Sweater Day

WWF Canada has put together a great event that we'll be taking part in at school, SWEATER DAY!!!

The idea is that you pledge to turn down your home thermostat by 3 degrees and wear a sweater around the house... Hey, it's winter, it's supposed to be cold!

WWF-Canada is calling for change!
Climate change is the biggest environmental threat to life on Earth, wreaking havoc with the natural systems that regulate the earth’s climate: melting glaciers and ice caps on every continent, creating heat waves, dehydrating forests and wetlands, and affecting the lives and communities of everyone on the planet.

On average, each of us has a footprint 50% more than what the planet actually produces per person, per year. In other words, it would take 1.5 planets of productivity to support humanity each year. Half our footprint is carbon from fossil fuel emissions. Canada is one of the top 10 nations contributing to global climate change. While other leading countries of the world are pioneering green energy technologies and solutions, we are holding on to an old strategy based on developing increasingly carbon-intensive forms of energy in the Arctic and the tar sands.

Fortunately, we’ve got plenty of reasons to believe we can succeed. There is a solution to climate change – we caused it and we can solve it. We must value carbon more, consume less, insulate better, and hasten the switch to alternative fuels like wind, solar, tidal and hydropower. WWF Canada is calling on business and political leaders to drive this fundamental shift. Our success will ensure that Canada is on the right path for future generations, our economy and the planet.

Why should you participate?
Sweater Day is an accessible and simple way to get involved in the fight against climate change. By getting leaders like you on board, we can begin to make a real difference in our conservation efforts. Turning down the thermostat by a couple of degrees can make a big difference in fighting climate change, and save money. If every Canadian turned down their thermostat by two degrees in the winter, 2.2 megatonnes of carbon dioxide could be saved per year – the equivalent of taking about 350,000 cars off the road.

So, I'm now putting the challenge out to you. Check out the WWF website to register for your chance to win great prizes!!!

Seedy Sunday pt2

[ just a taste of how busy it was ]

I can't tell you what a great time I had today at Seedy Sunday. I really wanted to stay there all afternoon and not come home. It was great to see and talk with a lot of familiar faces. I was also able to make some good contacts today regarding field trips for the garden/eco club and for volunteers in the garden. Dare I say that I'm becoming part of the urban agriculture community?

First things first. I got an awesome haul of seeds today. I would have gotten more, but thankfully I ran into a fellow teacher, who is also a parent at the school, and she let me in on some deals from Urban Harvest if I order through the school. Her and I are going to be in touch and put an order together and share some seeds and save some money too!

[ crappy photo = awesome haul ]

One of the faces that I always love to run into is Garden Jane. She's totally awesome and put on great workshops for community gardeners and anyone else who wants to learn about permeculture. She gave me some free bean seeds and some great ideas for activities to do with them. I felt bad taking all this stuff and knowledge without giving her anything in return, so I bought a seed ball kit from her. I'm planning on giving it away as a prize for some sort of event at the school.

[ seed ball kit ]

If you don't know what a seed ball/bomb is you need to go look that up. I think that we'll do something for International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day (May 1st 2011). I don't know if we'll do sunflowers, but we'll definetly do some kind of hardy, flowering, native plant.

In talking with people today I realized that there are a lot of people who want to volunteer in our little school garden to help the students grow food. There are also a lot of people who want community garden space and aren't able to get it. I know that I'd have to clear this with the administration, but I was thinking this could be an awesome trade off for some help watering in the summer and getting some people with more know-how than myself to really get our garden going. Volunteers may have to get a police check (more than likely they would) but it would be a small price to pay for some space to grow some veggies of their own.

For those of you interested in volunteering please email me or leave a comment with your email address (don't worry all comments need to be approved before they're posted so I'll copy and delete your email address so you don't get any random spam).

Seedy Sunday (Today)

Sorry for getting this info out so late, but today is Seedy Sunday at Heart House UoT. From 12:30-6pm you can bring seeds from trading or you can just buy some yummy heirlooms for you garden.

If you can't make it out today don't worry there will be another Seedy Sunday in March 27th @ Lawrence Heights Community Centre (1-5pm). AND not to worry my Scarborough friends on March 12th @ Heron Park Community Centre (12-4pm) is where your Seedy Sunday will be.

I'll be at UoT today so if you want to meet up leave a comment and let me know that you're coming so I can keep an eye out for you. I may also try to get out to the Lawrence Heights event as well.

This year Seedy Sunday is a joint venture between Food Share, Toronto Public Health, Green Thumbs Growing Kids

Food Share Inspirations

Last week I had the privillage of attending a conference on school/community gardens and student nutrition at Food Share. I got hear about the ups and downs of the market garden at Bendale Collegiet. I was also able to speak with some school gardeners about what they've done at their schools to get some real plant growth of the their gardens... we're really going to have to do planting beds this year if we want anything to grow. The soil at the school is just way to compacted and has way too much clay. I'll have to buy some soil with the money we have left and get the board to deliver some more compost. I also saw some amazing and simple ideas for activities I can do with the students and for some things that I want to put in my classroom.

[Native Bee House]

The first thing I saw when I walked in and thought would an amazing and simple crafty activity for the Eco-Club students to do would be to build bee houses. These aren't for honey bees, but would be for miner and other native bee species. I'm thinking that I can head down to China Town and get some bamboo to bundle together (the bees would nest in the hole) and we could build frames out of some old clementine boxes that I have kicking around in my classroom and at home. The student could then bring them home to hang in their backyards. The idea being that you'd be able to attract more bees to your garden and they would inturn help to pollinate all of you plants. I think that this would go a long way to help the plants in our school garden too. As well, bee populations are on the decline so giving them more habitat will at least give the little guys a bit more of a chance. With out bees food production on this planet will become very difficult and expensive.

[Aquaponic System]

Above is a mini aquaponic system. I have just about everything on my classroom to make this and I'd like to give it a try. I've found some plans online and it seem simple enough. Basically the bacteria in fish poo is used to fertilize the plants about. The plants above in turn filter the fertilizer out of the water and it goes back into the tank completing the cycle.

[Window Farm]

I think that I may have mentioned Window Farming before, but here is a much simplified version that I don't think will cause any safety concerns if I were to build it and install it in a classroom with a window... something which my office is seriously missing :(

Needless to say it was a great conference and I got some great ideas. I going to try and stay positive and motivated over these winter months and try to put at least one of these systems together.