herbs in action

vegetable boxes

student's thoughts

First of all I put soil in the tray then I put mixed flower seeds. Then I watered them. After three days, fake leaves came out. I changed the seedlings in to a bigger pot. After that I get the foliage leaves and the leaves are healthy. They are growing bigger.

By: Aisha

SEEDS!

For the past few weeks, our horticulture class has been planting seeds for our school garden. Every student has gotten the opportunity to pick out 2 different types of seeds (flowers and vegetables). They have been growing these seeds in trays and pots. Everyday, the students come in and water their seeds.
Last week, when the weather cleared up, we went out and started cleaning the gardens. The students were put in teams and were designated to clean up a certain area. One of the teachers helped build boxes for our vegetables to be grown in. On Friday, we went out and put the boxes in different areas of the school where we want the vegetables to be grown.
It has been very tiring yet an exciting moment for each student in the horticulture class. We look forward to planting the seedlings in those gardens.
Over the next few weeks, the students will be publishing their own thoughts towards this goal. We will also be uploading pictures to show the progress of our flowers and vegetables.
By: Zainab and Rubab

seedlings

We are happy to say that we have a shelf at the greenhouse at Trinity Bellwoods Park.
We have done seedlings with two Grade 4 classes and two Grade 5 classes.

Online calendar

At the Foodhshare workshop people asked me about the online calendar we use to help schedule garden events and watering over the summer. Here's the link to our school's calendar.

Important Notice - 2nd School Food Garden Project (SFGP) Training!

Dear SFGP participants,

Please note that the 2nd SFGP training workshop date has been changed from Wed. April 29 to Friday May 8, 2009. You will be informed about the training details prior to the workshop.

Thank You!

SFGP Workgroup

Early Spring Gardening Workshops

Seedy Saturday
When: Saturday Feb 28th, 2 pm - 6 pm
Location: Artscape Whychwood Barns, 601 Christie at St. Claire.
Entry: ~$2, and workshops are free.
What: One of the biggest events of the year for organic gardeners. Seed exchange, Heirloom seeds for sale, gardening workshops, and kids activities.

For more information visit: http://www.tcgn.ca/wiki/wiki.php?n=CommunityEvents.SeedySaturday2009

Downtown Alternative PS - Harvest

Downtown Alternative PS - Harvest

Did you know that Downtwon Alternative PS had a fabulous Harvest Lunch? Many students helped at the harvest lunch, and made delicious vegetable soup using some of the vegetables they grew in their own school food garden!!

Green Tomatoes!

The question was asked: 

We have a lot of green large tomatoes - when do they turn red and is there something we can do? The garden is quite crowded.

The answer: Green tomatoes are what we are finding in gardens all across Toronto - after a cold and damp summer our tomatoes haven't been getting the sun they love. 

There are two strategies I can think of to try:

1. Check to see if they are ripe enough to harvest - if so take them off the plant and ripen indoors

Click on the title above for more information on how to identify if the tomatoes are ready to harvest and a number of ripening techniques. This could be a great activity for a classroom to adopt - tracking which technique worked best. 

2. Keep them on the plant and wait to see if they'll ripen in a couple of weeks - we can often grow healthy tomatoes into late October without risk of them being lost to frost or cracked with too much moisture. 

Any other suggestions?