Garden boxes made

We are finally on the way! This Saturday everyone met up with Jean and Natalia from Lake City Farms and they led us in how to put together the garden boxes. Now we have 4 x 14′ x 30″ boxes ready to plant! We were a little short on the soil order, so more will be delivered this week if the weather stays dry (the rain can even mess up the soil!). Once we know the day of the week, we’ll need some volunteers to show up after school or work and shovel the soil into the remaining 2 boxes.

Since we had a lot people show up, a splinter group tackled the existing shrubs dotting the west side of the school grounds. We were all excited to see tulips, rose bushes and various shrubs under the overgrowth. When we went back on Sunday to finish up a woman walking her dog stopped to ask about the beds and what we were doing. She said she was really happy to see a garden since she was the one 18 years ago to plant all the tulips and shrubs in the front bed at the corner of Robie and Inglis with her Sparks group. In fact we had a lot of people stop over Saturday and Sunday and ask what was going on—we need to get on making our sign!

Seedlings will be in the garden after the Victoria Day long weekend. Each class should get a chance to plant their seedlings in the boxes.

Work Party Saturday May 14th, 12pm

Hi gardeners!

Rain (!) or shine, this Saturday, May 14th is a work party to create the Inglis Street Urban Garden! Jean Snow and her husband are starting on the boxes today (1pm at the school if anyone can make it, sorry for the short notice) but we will need LOTS MORE HELP on Saturday, putting in the lag bolts into the drilled holes, placing the boxes, shovelling soil etc. If we work quickly we could also do some work on the front flower garden beds which need some TLC attention.

Let’s all meet at 12pm at the corner of Inglis and Robie. Be prepared to get dirty! Kids are welcome to come and help. If you have the following tools, please bring them with you:

-9/16th socket and a driver

-wheel barrels

-big shovels

-gardening gloves

Jean Snow made beds for her own home this weekend, you can see her progress here. We will be planting THREE 20ft long beds. LOTS of room for planting! See Jean’s bed making progress here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150174414905770.303572.23063340769

Please pass along this blog to other families interested in the project!

Seedlings

Seedlings are making great progress in the sunny staff room!

Pumpkin seedlings from Quinn 1/2

Seedlings

Seeds have been planted!

Today the Grade 5 and Grade 6 classes planted seeds with Jean Snow from Lake City Farms. First the children worked the rich soil to create soil blocks for the seeds with Jean’s soil-block maker—a medium sized one like this one make four blocks at once. The classes planted zucchini, ground cherries, squash and gooseberries.

Working the soil

Soil blocks

Jean Snow from Lake City Farms

Seeds planted by Grade 5 class

Site of the garden

We’ve chosen the southwest corner of the school, the corner of Inglis and Robie to be the site of the new garden. This location gets a lot of late morning, afternoon sun which will be great for growing. Soil samples have been taken by Jean Snow from Lake City Farms and have been sent to a lab. If the samples come back with high lead levels, the plan is to proceed with raised beds. 

Welcome to the Inglis Street Urban Garden blog!

This spring, our school will be partnering with Lake City Farms to get our very own food garden growing here at Inglis Street Elementary School! We are hoping to involve the students, teachers, parents and community members to grow a beautiful school garden.

We need your help to make this a success! It doesn’t matter how much or how little time you are able to give, everyone counts. Here are some ways to get involved:

-Building up a supply of gardening equipment

-Shovelling soil

-Making crop signs

-Watering and weeding during the school year

-Summer maintenance. There will be “garden parties” two evenings a week during the summer months for weeding, watering, and having fun together.

-Helping with various fund-raising projects to keep the garden going year after year

-Harvest projects (in the fall)

-Documenting the project with photos or video

If you’re interested in getting involved with any aspect of this project, please contact Monique Hartlen (421-6060; monique.hartlen@ns.sympatico.ca) or Christine Oreskovich (492-0490; oreskovich@gmail.com).