School Garden Day!

So I'm really excited about School Garden Day tomorrow! We've ordered all the compost and I've picked up all the plants, seeds, and seedlings. I've got all my tools charged, packed up and ready to go for tomorrow. It feels like I'm getting ready for the first day of school... I actually had a hard time sleeping last night because I was running through everything in my head. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds out for us!

I've picked up some serviceberry, black-eyed susans, and a can butterfly seed mix for the flower bed out front the school. With all these beauties and some weeding the flower bed should look great, plus I'll be picking up some milkweed on Sunday courtesy of our school community purchased through the David Suzuki Foundation & #gotmilkweed. I really want to transform the flower bed out front the school from decorative flowers (which sadly no longer bloom) into a pollinator garden so classes will be able to observe more wildlife.

For the garden beds I picked up some asparagus, basil, pumpkin, corn, and scotch bonnets in addition to the garlic, kale, and herbs that we already have growing. I hope that we can have a small three sisters section to our garden with some pole bean seeds that I have from last year. I also took a trip to the local lumber yard and got some new cedar boards to expand on our three and a half planting beds by adding two more.

My dream is to have a bountiful harvest in the fall of this year, have a pumpkin for each class, and be able to make pesto and hot sauces with students to raise funds for next year's crops.

I'd really like to thank Fiesta Gardens for giving us a discount on plants & tools and the Metro Green Apple Grant for the funds that have helped to make all this possible.

Got Milkweed?

Help save the monarch butterfly and make Humewood Community School a more beautiful place.

As part of the Homegrown National Park Project, the David Suzuki Foundation will be selling milkweed plants for $5 each through its website (www.davidsuzuki.org/gotmilkweed) during April. Milkweed is the only plant that monarch butterflies lay their eggs on and the primary source of food for monarch caterpillars. Scientists throughout North America have identified milkweed planting as the most important action people can take to help support threatened monarch populations.

"Monarch butterflies are one of nature's true wonders, fluttering thousands of kilometres across North America despite weighing less than a paperclip," said Homegrown National Park Project team lead Jode Roberts. "Through the #gotmilkweed campaign we hope to inspire Torontonians to do their part to help the monarch by planting milkweed in their yards and on their balconies."

This winter, scientists raised alarms when numbers of monarchs overwintering in Mexico hit an all-time low. Severe weather and the virtual eradication of milkweed throughout much of their migratory path between Canada and Mexico have put the monarchs' epic migration back to Canada at risk.

Humewood wants to do its part to save the Monarch Butterfly and teach students the benefits of conservation within on our school grounds. During April you can order milkweed plants for $5 and it will be planted by students at Humewood as part of our naturalization project. Please make sure when you are entering your contact information when ordering that you select “make a purchase on behalf of an organization” and enter Humewood Community School.

Garden Links

Well I've been finishing around the internet these days to find out some good gardening tip and get some info around school gardens.
Here is just a few links that I thought you might be interested in:

Toronto Balconies Bloom - Toronto has acres of untapped growing space on its balconies, and an opportunity for creating a peaceful and pleasurable living environment while at the same time improving the air we breathe. Just because you don't have a backyard doesn't mean you can't be a gardener.

The Locavore's Garden - Here you'll find some great tips on starting and maintaining a food garden.

Growing for Green - A Ward 21 garden blog group that offers various workshops and volunteer opportunities.

Green Neighbours 21 - A grass-roots, action-oriented group of people who live in ward 21 (and beyond) who are working together on solutions to climate change and other environmental problems.

Green Garage - This private company specializes is green roofing, keeps your house cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Pin It for the Planet

Sorry for totally slacking off with the updates, but here is a quick one to let you know about an event that starts on Monday (May 31st)

I know that I mentioned this event in an earlier post about the Green Living Show, but now there is a little more going on.
The WWF has created a website where you can sign up and track how many kilometres you've travelled with out your car.

Now when you see someone with car keys pinned to their shirt you'll know what it's all about and you can give them a high 5 for being car free.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that bike month will be starting on Monday too. If you're working downtown don't forget to take advantage of a free breakfast outside the CBC on Front St. if you're on your bike

How To Eat Fried Worms

Okay, so I won't be eating these little critters, but I'm hoping that they'll eat all of my food refuse and leave me with some top notch worm castings (poo) for the garden.

The workshop was put on by Food Share and I only had to shell out $10 bucks. I feel really bad that I can't remember the name of the man who ran the workshop, aside from being a wealth of knowledge and giving up his time for cost he was also full of awesome teacher/dad jokes.

