FERGUS – Outdoor planting boxes have been popping up outside schools in recent years.
And if you’ve ever wondered what’s the purpose, the benefits to children, how they are maintained over the summer, and who gets the produce, the Advertiser has some answers.
While maintenance of school grounds is the responsibility of the school board, schools with gardens are responsible for those gardens. So each school will fund and handle the gardens differently depending on staff and parent interest.
Deanna Prins, principal at James McQueen Public School in Fergus, said the flower garden at the entrance to her kindergarten-to-Grade 3 school in the heart of Fergus was an initiative of the school council.
“They wanted to create a butterfly and canoe garden,” Prins said in an interview at the school.
“So they approached the David Suzuki Foundation,” which provided a list of plants that will attract pollinators.
The parent council raised some funds to purchase materials, nearby gardeners donated plants, and someone in the community donated a canoe that had been damaged in the winter.
The canoe is situated in the centre of the garden and is now a vehicle for plants. A stone footpath meanders beside the canoe through the garden so children can get close to the pollinators and observe their habits.
The garden was installed three years ago and is now so abundant one can hardly see the canoe and the footpath for the bachelors buttons, irises and a mass of other plantings.
“The kids and the parents did the planting,” Prins said. “The learning is around the pollinator piece. In urban areas, gardens like this provide a landing ground for them.”
The school ordered painted lady butterflies and the kindergarten class has been observing their growth in the classroom. When the time is right, the butterflies will be released.
There are also a couple of vegetable boxes in front of the school, where G rade 1, 2 and 3 students typically plant seeds and nurture them along. They also make labels for the plants and do some weeding.
Prins said a couple of staff members who live in the area have volunteered to water the gardens over the summer, and sometimes parents will step up too.
When produce is ready to pick, they send a message on Facebook to the school community and invite them to take what’s available. So far there are tomatoes, rhubarb, potatoes and strawberries in the ground. Beside that is an apple tree that might bear fruit by the time school resumes in the fall.
Prins said schools with these kinds of gardens handle them in different ways, but the common thread is how they benefit students.
“They teach about sustainability, life cycle, soil, and how to care for living things,” she said.
“Students also learn about community,” which are valuable life lessons.
