This statement rang true today, for the breaking of ground on our Edible School Yard. There was a lot of planning, preparation, and many hours that went into this particular adventure. Today though was only the beginning of the journey.
A few months ago I was watching a DVD, today I forget the name, but at the end they talked about an edible school yard project that some inner city schools had done to "pretty up" their schools as well as give the teachers and students an amazing learning environment. The seed was planted, so to speak. From then I was devising how we would begin such an adventure in our school's courtyard, which has long since overgrown from its original beauty.
Then a few weeks later I received an email from a co worker mentioning that a past student was interested in doing some gardening with the students at our school. She put us in touch and what a blessing he's been! He came in and did about six hour long presentations about where our food comes from and this was the springboard to our Klub Kway activity day.
Students choose activities they'd like to be involved in and they get to have an afternoon doing something different from the ordinary. Students were playing a ball hockey tournament, others were enjoying a spa day, some played chess, while others scrapbooked, or did digital photography. Our group of 25 helped us embark on our gardening journey.
We showed them a clip from the "Edible School Yard" video, and the great thing was that it was from two schools in B.C. that had begun their gardens a couple of years ago. Then they decorated some pots that will be part of the herb garden.
Kyle, the great volunteer made us some garden boxes in which to grow our veggies. Our principal, Bryan made sure the soil got delivered. Sam, a fellow teacher was everywhere I could not be and the teamwork really paid off. We now have three boxes planted with various veggies, a whole box full of potatoes, and others full of greens. We can't wait to see the results.
It was SO energizing to be a part of this. I had numerous individuals, students and teachers come up to me and say what a great idea this was. Students that were involved today want to hang out in the courtyard to be sure that none of their hard work gets destroyed by other students. This was my suggestion:
Invite students over to take a look, don't make it out of bounds, but draw them in...get them involved! I bet if they started talking gardening to those individuals that may be a problem, those students would be out of there so quick they wouldn't have time to do any damage. But I have faith in our students that when they see what a cool project this is turning into instead of wanting to damage the area they will be drawn in and become the ambassadors of the garden!
I still have the excited feeling in my tummy that I used to get as a child when I knew that something cool was about to happen that day. The seed has been planted. We built it and the students will come.
Eat raw, Live Well
Create a Garden, Connect to the Earth!
Melinda
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