School may be out for summer vacation, but some students will still be working on a passion project.
After a few hurdles, the Stratford District Secondary School’s (SDSS) community garden has started, beginning this past spring, and the first of its plants have begun to sprout.
Run by the school’s eco club, the garden is an intergenerational project aimed to connect students with a wider community here in Stratford, as Lucy Chung, a member of the club, told the Stratford Times.
“The idea was to turn that into a productive area,” Chung said. “The other main idea was to create an intergenerational connection between the community there and some students, and also just kind of teaching various people from around the community and teaching young people some regenerative farming practices. … It's a good place for people, and especially students to learn about environmental activism.”
Chung said that the group won’t be abandoning it for the two months while school is out. The students have put together a schedule so they can maintain the garden moving forward, along with the help of community members.
The idea for the garden has been in the works for years after the club had the idea to start one and identified the patch of city property at the end of Smith Street. It had previously been designated to be a road, Chung explained, but it had most recently been sitting vacant.
After getting some advice from Lucas Tingle, garden educator at the Local Community Food Centre, the club was given the green light to start; however, they were informed that since they would be operating on city property, they would need to be insured for a $5 million liability, as per city policy.
Unable to afford the annual premiums, members of the club petitioned local community groups and after a few months, the Stratford Civic Beautification and Environmental Awareness committee insured the garden as one of its projects, finally allowing the students to start breaking ground.
Along with a $1,000 Youth in Action grant from the United Way, the club received donations in the form of seeds. Some donations even came from afar. Having seen the eco club’s posts on their social media accounts, a company from the U.S. sent some seeds to help kickstart the garden.
The club worked to transform the space, planting trees to provide wind cover from O’Loane Avenue, which the garden backs onto, and planted some fruit trees as well.
The club is planning on planting mostly fruits and vegetables with the plan being to use what has been donated so far: spinach, carrots, beets, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, Swiss chard and onions to name a few.
They will also be utilizing cover crops, a technique using plants to cover the soil to manage erosion, quality, weeds and pests, rather than for the purpose of harvest.
“The idea of that is instead of the soil staying dormant or having to use fertilizer or anything to kill weeds,” Chung said. “We would be able to use these cover crops so that it'll cover the soil and keep helping to nurture the soil.”
So far, the club has yet to determine where exactly the harvests will go, but Chung said they will be sharing it with the community and the student-run kitchen at the school.
Chung said this experience, from the civic and administrative side of starting the garden to the green-thumb gardening side of maintaining it, has been an excellent learning opportunity for her and her classmates.
“It's definitely been a cool process,” Chung said. “I think it's really cool for a lot of students to learn that and have that opportunity.”
Connor Luczka is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with the Stratford Times. The LJI is a federally-funded program.
