Student Perspectives on the Garden

Below, Shukar P. tells us about his thoughts and experiences volunteering and working at the Emery Garden this growing season.

"Well let's start from the beginning. One afternoon while my science class went out to the garden to help plant little seedlings I had this sudden feeling of belonging. Well all before this I did have an interest in plants before I came into the garden but that passion and interest for plants "blossomed" that morning. No pun intended xD. I eventually did learn a lot and when I wasn't in the garden I continued to do my own research when I went home and I was more and more intrigued each and every time I learned something new like what time to grow certain crops and how deep do you plant them. Also I learned about suckering tomato plants and not allowing certain crops to go to "seed" so you can harvest them more through out the season.

I also gained certain skills and knowledge. For example I learned to identify certain pests and diseases. I also learned about weeds to the point that I feel like going on people's lawns to pull the dandelions but I hold that feeling back (it's so hard to resist).

 

I think it's a good idea to learn to grow your food, you never know when something will happen in this oh so fragile society that we live in plus the money you spend on food is lessened somewhat when you grow your own. Also growing heirloom vegetables and food is encouraged because they aren't genetically tampered with (Monsanto cough cough) as well they taste a lot better than grocery bought food (because of that I like tomatoes now).

 

The most interesting thing I discovered? Well, I found out I love herbs and all their medicinal and culinary qualities. Because I know the name of plants, I look at a tree or a shrub a lot differently now, so that's good.

 

The greatest achievement was working with other people, as well as obtaining all this botany and herbal magic...er I mean knowledge (seeds are magical). Also, because I became so interested in plants I now grow a bunch of plants at home and hopefully throughout winter as well I might be growing some herbs inside. I might even start seeds for the garden during the final weeks of winter going on into spring next year. 

 

The most challenging thing about the garden? Weeell i don't have any except pinching basil flowers, but that isn't so bad. All in all I love it there and I go during the mornings and lunch time and I'm looking forward to next year summer so I can wake up early to do something I will enjoy.

 

Also I think the community needs to know that there are teens out there that love doing such things and I also hope the garden raises awareness to growing YOUR OWN food as well as awareness about genetically modified vegetables. For example, tomatoes that have cold water fish genes in them so they can repel the cold better. That's right you're eating fish-tomatoes >:( . 

 

We donate our food to food banks. Also, we did a cook day where we cooked food freshly picked from the garden, so that was quite educational. I also learned to cut vegetables and cook them as well. My first vegetarian meal :) . Hopefully it shall not be my last. Oh and we save seeds from our crops as well. I myself am a gardener that loves to save seeds.

 

Another point I would like to add is that gardening is so therapeutic. Because of gardening I have become an extremely cheerful and calm individual. I am also a lot less gloom (almost never these days.) Pretty much doing this kinda stuff made me a better person and I hope you find an interest as well.

P.S. For the guys out there gardening is a chick magnet ;)...give it some thought and see if you like gardening and growing your own food as well."

- Shukar

Cooking Day in the Garden

On Friday September 2nd we put on a cooking day at the Emery garden. A tent, some tables and a few camp stoves and kitchen supplies were all we needed to create a wonderful lunch using food grown in the Emery Garden.

The kids first participated in harvesting the veggies (just a regular day at the garden), and then, with the guidance of a special guest with culinary experience, got to learn how to chop, prepare and cook them. It was a great opportunity for the youth to enhance their culinary skills.

The kids chose what combinations of vegetables to use, and several delicious and creative dishes were served up with brown rice (the only food item other than oil and some seasonings brought in from outside the garden - and chick peas, for protein!)

The youth who worked hard all season long in the Emery Garden got a chance to taste almost everything we grow! And they liked it! A true "farm to fork" experience, this was an extremely fun event that I hope can happen every year in the garden.

-Bonnie

Harvest!

Here are some photos of a few of our recent harvests in August & September.

Urban Gardening Challenges

Urban gardening is not without its challenges. Some that we've been facing and implementing solutions to are:

• Groundhogs! Furry and cute but such nuisances in our garden! A family of groundhogs lives underneath the shed outside the garden fence and regularly feeds on our crops. Our peas, lettuce, cabbages and many of our cucumbers were demolished quickly by these critters. The young groundhog newly kicked out of its parent's den moved in underneath our composter inside the garden fence.
  

