Dakota Collegiate

About our Garden

Please describe your garden, is it raised beds, in the ground, do you have a greenhouse?

Our garden has 2 raised beds and one in ground bed. We hope to install 3 more raised beds this spring. We do not have a greenhouse.

What vegetables/fruit do you grow in your garden? What do you have a difficult time growing in your school garden?

At this time we are growing rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries, and herbs. We are just getting started. We'll so some major planting in the spring.

Why did your school decide to add a school garden?

We had a small garden with rhubarb and sun chokes and noticed when we took the students outside to harvest the rhubarb the students had so many questions about the fruit and how to harvest it and eat it. We then began harvesting other plants in our naturalized green space and decided that kids like trying new foods that they pick and also need to develop an understanding of the land that our food grows on for that they can nurture it.

What classes participate in the garden, what subjects are taught in the garden?

Currently the foods and nutrition program with 21 classes steward the garden. A divisional team of teachers across subject areas (LAL, EAL, geography, Ojibway language program, ELA and Foods and Nutrition) will develop resources for the garden classroom this winter.

Who manages the garden day to day? Who manages the garden over the Summer break?

Right now Dakota Collegiate. Over the summer we have partners who run programs in the schools that will tend the garden.

What do you do with the harvest from your garden? Do you have a harvest celebration? Do you use it in the cafeteria, or culinary classes? Do you donate some of the produce?

Nothing has been harvested yet.

Do you have community involvement? Do you have parents and volunteers? Have been able to source other funding to help your garden grow?

We hope to have community and parent volunteers but we don't yet. Yes we have other funding that has supported are garden classroom.

What are your future plans for the school garden?

This year we hope to plant 15 trees on the property. 2 MB maple, 1 Oak, 1 showy mountain ash, 1 Seedless Cottonwood, and 3 white cedar. We also hope to install 3 raised beds (one standing and sitting heights) and plant more strawberries, asparagus, herbs and a 3 sisters garden.

Any words of encouragement/tips for a school starting a school garden?

Try to develop a community of people to help out in small and big ways.