Waste in Our World

When we hear cycle of life our minds may not immediately go to what this really entails but thanks to Chrissy from Puzzle Permaculture we got the full low down on Waste in Our World. She talked about the sun side of life and the dark side. The sun side being those creatures that get their nutrients from the sunshine, plants, etc. But what about the waste these creatures create... yes humans too! What is our waste and how does this tie in to a positive life cycle? Hmmm well lets talk about the dark side and see if we can figure it out. As you may have guessed it, the dark side involves all that mysterious land under our feet in the vast and amazing earth. We put our waste into the earth and somehow this helps other creatures and plants obtain nutrients. So lets get to the bottom of this! What kind of creatures are down there and what really is our waste? Some that Chrissy talked to us about were bacteria that feed on waste.... then other creatures feed on bacteria... continuing on a cycle. What else? Fungi is a big one that looooves the dark side. Now here is the giveaway... a DUNG beetle. Okay so you guessed it folks! Poop. We're talkin' about poop. Many creatures survive off our bodily waste! Chrissy had some pretty neat examples for us and we even got to spread fertilizer created by worms and fungi in our garden so it's sure to grow wonderfully with all the added nutrients. It was interesting to learn that the best fertilizer is created by animals that eat only grains... so no, unfortunately, your dog is not helping out your garden! It is so interesting to learn as plants and creatures how we all really are connected in the cycle  of life.

For story time we read the book, "I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean" by Kevin Sherry, and I really suggest checking it out! It is hilarious and in a child-like manner puts things in perspective! Then we enjoyed a delicious snack of blueberries and grapes and had lots of fun playing games in the orchard!

A huge thank you to Chrissy and all the wonderful families that made it out!

See you next week!

Making Pesto with Sharon

On Saturday July 18 the crew at Kids Grow! were fortunate to have Sharon from Poppy Innovations teach us how to make pesto using the ingredients the kids grew in our garden. Sharon talked about the importance of nutrition and how important it is for people to eat healthy food.

While Sharon was setting up, we played a game of Fruit Salad in the picnic area. Everyone had fun running around and thinking of our favourite fruits! Strawberries, raspberries, saskatoons, bananas (& banana bread!), apples, grapes, and more! There were so many fruits to choose.

Then, the moment we have all been waiting for finally arrived: we got to pick the spinach! Using the freshly picked spinach, Sharon taught us how to make some delicious pesto. Sharon delegated various tasks to the kids so that everyone had a part in making the pesto.

We had some people using a mortar and pestle to crush the spinach and greens, others were grating cheese, cutting pita, squeezing lemons, and some were even shaving the garlic with a micro-plane. Everyone worked together to make the pesto, and when we were done mixing the ingredients we were able to eat it. Yum!

With bellies full of our fabulous pesto, we said our goodbyes.
What a fantastic day!

Do you hear what I hear?

Birds seem to be abundant in the city of Calgary but we tend to overlook and become oblivious towards the common group of pigeons that hover over a green field in the summer or the crow that caws at you on your daily commute to work. What role do these birds play in our community, the greater ecosystem and more specifically our garden?

These are a few of the questions we began to explore at our Kids Grow event on Saturday, July 11th. We began by familiarizing ourselves with the common birds of Calgary. Many people are familiar with the Mallards and Geese that inhabit the surrounding bodies of water and the crows and pigeons that socialize in public areas but how much do we know about the starlings and sparrows? After our information session conducted through a fun game of matching bird pictures with their corresponding facts and bird calls, we took a nature walk to see what birds we could find. Our hearing skills were surely heightened on this adventure as we had to find the proprietors of each distinct sound amongst the harmonious bird chatter.

After our nature walk, we headed back to the garden to make some bird feeders. Many varieties of bird seed that can be bought at your local grocery stores contain preservatives and other not-so-nice things that can harm our wildlife. We decided to make our own using goodies that are safe for birds and completely edible for humans. Another problem highlighted with bird feeders is the sheer dependence birds can develop to an man-made source of food. The bigger your bird feeder and the more you refill it, the greater the chances are that birds in your area will keep coming back for more and develop a reliance on your goods. Ensure that your feeder is small and contains a variety of seeds and dried fruits that can be supplementary to their diet and not fully meet their dietary requirements. We made bird feeders out of orange peels! Click here for the instructions.

Succeeding our bird feeder construction were some fun bird-themed games! We began with the 'Duck Waddle' and finished with 'The Little Lost Birdie' in which parents and children paired up, one as the mama bird and one as the blindfolded baby bird. The mama bird would announce her specific bird call to the baby and the little birdie would have to use her listening skills to find her mama bird!

To learn more about birds in Calgary, check out the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. The walking trails are unfortunately closed due to the flood damage from last year but they continue to offer information through their nature and free tours to those interested.

Library in the Garden!

Last Saturday we had Larissa from the Calgary Public Library join us for story time. She brought books that could be signed out by the kids, and shared information about the public library's 2015 Summer Reading Challenge. This is a great opportunity to enjoy reading while you discover amazing new books and you can even win prizes! She did a great job engaging kids in reading and inspired many of them to practice often so one day they too can read tons of books on their own. It was so fun to have you Larissa! Thank you!

Our other activities were more hands-on. The kids got their hands dirty with weeding and watering the garden. They are doing an amazing job at identifying weeds and plants and understanding what is helpful and harmful to our garden. Even adults were interested to learn that some plants which look beautiful with flowers are actually weeds and could be harmful to our vegetables or herbs that we want to grow. It takes a lot of water to harvest a healthy crop and we don't need anything else sucking it all up!

Our time was now coming to an end but we always are ready for some fun games! This weekend we played Four Corners which is always a lot of fun and you can try at home too! You can use a marker item to name a corner or just remember what you call each of the four corners. Say we have ours named Lettuce corner, Caterpillar corner, Water Can corner, and Sunshine corner then the person in the middle closes their eyes and counts to ten while everyone very quietly races to a corner. Without peaking the person in the centre calls out "Caterpillar corner!" and everyone in that corner has to come join them in the middle. The kids had a lot of fun and plenty to talk about in sharing circle when we shared our favourite moments!

A big thank you to everyone!