• Solution: We have tried so many things! Pinwheels, scarecrow, bells on the fence, blood meal, dog hair, and finally a live trap awaits the groundhog this very evening. Fingers crossed!

• People! Passersby have stolen some of our bamboo poles used to stake our tomatoes, ripping the plants out in the process. Our first ripe tomato was also stolen from the vine. This is saddening to me and the youth who work so incredibly hard to make this garden thrive.

• Solution: painted sign indicating the food is grown by youth in the community for the food banks. More community awareness would help as well.
  

• Pests! (insect pests this time): Japanese beetles have been eating some of our basil (they like the purple kinds the best). They seem to have disappeared over the past week. Cucumber beetles have been infesting our curcurbits (cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins) for the past 2 weeks. The young larvae feed on the stems and roots of plants in spring, then emerge as adults, feeding on the leaves and fruit. These insects can produce a bacteria when they eat the plants and cause what's called bacterial wilt on the plant.

• Solution: Daily manual squashing of the cucumber beetles in the mornings to reduce the population. Removal of leaves affected by bacterial wilt. The beetles are more lethargic in the mornings and cannot fly away as quickly with the morning dew on their wings. Controlling the population of beetles in turn controls the bacterial wilt.

 

Bacterial wilt on the stem of a pumpkin plant

 

Yellow and black striped cucumber beetles and bees on a pumpkin flower

Despite the challenges, the garden is a rewarding place. A place where ideas become reality, and growth is visible and exciting. A place of constant learning. The youth who have been coming out regularly to volunteer, even in the rain, have been absolutely wonderful and the garden could not run without their devoted efforts.

Busy Bees in June & July

It is time for a garden update! The garden has been very busy. We are now harvesting plenty of fresh vegetables for local food banks and youth from the community are learning a lot about how to grow vegetables and herbs organically.

Here's an update of what's been happening in the Emery garden since June:

Early to mid June: We transplanted hundreds of seedlings! Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, okra, onions, zucchini and more. Many more crops were direct seeded including watermelons, winter and summer squash, beans, carrots and beets. It took us a while to get this done as we had to wait until the beds were a little less wet after all of that spring rain we received in order to prepare the beds. Ideally seedlings could be planted a month or so earlier.

The grade 9 art class created beautiful painted signs and some wire sculptures for the garden. The sculptures have been installed and the signs will be put up in late August.

Okra

July & August (so far): We've been caring for our plants and ensuring they grow strong and healthy. Weekly tasks include: suckering tomatoes and cucumbers - this involves pinching off the growth at the nodes of the plants to direct the plant's energy into producing fruit. Staking tomatoes and building cucumber trellises. Pinching off basil flowers to help them flourish (we have a lot of basil!), and dead heading marigold flowers are weekly garden tasks which help the plants grow well and keep the garden looking good.

 

Tomatoes, Basil & Marigolds grow well together

 Italian Large Leaf & Corsican Basil amongst sweet & hot peppers

Regular weeding using hands and hoes helps our crops grow -  less competition for light, water, space and nutrients. The uprooted weeds left on the soil's surface to bake in the hot sun break down and become valuable organic matter for the soil.

 Provider Bush Beans will be producing beans soon!

Team garden walks allow the students to take a close look at the garden to see what needs weeding, watering, harvesting and to assess if there are any problems such as disease or pests.

The last of the mulching of garden paths was completed in late July/Early August.

Zucchini plants and freshly mulched pathways

We've been preparing beds (turning over and loosening soil with shovels and garden forks) all throughout June, July and into August. We've seeded lengthy beds of carrots, beets, and turnips for fall harvest.

 Rows of Little Finger Carrots with tomatoes in background

Companion planting is a technique practiced in the garden. Some companion plantings we've experimented with are: 3 sisters (corn, beans, squash), Onions & Cucumbers, Onions/Lettuce/Carrots, Tomatoes & Basil, Peppers/Okra/Basil, Beets & Dill, Eggplants & Potatoes, Sunflowers & Cucumbers, Kohlrabi/Turnip/Dill.

