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.