The Wonder of Worms

It was a wriggly, wet adventure this morning as we learned about the importance of worms in the garden.

There was a mild drizzle of rain which made for excellent worm detecting conditions. We discovered that worms can be found in the dirt, and many like to hide beneath large stones surrounding the flower beds in the orchard. The children had no qualms about getting their hands dirty, as they dug into the mud to find the squiggly bugs.

We learned that worms have no eyes to see and when it's raining they often squirm to the surface and lose themselves on sidewalks where they might get stepped on. The children vowed to rescue worms whenever they were in distress, returning them to their home, the dirty mud, and saving them from the threat of heavy footsteps.


Worms transform rotting food into mineral rich castings that can help feed the plants in the garden. They are one of the many good bugs found in our environment who make up an integral part of the amazing circle of life.

To learn what it's like to be a worm we played a game called "The Worm and the Apple". We selected one person to be the worm and covered their eyes with a blind fold. The rest of us formed a circle around the "worm" and hid an apple for her to find. Sometimes the person closest to the apple would make a sound to help the worm find her way. The kids really enjoyed this game, and it allowed them to understand the importance being helpful to those in need, just like how the worms are helpful to the plants in the garden.

The kids also got their hearts pumping with a game of Squirmy Wormy Jump Rope where they had to leap over a skipping rope being agitated by two people on either end.

 Afterwards we listened to a story about Strega Nona's harvest while having some tasty mandarins.

Join us next week when we decorate our garden!

Building Community and Growing Stronger!

Today we saw some familiar faces and some new faces at the garden! Thank you to everyone that came out and helped us plant the garden!

Ted Bahr from Prairie Sage Permaculture taught the kids about the teams of plants that grow best together and help each other to grow stronger.

Team 1 was beans, corn and squash while Team 2 was radish, peas and greens. The kids learned that the beans and the peas, “the chefs”, fix the nitrogen in the soil while the squash and greens, “homemaker”, shelter the soil. The corn, “lifter”, helps the beans lift off the ground while the radish “guard/miner”, guards against pests and digs for nutrients.

Just like the plants that work together, the kids also worked together to plant all the seeds and set up tepees for the pea plants…

It was a wonderful Saturday morning with all the garden friends, make sure to come out next week to see how far the plants have grown! 

Team Work, Grow!

The garden is a great place to witness team work in action. It is a central location where various plants rely on the same resources for nourishment and growth. At the launch of our garden activity workshop series at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden, we wanted to highlight team work and its foundational importance in creating sustainable communities and healthy ecosystems.

We were very fortunate to have a number of creative, spontaneous, and active kids join us in a number of activities that required working together cooperatively. We introduced the kids to the space we would be working with over the course of the summer. The strawberry patch was an amazing teaching point as the growth and spread of strawberries is accomplished through a process of root networks which allow younger, weaker plants to access nutrients from the stronger, more established ones.

The garden is neighbour to the city`s first urban orchard, and there was much weeding to be done. Some of our younger participants contributed to the team effort of beautifying our communal space as they enjoyed weeding the orchard.

Next, we all helped paint our Kids Grow! team banner, demonstrating the beauty of collaborating on a creative project, and the wonder that exceeds the sum total of its parts.

Our snack interlude consisted of the sharing of one, very large watermelon, the partaking of which strengthened our team bond.

Finally, we ended our morning playing some fun games like caterpillar and bug tag, the human root, and cucumber tag.

This was a great kick-off for the summer, and we hope you can join us for our next event!