The Do's and Don'ts of Compost

Did you know that you can compost lint but you can't compost brains? We learned a lot about the do's and don'ts of compost last Saturday, and we even got a chance to mix up our own compost too!

Compost is the remains of decomposed organic matter that can be used in gardens to enrich the soil. It is full of nutrients and good bugs that help make plants grow healthier and stronger. We can make good compost out of a number of things including fruit and vegetable scraps, cow manure, dead leaves and twigs, and even egg shells. Composting is a way to help the earth by honouring and contributing to essential life cycles that feed and nurture all living things on the planet. By feeding the earth we are also feeding ourselves, and other beings that depend on good soil for sustenance.

Anisha helped us learn more about composting by setting up a chart and going through a list of obvious and not so obvious compostable items.The kids learned a lot and laughed a lot, especially when Anisha asked us if we could compost a telephone.

Next, we got to mix up our own compost soup with some fruit and vegetable scraps, paper, lint, and egg carton bits. It was slimy and yucky, but the kids loved it! After mixing our own individual bowls of compost, we brought them to the main compost bin in the garden ( a feature every garden would greatly benefit from having), and dumped the contents in.

The Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden has a three stage system compost where there are three compost bins side by side. After filling up the first bin, you move the contents to the second bin and start to fill up the first bin again. When the first bin is full, you move the contents of the second bin to the third bin, and the contents of the first to the second bin. And finally, when you fill up the first bin again, you move all the contents over one bin, and the last bin is rich with dark compost material that can be added to the garden soil. This process involves the turning and mixing of compost to provide aeration required for decomposing bacteria. All the kids had a chance to turn the compost and experience the stench that is decomposing organic matter. Despite the grossness we had a marvelous time!

Ambassadors of Kids Grow!

Kids Grow! is expanding its borders, reaching the minds and imaginations of kids all over Calgary.

Last week, some friends from Lynnwood in SE Calgary contributed their creativity and art skills in decorating our banner. The activity caught the attention of many neighbourhood kids who all contributed something special to the project. This work was an exercise in cooperation and planning as the team of kids worked together to decide on colours and images they wanted to see depicted. Not only did they work effectively in planning, but they also demonstrated excellent team work by sharing ideas, paint and space with each other.

Here are some pictures of the process!

Wisdom of the Orchard

Jim Hollicky holding up some of the fruit of his labour in Sunnyside Orchard

Jim Hollicky, dedicated steward of the Sunnyside Orchard, knows just how important producing your own food is. Growing up in a small town in Saskatchewan during the "dirty thirties," Jim experienced what it was like to live off the land and do without the convenience of grocery stores. We were so lucky to have him share these memories with us in the warmth of the sun-blissed orchard.

As we strolled together through the Orchard it was evident that these trees and plants weren't just items in a shopping cart, but to Jim, they were living beings with histories of their own. We learned about how the variable Calgary winters had affected the growth of the Valentine Cherries, and how important it is to thin out the immature apple fruit so they have room to develop into big tasty fruit. We also heard the lovelorn story of the pear tree couple and how, through an act of vandalism, one  tree was destroyed, leaving the partner to live a fruitless life. We also witnessed a miracle of nature when seeing for our very own eyes a baby fruit on the single pear tree in the orchard.  Jim suspects the pear received the pollen from another tree, a new love from the yard of a neighbour in the community.

The children were excited to discover the massive strawberry patch amongst the flowers in the orchard garden, and even more excited to hear that they were welcome to eat the delicious berries whenever they pleased.

After our orchard tour, we settled in to make pinwheels for our gardens. Pinwheels are great deterrents of birds and other animals intent on pecking away at the food growing in the garden. We coloured the square paper on both sides and cut toward the centre from each corner. Then we glued the holes in each corner into the centre hole. We placed colourful beads on the stick and put the hole in our pinwheels through the stick. We finished off with a few more beads, and Voila!

If you ever stop by the orchard, be sure to try an apple or strawberry, but also make sure to spend a little time doing some weeding or picking dandelions before they go to seed. The Sunnyside Orchard is a product of the community and it takes more than one person or plant to make it beautiful!

The Kids Grow! Team

Hi everyone! I'm sure you're wondering who is behind Kids Grow! and what makes us tick. Well, here is your Kids Grow! team for 2012.

Hey hey! My name is Niky! I am a bird lover, a teddy bear collector and kids make me smile. I love to read books under a tree on sunny days, take naps in the sunlight and gardening – everything in the sun basically! I went on an amazing trip last February to New Orleans and got to learn about gardening and sustainable food production at Our School at Blair Grocery. Following that, I really wanted to grow my own food but my mom didn’t agree. The Kids Grow! program was the perfect fit for me since I get to learn basic gardening skills as well as spend time with kids! The more I spend time with the Kids Grow! program the more I love it! I am upset that I will not be able to be around the whole summer to see the garden grow but I will be back in August and be part of the harvesting process! This program has taught me a lot and I hope to grow my own garden next year =)

Did you know: The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to the store!

Hi, I'm Tamara and ever since grade five I wanted to save the rainforest. I remember my dad taking me to the Greenpeace office in Toronto to become a member, but I was refused because I was too young. Now I'm directing my passion towards saving our local communities by being an advocate of urban agriculture and helping others see the beauty of growing their own food.

Kids are the future of the environmental movement, and I believe that if we can teach them how to become stewards of sustainability by allowing them to engage in projects like community gardens, then maybe we can remediate some of the earth's problems. Kids Grow! has been an incredible educational experience, not to mention inspiring and fun!

Look forward to seeing you at our next event!

Hello! My name is Anisha and I love real food. Growing fruits, vegetables and herbs, all from tiny seeds, is such a rewarding and tasty experience! I feel that many people living in urban areas have lost their connection to real food and I think that it can be healed through the education of children; the pure wonders of life who are open to learn from everything and everyone. I am passionate about ensuring that children can have access to education about food, gardening and the overall importance of being part of a community despite their financial circumstances. I feel that Kids Grow! is a perfect opportunity to make this happen and I can only hope that the program continues to grow in upcoming years. Even though, it has been a lot of work to get this program up and running, it has been well worth the time to receive so many smiles from the children and much appreciated support from across the city!

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!