Windermere Garden Visioning Meeting
Windermere’s Community Garden Invites you!
Hello community members!
The Windermere Organic Garden is now in its fourth successful year, with accomplishments over the years that now include an industrial sized composter, the Earth Tub, an aquaponics system, a greenhouse, and a community compost system from local schools and community. As well, the garden has garnered recognition for its green initiatives from BC Green Games, Evergreen, and Canada’s Greenest School.
With all this success, we must really thank the community and the student body for the ongoing support, and with our thanks, we would like to extend an invitation to community members to come participate in our garden expansion plan to put a community garden on the north field. We are reaching out to members of the community that have garden experience or have any ideas to contribute. Our garden expansion planning session will be January 12th, 2011 at 6:00PM in the Windermere staffroom. Refreshment and snacks will be provided and we hope you are able to come!
Please RSVP to littlebigog@gmail.com by January 5th.
Mulch love,
Windermere Organic Garden Committee
What’s new in the Organic Garden?!
By: Angela Ho, Grade 10
Over the past year, Windermere’s organic garden has drastically evolved, with new additions attracting the attention of not only the Windermere student body, but also of neighbourhood schools and of other members all over the community. If you have ever looked at the garden through the windows surrounding the courtyard, you might have noticed a big, commercial, hot-tub-looking object sitting on one side. Well, that is in fact an Earth Tub, which is an enclosed composting machine that features powered mixing that speeds up the decomposing processes. After digging trenches around the garden in August, electricity was installed, meaning that the Earth Tub will finally be put into use starting this school year! If properly managed, fresh compost should be available for use in a matter of 3-4 weeks. And, how can you be a part of this? Simple! You can contribute just by tossing your fruit and vegetable leftovers into the compost bins located around the school.
During the hot months of summer, student volunteers dedicated their time to maintain the garden. All the days of watering, fertilizing, and weeding have paid off as plants are flourishing and productive. Some of the things that were harvested include tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, garlic, potatoes, cilantro, basil, and a wide range of berries. It doesn’t end there; other crops such as radishes and squash have yet to be harvested! Some produce had been donated to a Collingwood program and to the Renfrew-Collingwood Senior Society, and some had been taken home for volunteers to enjoy. The garden is currently run by two grade-12 students, Brendan Chan and Cassandra Ly, as their leadership project. This school year will bring exciting new projects. We promise students not only tasty treats, but also the opportunity to experiment and discover.
Organic Garden Update – Have you eaten your greens yet?
By: Cassandra Ly, Grade 10
Windermere’s Organic Garden has not just flourished with many new fruits and vegetables in the past few months but has also grabbed the attention of many people in the community. People from different schools and organizations have dropped by to take a peek at the small but powerful changes that the garden has made at Windermere. A few have even donated money to the green cause, including Zenith in Action presented by Coast Capital Savings. Bonnie Ha and Chanel Ly, currently grade 11 students are taking on the project of the Organic Garden in their grade 12 year. At the Zenith Conference in mid May, they presented the project in front of a panel of judges. In the end, they received a $500 grant that will go towards the finances needed with purchasing rain barrels or the installation of an irrigation system in the garden.
To Whom it May Concern:
We are competing in the BC Green Games. It’s an opportunity for the Windermere Organic Garden to get funding and we could win $1000 for just having the most votes out of all the competing schools. That’s why we are asking you, our amazing, fabulous, supportive friends of the garden, to go to www.bcgreengames.ca/ and register as a supporter and then vote for our project at http://bcgreengames.ca/component/project/?id=116.
Thank you so much for your support. If you would like to further support our cause, you can spread the word to your friends and family as well!
Every vote counts and with an extra $1000, the garden would be able to provide more food for the cafeteria to use. So get voting!
Sincerely,
Neelam Khare & Chitha Manoranjan
- The Organic Garden
Windermere Organic Garden
By: Cassandra Ly, Grade 10
There is nothing better than being able to walk outside into the school’s courtyard to see the wide variety of fresh and organic vegetables and fruits that are being grown. In only 2 years, the organic garden has flourished with potatoes to broccoli to tomatoes and even raspberries and blueberries. With the dedicated work of students and teachers, Windermere’s organic garden has become very, very successful. Recently, 7 new beds were built, adding on to the previous 5. These 12 beds will be the holders of parsley, cilantro, onions, lettuce, and many other vegetables, coming soon in the spring. On top of that, a salad bar will be in the cafeteria very soon, giving students the opportunity to make their own salads. The organic garden also has a great composting system, where students empty out the distributed bins throughout the school every few days.