I had no idea how easy a tower system vermicomposter would be to build. The only hard part would be getting the worms. There are a few people who sell them online (Cathy's Crawly Composters), but if you know someone with a manure pile there should be some wiggling around in there just remember to take a deep breath before digging in.

The materials:

* 5 plastic shoe boxes - they come in a 5 pack at Canadian Tire

* A small piece of landscaping fabric to cover holes in the bottom lid - this stops the castings from falling through the holes and still allows you to collect the liquid (compost tea) at the bottom.

[That's it!]

The plastic shoe boxes that we used had these three circles on the top of the lids that were perfect for marking the spots for drilling the large holes. We put the lid under the box to make sure the holes would line up when they were all stacked. The heat from the drill will melt the two piece together so we had to carefully pull them apart so as to not break them. We used a smaller drill bit (1/8") to drill some ventilation holes in the top lid.

Once all the drilling was done it was time to fill them up with bedding (damp shredded newspaper), worms, and a little top soil.

[Red wigglers and some melon rind]

[Inside the finished product]

Right now I only have the first level of my tower working, but in about 3 months it the other four levels should be operational and I'll have double the worms I started with. The fifth bottom box is for collecting the compost tea (it does not have holes in the bottom of it). Once the box I'm filling with organic food scraps becomes full I'll add the next box to the top and so on.

This is totally going to be a project for Eco-Club next year. I had considered doing it this year, but I'd like to make sure it works and become a bit of an expert at it before I go sharing my knowledge.

Green Living Follow Up

On Sunday I decided to take advantage of the crummy weather and take in the Green Living Show. I ended up not checking out the 4hr wine tasting because the description was to vague to justify spending $40 bucks to learn about growing grapes organically in Southern Australia. At any rate I was happy to recycle my old cell phone for free admission, guess I'll have to find a new paper weight.

I was impressed with this year's show. I'm not sure if it was any larger than in previous years, but there seemed to be a bigger focus on food and if you know me you know that I love food.
I was able to check out some interesting booths and get some great information on community eco-events coming up in the future, which I'll be sure to share with you. The World Wild Life Fund was promoting Pin It For The Planet (May 30th - June 5th), going a week without your car and pinning your car keys to your shirt to show your support. I'll be sure to remind you closer to the date about this one, but if you see someone with car keys pinned to their shirt give them a thumbs up and know that it's not the newest fashion trend.

Okay, I've got to make a stop at a hardware store tonight! I slacked off this weekend and didn't get a drop sheet for solarizing the garden. I'm also going to a workshop tonight put on by Food Share where we will be building our own vermicomposters!!! I'll take some pictures and share them with you.

Still waiting to hear from Metro about getting our grant money, what a pain this has turned out to be, grrr!

Green Neighbours 21

Green Neighbours 21 is a local community group for ward 21 and just beyond. They are a group of volunteers helping their neighbours reduce home energy use.
This program is different from a home energy audit done by a certified auditor because its role is to compliment the energy audit process. They can help you arrange an energy audit, connect you with neighbours who have done similar work, offer you a list of contractors who have been used and rated by the member community, and most importantly calculate your actual energy savings.
They also offer tips on things that you can do to seal air leaks in your home. Air sealing and draft proofing can reduce your energy bill by as much as 20%.
I know it's a little late in the season for this information, but there are still many cold weeks ahead and there isn't much time to be part of this program (it wraps up this summer for evaluation).

Two posts in one day, who'd have thunk it?

Tapping Urban Trees

Not Far From the Tree is a local organization that you may have already heard about, or from, if you have a fruiting tree in your backyard. This organization started by picking fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste rotting on trees. They send volunteers to pick fruit from trees growing around the city with permission from the owners. 1/3 goes to the owner, 1/3 goes to the volunteers that picked the fruit, and the final 1/3 goes to a community organization.
They're always looking for volunteers and owners of fruiting trees ;)

I was excited to find out that they are now tapping local maple trees in Toronto. So if you have a maple tree in your backyard I urge you to get involved. You could end up with some great tasting maple syrup from your own backyard tree!!! If you don't have a tree that's okay, you can volunteer and still end up with some yummy syrup. Here's the link if you want to find out more information and take part in this great opportunity

The P.I.N.E Project

Wow, here is a great organization in the West end of the city that is putting on extra-curricular programs for kids and their parents. They also host activities during the day for home schooled children.
The mission of PINE is to inspire healthy lifelong connections between people and nature through outdoor-based learning and play. They offer various activities that take place in High Park.

It seems like the cost of the program is donation based and works on a sliding scale.
There are no school programs offered yet, so I'll have to keep my fingers crossed... if only I could borrow some children just to check out what the programs are all about.

They are featured in the current issue of spacing magazine, but here is the link to their website.