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Holy Spirit Catholic Elementary School

Cambridge , Ontario

Size of school

630 students
Grade levels

Pre K - 8
Grant received

School Garden Grant ($500)

Video


About our Garden

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

We used stock tanks to create our gardens. They were designed with weeping tile in hopes that they would hold more water and would be come self watering over the summer.

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

Tomatoes, pumpkins and carrots

Our pumpkins were off to a great start but were taken one night.

The tomatoes grew a lot and produced many tomatoes, they got so big they created too much shade for the carrots to grow."

Why did your school decide to add a school garden?

To engage the students on the life cycle of a plant and to provide them with an opportunity for hands on learning.

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

Kindergarten

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

Kindergarten teachers with help from older students put the dirt in the gardens. The kindergarten students and teachers planted seeds. Parents watered the gardens over the summer.

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?

"Volunteers to the produce home over the summer.

One of the teachers made vegetable soup with her students. The carrots didn’t grow enough for this soup so they bought some more to hel supplement the supply."

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

Our parents volunteered to take care of the gardens over the summer

What are your future plans for the school garden?

We will continue to use it as a food garden and will plant more vegetables in it next year.