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Falkland School
A Very Green Year
We received our grant in April………….
Not much happened right away as our school was busy trying to make our hot lunch program greener…….but by the summer we had ordered our greenhouse from BC Greenhouse Builders Ltd Canada. It is a lovely and very strong 8 foot by 8 foot curved eave frame greenhouse. Our wonderful project arrived at our school in many pieces in September. And so began the preparation of the site……
We dug up the grass and loosened the earth by tilling it in preparation to build the foundation that the green house will sit on. Some of the students helped to move the grass that had been dug up and others helped with the digging. Once complete, we built a 4” by 4” pressure treated wood foundation for the green house to sit upon.
Next came the long task of building the actual greenhouse. This was accomplished over the course of a few weekend work parties. There were many participants both young and adult, and the task was tricky at times. I daresay there were a few mistakes made in the building, which had to be undone, and then redone correctly, BUT……. in the end we have a beautiful greenhouse to begin our growing and food education journey.
The completion of our new greenhouse was in late October. Our plan is to grow directly into the soil of our greenhouse and to include education on how to take ordinary soil by building it to create dynamic growing material for our plants. The soil in the greenhouse was luckily very nice to begin with, soft and crumbly with many earthworms present…… a good sign! We have added some organic composted chicken manure and extra peat moss to the soil to add nutrients, bulk, drainage properties, and stimulate the cycle of good bacteria.
The greenhouse is now resting for a few months before we begin our growing in the early spring. As the soil is dreaming we are also dreaming about what we will grow.
We have been busy planning a composting and recycling program for our school through November and December. Our composting program consists of compost collection bins for every classroom, a program schedule for emptying, and creation of a compost pile. Our compost pile will be offsite of the school so as to not attract wild animals to the school grounds. The compost will be used to continue to enrich our soil. Our project thus far has started a lot of buzz with the students and there is much excitement for spring to come. This project has also helped with involving the community with our “green” dreams for our school. We will be starting a gardening club with the hopes of increasing our gardening area next year…………so many possibilities!!!!!
