A day of friendship and family

Our day started off sunny and clear, with lots of sun (and lots of mosquitoes!) to greet us at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden. Everyone met up in the orchard and we started out with some great sidewalk chalk drawings to help advertise KidsGrow and get everyone thinking about gardening and plants.

After finishing up our sidewalk masterpieces, we played a few games of 'Magic Garden' and 'Aphid Tag' to get everyone excited and burn off some energy.

We were very tired out after all that running around, so we then headed over to the picnic table to start in on the day's activity! A big part of gardening is celebrating the beauty of nature and the outdoors with the people you love, so our theme of the day was focusing on friendship and family. The kids got to get creative decorating a gift for a friend or family member: pots with a strawberry plant inside! Our young artists did a spectacular job making their plain pots dazzling with stickers and drawings. After finishing up, everyone headed over to the garden to fill their beautiful pots with the strawberry plants!

"Needs more stickers!"

Reading 'Compost Stew'

Once the plants were safely tucked away, we got to weeding and watering our garden to help it grow strong and healthy. We made some new friends as we got to see a beetle and LOTS of wriggly worms! Once our work in the garden was finished, everyone headed back to the orchard for a healthy snack of red grapes, and a game of 'Chipmunk cheeks' to see who could fit the most grapes in their mouth! We wrapped up the morning with story time, and we got to enjoy 'Compost Stew' by Mary McKenna Siddals and 'Growing Vegetable Soup' by Lois Ehlert. It was a gorgeous morning to celebrate the people we love!

After some frightful weather in the afternoon, we had a somewhat damp start at the Silver Springs Edible Garden. Luckily, the sky cleared up, and the ominous clouds were replaced by clear blue skies. We started off our activities making 'coupons' for someone special. The idea is that you write out an outdoor activity you wish to do with someone special and the person you want to spend some time with, and presto! you have a wonderful gift. We moved on to checking out how our garden is growing. We spotted some radishes and onions starting to sprout, as well as our herbs and seedlings starting to grow. The kids were especially interested in trying some of the herbs that we had planted, and we soon discovered that mint and parsley were the fan favourites. We can't wait to see what sprouts up next week! After taking inventory of the garden, we decorated our pots and transplanted some sunflowers and bean seeds into the pots. While waiting for the decorations to dry on the pots, we played a few games of 'Magic Garden' and played on the nearby playground, ending the day's activities with a sharing circle. 

We had a wonderful time today, and we were so glad to spend some time with our friends. We wish everyone a great weekend and a happy Father's day! Families of all different shapes and sizes are beautiful things, and we hope you take some time out to remember the importance of family and friendship. Maybe you can spend some time outside with the people you love, going on a walk, or tending to a garden!

To see more pictures from Saturday's event, check out our Facebook page

See you next week!