2012-06-08 So Far: January

Post date: May 08, 2012 8:2:8 PM

In January 2012, the garden project began to take hold in the Curriculum and Teaching for Secondary School Science Minors course (EDSE 353/366) at the University of Alberta. We soon learned what our role in the garden would be, and this helped realize the potential of the project as a whole. When classes began, Tracy introduced the project to her Science Minors class. Being a part of that class, I remember feeling excited to take part in such a unique project on campus; I did not even know that the balconies existed on the 3^rd floor of Education North! Not many details were discussed at this point, although it was easy to see that the class was generally excited about it.

On January 24, Dustin Bajer of Jasper Place High School here in Edmonton presented the idea of a permaculture garden to the Science Minors class. Dustin built a permaculture garden at the high school, using it to teach many different science and life skills to his students. Other teachers at the high school use the garden space as well, making it cross-curricular in a really unique way. I found a really great video of Dustin explaining JP’s permaculture garden and how the school uses it in so many neat ways. Us students were also given a research information sheet, explaining almost every aspect of the gardens known at the time. This was also the first day the Science Minor students got to meet the heads behind the project, including Dawn, Florence, and Alvine.

On January 26, the first talking circle was held. The consensus from the discussion: to sheet mulch as soon as possible!

Dawn then visited the Science Minors class once again on January 31, this time to answer any questions we may have been struggling with and to explain the sheet mulching process. We were given a hand out with a sample sheet mulching procedure, courtesy of Dustin’s website. All of us were generally unsure of what sheet mulching was, so the handouts were extremely helpful in brainstorming for the sheet mulching that would soon be happening!