Maritime Muslim Academy

About our Garden

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

Our school garden is two raised beds at the front of our school

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

We grew Nasturtiums, radishes, carrots, lettuce, peas, cilantro, tomatoes, mint.

We had a difficult time growing, patty pan squash, eggplants and zucchini

Why did your school decide to add a school garden?

We wanted a place where our students could experience hands on learning. We want our students to take pride in their school and learn how hard work pays off. Also, being in a city setting we wanted our students to feel a deeper connection with where their food comes from.

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

The garden was mainly open to our elementary levels. Though some high school students participated with certain jobs. We used the garden to teach a variety of classes, including math, science and heath.

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

I was around most of the summer so I would stop in from time to time to check on things and post pictures to our facebook page. The daycare runs all summer long so the kids in that program got to help maintain and harvest from the garden. Also our school is next to the mosque that many of our families visit every Friday. Everyone was welcome to harvest what was ready to eat, and to water and weed.

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?

Unfortunately none of out fall harvest vegetables worked out this year. Ideally we would have liked to have more for when students came back in September. We would like to plant more fall ready crops.

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

We had a wonderful couple of volunteers help us build the beds and fill them with soil. We have a wonderful PTA group that with help us with fundraising in the future.

What are your future plans for the school garden?

We would like to start a garden club in the spring to get more students involved. We would also like each class to be responsible for raising money for their seeds and planting and maintaining their part of the garden. We want more student and staff involvement to make this years garden better then the last.

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

Go for it! The kids really do love it. Watching a kid pull out a carrot they grew and tasting it is awesome. Try and get as many people as you can on board. It really does have to be something the whole school is excited about. There are so many ways each class can use it for learning.