Cucumbers grow up the Sunflower stalks

Corn, Pole Beans, & Pumpkins grow as a trio

We've been harvesting a variety of vegetables and herbs once or twice per week since early July, including:
Basil, Mint, Chives, Dill, Parsley, Oregano,
Radish, Swiss Chard, Carrots, Beets, Turnip, Collards, Green Onions,
Okra, Zucchini, Cucumber, and our first tomatoes and purple jalapeno peppers this week!
Produce has been donated to the local Ontario Vegetarian Food Bank, as well as North York Harvest Food Bank.

Weighing, cooling and packing up the veggies to take to the food bank

 The youth volunteers and paid student workers at the Emery garden are truly amazing! They make the garden run and work extremely hard to grow this food for the food bank through the PACT Grow to Learn Urban Agriculture Program. Congratulations should go to them for all of their efforts.

-Bonnie
Garden Coordinator

Mulching in the Mud: Here Comes the SUN!

On May 19th grade 9 geography classes came out and did a lot of mulching in the garden. Mulching over top of the grass paths kills the grass, making less work (grass cutting and weeding as it spreads into the beds) and makes the garden look good! Students were involved in taking tape off of cardboard, laying down cardboard on the footpaths between the garden beds and moving wheelbarrow after wheel barrow of wood chips to then rake evenly across the cardboard covered paths.

The classes did an amazing job and mulched almost all of 2 huge sections of the garden! And this was despite the muddy conditions of "Lake Emery", as Eric, the Director of Urban Agriculture at PACT has been fittingly calling it.

We have gotten about double the amount of rain in April and May as we usually do. Due to the location of the garden, on a low lying field, rain water has completely soaked the garden, making for soggy, muddy beds. When the soil is this wet, it's not a good idea to use tools like shovels, or hoes to work the soil because doing so breaks down the soil's structure. There are channels dug from one end of the garden to the other to allow the rain water to flow through and out of the garden. A more permanent solution, such as burying pvc drainage pipes will likely have to be implemented.

So with this sun we are getting this week, we are eagerly watching the garden dry out, and using this period of much needed evaporation to pull as many weeds as possible out of the beds, in preparation for planting our hot crops: Hundreds of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and more will be planted this week in the garden! Geography and World Issues classes pulled a small mountain of weeds out yesterday!

Although it's been one of the rainiest spring's on record, we have managed to seed quite a number of crops in April and May. Here's what's already been seeded and is sprouting at the Emery Garden: peas, carrots, beets, dill, swiss chard, fennel, spinach, onions, lettuce, kohlrabi, chicory, arugula, radish, mizuna, kale, cabbage, brocolli, collards, and celery. We've also transplanted many herbs in our spiral herb garden, and will be planting more at the ends of many of the beds to help deter pests and attract beneficial insects.

 Map of Emery Garden (not to scale). It has over 130 beds and is the largest school yard garden in the GTA, if not all of Canada!

We will be doing massive amounts of transplanting of seedlings this Wednesday June 1st and Friday June 3rd. Come out and join us in the garden!

-Bonnie

P.S. A big THANK-YOU! to the two OISE student teachers who recently completed their placements and contributed a fantastic amount of hard work to the Emery Garden project and other PACT gardens: Wendy & Ben, thanks so much! I and the students will miss you.

Seedlings Grow!

PACT Grow to Learn aims to grow as many seedlings as possible for the 6 different school yard gardens involved in the project. High schools with greenhouses have generously donated their space, and efforts in some cases, to growing these seedlings. We are beginning to harden off our seedlings and big transplanting days are coming up soon!

 

Natalie, Garden Coordinator for Lakeshore Collegiate (right), and myself (Bonnie), coordinator at Emery start seedlings for the PACT Grow to Learn Program

 

 ...and the seedlings grow

 One of several varieties of basil being grown

A main goal of the gardens is to create diversity in what we plant. We want students to learn about the broad range of amazing cultivars of different varieties of plants by growing them in the gardens themselves. Interplanting and companion planting will be techniques practiced in the gardens.