to water the plants in the greenhouse.

LEAFS will raise tilapia and vegetables for their cafeteria and have a license to sell surplus items to the greater community. The LEAFS system will lower the schools ecological footprint by growing their own food and limiting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, and recycling waste water. The school will also benefit from enhanced educational opportunities and collaboration with community members. Lacombe Composite High School will be one of the first schools in Canada to have a running Aquaponics program that supplies its cafeteria with fresh fish and vegetables.

More information can be found on the EcoVison website: www.lchsecovision.weebly.com

“Compost!”

2013 Hamiota, Manitoba, Canada

Gage, Brady, and Cody, students at Hamiota Collegiate, discovered that most of what’s in their school garbage can actually be composted.

These students proposed purchasing an outdoor composter for their school, noting that education is an important part of the process; a school-wide promotion plan was part of their proposal. “This way if the students know all of the things that would normally go into the garbage at the school now they would be composted and put back in to the environment.” The environmental benefits of composting are numerous, but for these students reducing garbage is key:”this would help the environment because the items would decompose faster n the compost than they would in the landfills.”

Thanks to contribution from Nutrien, Hamiota Collegiate now has an outdoor composter and a school-wide compost program! along with the compost program they have decided that they want to plant and maintain a garden on school property throughout the summer months and into the fall so they can benefit from the nutrient rich composted material.

The Learning Garden Project

2012 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

Cheyenne Svenson, Katelyn MacVicar, Heida Arnbjornson and Emma Wear from Gimli High School live on the shores of Lake Winnipeg and are very conscious of how what happens in the lake is intertwined with the health of their watershed.

This dynamic team proposed to create a garden area by their school to provide produce for their cafeteria and Foods & Nutrition program as well as their local Evergreen Needs community assistance program (which provides assistance to members in many ways, including food hampers).

After months of planning the students at Gimli High School were very exciting to start the construction of their school’s Learning Garden. Along with Nutrien’s contribution of $2,000, this garden was made possible by two community organizations: Nutrients for Life and the Manitoba Eco-Network. “The Learning Garden is a great opportunity to engage students with hands on learning opportunities in many different curricular areas. The Learning Garden is a pilot project to teach students the importance of food security issues that are prevalent here and around the world. GHS’s Learning Garden is also being used as an exemplar for other schools in Manitoba to create their own gardens.” says Lisa Pidwinski, project teacher at Gimli High School.

Earth Gardeners

2011 Alexandria, Virginia, USA

Seventh graders at Hammond Middle School wanted to demonstrate how organic gardening could reduce the amount of nutrients and pesticides that reach local waterways, including Holmes Run. They created a small vegetable garden in the school courtyard, using composted food scraps from the cafeteria.