OrilliaMatters received the following letter from two local teachers asking for community assistance with a unique problem.
The students at Notre Dame Catholic School would like to thank a number of people in the community for their generous support of our new community garden and to seek ideas to help us solve a water problem.
At the end of February, the students began by planting seedlings in their classrooms that have now been planted in the gardens and are available to anyone in the community who would like to drop by and enjoy the garden space and/or take the produce as it matures.
The opportunity for students to see a full plant cycle and experience all the physical and mental health benefits of gardening has been fantastic. They planned the garden sizes and location and helped to problem solve and strategize ways to make this garden successful.
It has been a very worthwhile and fulfilling experience. We do still have one major obstacle that we are trying to find a solution to, though: getting our 1,000-litre water tote filled weekly in the summer.
The students have worked on the gardens as a way to make meaningful change in their community with regard to physical well-being, community building, climate action, and trades related skills.
Justine Kovacs, a student teacher at the school, was a catalyst for the work the students have done. Her enthusiasm for garden based learning was contagious. The students had the opportunity to look at the Lakehead University community gardens with professor Chris Murray and Jacob Kearey-Moreland from Bass Lake Farms, who truly inspired the students with interactive activities, creative ideas and their breadth of knowledge.
Our classes walked to Lakehead to learn from their community gardening projects and also to get support.
They learned about what is involved in a community garden and thought about their own project. They took that knowledge, broke and prepared the ground here at the school and built their own garden beds.
Jeramie Jenkins, a teacher at the school and farmer, along with his neighbour Garnet, donated and delivered a water holding tank, dirt and a couple of trees to get the process started. Not long after that, asparagus, peas, rhubarb and a variety of fruits and vegetables were planted around the yard. The greatest challenge was faced when trying to get water to the gardens especially in the long term.
Parents have donated hoses and Coun. Jay Fallis has been an invaluable problem solver and supporter. With the help and donations from Orillia Home
Hardware, the gardens would automatically water if the large water tote has water added to it.
The Davies family (Bright Mobile Wash) has donated a tank of water so far, the students have bucketed it to the gardens, and we have even filled it with the hoses (200m) but none of these are solutions that are going to get us through the summer when no one is in the building.
Through this experience we have learned that our community is incredibly supportive and that collectively we can find many creative solutions that have a large impact. We are seeking ideas and possible solutions that the larger community might have to help us keep our water tote filled for the summer months. We only have until the end of June to try and figure this out.
If you have any possible strategies, please contact us at: [email protected] or [email protected].
Thank you again for all of the support we have received from community members and supporters. Right from people offering to donate plants, hoses, soil, tools, etc. to community members offering to water on the days that we aren’t here and to also teach us about our local ecology. We could not have made it this far without your support and we are truly grateful.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Erin McWhirter and Page Kennedy
Orillia
