*originally posted on the Greenwood College School website on May 22, 2014.
Over the past year, students in Grade 11 Green Industries have been learning about horticulture, urban agriculture and landscape design. As part of their landscape design unit, students recently designed a new outdoor classroom space for students at Lord Dufferin Public School.
Students created designs for the space, including seating for the class, teaching tools and
sub-irrigated planter boxes, which were developed by Quinn Scott, a Grade 12 Green Industries student. This planter design is perfect for a school garden as it only needs to be watered once every couple of weeks during the summer, when students and staff are away from the school.
Upon completion of their designs, Grade 11 students built two mobile, sub-irrigated planter boxes. Over the past two Wednesday mornings, student volunteers went to Lord Dufferin PS and worked with Grade 5 students to install the gardens and plant one with flowering perennials and one with edible herbs. The Green Industries students taught the Grade 5 students about how the planters work and how to plant and care for the garden. The garden will be a key component of Lord Dufferin's application to become a designated
Ontario EcoSchool next year.
Greenwood has had an ongoing and growing relationship with Lord Dufferin PS for many years. Each week, our Grade 7 students spend time building relationships with Grade 1-2 students at Lord Dufferin through the reading buddies program. When Sandra Li, the Vice-Principal, expressed interest in turning the second-floor courtyard space into an outdoor classroom, the Green Industries students saw a perfect opportunity to put their design and horticulture skills to use to help the community. In the end, Green Industries students developed their design and construction skills, their knowledge of native perennial plants and skills in developing a garden management plan.
Greenwood students are also helping to build a new school garden at Nelson Mandela Public School in Regent Park, and more volunteers are needed. Volunteers will travel to NMPPS after school over the next two weeks to construct and plant the garden. If your son/daughter would like to help, please email
leslie.mcbeth@greenwoodcollege.com.
