Maple Community Garden

When it’s wet and cold out, it’s hard to feel motivated to spend time in the garden. Besides, why head to the garden when hardly anything yummy is growing and the bulbs are safely tucked away beneath the soil?

Many children are full of curiosity about local wildlife. A colder winter provides a great opportunity to model compassion for all creatures, from poorly housed humans to birds and insects looking for safety in this unusual weather, and to learn about what we can do to support animals, birds and insects during these darker months of the year. This article provides five fun ideas that are easy to try out in your neighbourhood, and gives you an excuse to let the morning glory do all the growing in can over the winter.

 

 

Hurray! It’s spring in the children’s garden. The tulips we planted last fall are poking out of the soil. Yesterday we thinned the carrot patch and Talulah pronounced the small carrots delicious. The chives and kale are tasting yummy too.

Big news: Talulah, Charlotte and Amanda built a beautiful mosaic path out of found pieces of tile and brick. It was their own creation—they developed the whole project in one day without adult help. The children’s garden is a big square and so the mosaic path will allow the kids to garden and play without as much small plant squashing. So far one side of the path is veggies: kale, carrots and snap peas; the other side is flowers and herbs.

Decorating is as much fun as planting seeds. Here are a few additions from yesterday.

This year the children will caring for a soup kitchen garden. This is a great opportunity for the kids to be involved in community service, growing food to donate to someone who really needs the vegetables. Hopefully this will be lots of fun as well. Next week we will be digging to amend the soil and then start planting food. We will hopefully have a kids work party within the next two weeks to dig and plant in the soup kitchen plot.

We look forward to seeing you in the garden. Connect with Krista to join children’s garden activities. Happy planting.