Story Telling in the Garden

This week the Calgary Public Library visited us at the garden! At Hillhurst-Sunnyside Larissa Johnston from the Louise Riley branch came and read us lots of fun books. We learned about how friends can help us when we're scared. We also read a book where vegetables were made into cars, planes, skis and much more.

We took a break with our snack of apples and mangos (which were a bit hit!). After our snack we created our own stories. We passed around pictures that could inspire our stories - like Jo the Ladybug and Sally the Chickadee. After we made up stories of our own we worked together to create a story together! Each person would take a turn adding a sentence or two to the story. 

That was a lot of sitting down so we played some tag to get up and running. We played octopus tag - where we had to join arms and run together to catch everyone. We also played tree tag where whoever is tagged freezes and can only be unfrozen if their friend helps them. All of these activities helped us realize that we are most successful when we work together and have our friends or family to help us. 

Over at Silver Springs Edible Garden Courtney Novotny joined us from the Crowfoot library. We read some more stories and sang a song about peas in a pod. We also had time to draw what we found in our garden. Our chard, kale, potatoes, pumpkins and peas are growing really well! We even tried some of the kale and peas (in addition to our snack of apples and mango).

We wanted to run around a bit after that so we played Tree Tag and a variation of it called Banana Tag (in this game it takes two people to unfreeze frozen individuals). All that running tired us out so we played Tangled Tree Roots. In this game we all stood in a circle and held hands with someone who wasn't standing next to us. This meant we were all tangled and we needed to work together to untangle ourselves! Again, this showed us that we can achieve more when we work together. 

Don't worry if you missed our activities this week - you can always come next week. 

Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden/ Orchard
10am-12pm
OR
Silver Springs Edible Garden
2pm-4pm

What to Bring: Water, sunscreen and your enthusiasm for gardening!

Berry-Painting and a little bit of Yoga

We had two activities through which the kids were able to channel their talents today! Both were intimately tied to the nature we are a part of and cannot do without and served as a reminder as to how important it is for us to be conscious of this relation!

Firstly, some art, and for a change, instead of using another chemical-based tube-stored paint, we opted to create our own - using berries!

Mushing together some raspberries, we were able to obtain a nice bright red, while a little more counter-intuitively, blueberries gave us a deeper red with a heavier tone. A modest palette but enough to splatter around the page to interesting effect. The 'paint' also had a nice consistency to it which allowed us to stick pieces of bark and other plant material to our page to create a nice collage of sorts.

Naturally, as often happens in any great artistic endeavor, the journey can get a little messy, and there was definitely a little bit of running back and forth to the tap to wash our hands but in the end, a common theme in the sharing circle was that the kids definitely enjoyed their little moment of expressing themselves through the medium of fruit-mush-on-paper!

My personal favorite  of the day though was a little bit of improvisational yoga in the garden! In the absence of a proper yoga-teacher, we decided to use a little gem of a book called the yoga game to see if we could solve a riddle given to us and then interpreting the response in a yoga pose! We had the tree (vrksasana), the cat (svanasana, marjariasana, bitilasana... all combined into the one animal!), and also the cobra (bhujangasana)! A little revelation for me was that I could pull off the headstand after-all (at our Silver Springs location with a little help from a friend :) ). Again, a great day to be out among the green with the only unexpected weather outcome being a little grass-shower from all the kids at the end of the Sunnyside session - awesome!

"The Cobra" - could you tell?

Crouching tiger...resetting before another star jump!

To the dust all shall return!

The theme for the day was composting and naturally we had quite a few composting-related activities that occupied us this week!

At the Sunnyside location, we began by inspecting our plot and making sure our crops were healthy and green. We spent a good portion of our time ensuring we didn’t have too many weeds competing with our plantation, and with the occasion, I also got a chance to finally learn all the different greens we had growing. Calgary’s been rather dry and warm these past few weeks so we made sure we generously watered our plot as well.

For the activities, we began first of all by learning the essentials of composting by reading through this beautiful picture book and then to test our knowledge we played compost-or-not classifying game. But first, we had to go on a little treasure hunt to find all the ‘item-cards’ listing some things we could find in our garden before deciding if we’d throw them into our compost bin. Naturally, when things are hidden, sometimes they stay a little too well hidden so we were faced with a frantic all-hands-on-deck period when we all tried to hunt down the final card, but luckily they were all found in the end!

We had some obvious ones such as apple cores and other organic food items which are, of course, definitely compostable. We also had not-so-obvious ones such as t-shirts and clothing items of which only the cotton bits or other organic fibres are compostable.

Finally, we had a chance to make our own little compost starter cups which we made by first grabbing a scoop of the ready to use compost from the garden – the ‘brown’. Our snack for the day was everyone’s favourite fruit – bananas! – so we were able to use the chopped-up peels as the ‘green’. The trick to getting the compost going is to layer the greens and the browns and making sure to keep the mixture nice and moist with a nice sponge-cake-like consistency. My apologies if the next time you go to enjoy your sponge-cake with some tea, you are reminded of a garden compost, although, that’s not altogether a bad result either if it gets us maintaining our own composts at home :)

These activities we were able to replicate pretty smoothly over at over Silver Springs location, but with the added bonus that we had time for some games at the end – nothing rounds out a nice, warm afternoon better than a few rounds of ‘what-time-is-it-Mr/Ms/Mrs/Queen/King-Wolf’!

Can 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 5th. 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.

From Seed To Fruit

The forecasts had been ominous but in the end, Calgary was able to offer us another fine day to spend outside, and what better way to enjoy it than working the land again!

Looking for ladybugs!

Today’s activities centred on exploring the plant life cycle. After some very productive work de-weeding the orchard, the kids at the Sunnyside location were also quite adept at piecing together the whole narrative from the seed to the plant which flowers before finally bearing the fruit containing the seeds to start it all over again. It’s definitely a process that we overlook too often, yet it never ceases to amaze us when we contemplate how all the potentialities of a plant are contained in the seed – life’s original ‘miracle,’ that sustains all other life on this planet!

We also read a little story together that visualized this idea beautifully by illustrating the diversity of flowers and fruits carried on this Earth (who doesn’t love children’s books?!) and the kids were definitely recognizing a lot more of the plants than I was! Naturally, we finished off with a little game, this time we played magic plants. Again, I portrayed the poor farmer who has to ward away trespassers on his field who evade his attentions by ‘freezing’ into plants just when he turns around… a wonderful way to round off the fun!

Over to the Silver Springs garden, and from the close-knit village-feel of Sunnyside, we found ourselves in the wide expanses, and swooping mountain vistas of the north-western part of the city. Our plants were definitely sprouting and garden had itself a newly-crafted seating area as well. The kids harnessed their artistic talents in composing some really creative pictures that incorporated actual plant-material with colourful additions of their own which all melded nicely together on the page, I have to say! Check out this great composition from Lucian!

Friends of the Garden

Our garden is still empty but we're hoping to see some sprouts soon! While we are patiently waiting for our garden to turn from dirt and seeds into lusciously green edibles, we spent the day learning about garden pests vs garden helpers. As both the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden and the Silver Springs Edible Garden both operate on a strictly organic basis, pests become a major concern; digging up and eating our crops, nipping holes in the leaves of our greens and stealing nutrients our plants require to survive. The children and parents learned a lot about which bugs and creatures we want to attract to our garden and which ones might be inhibiting the growth or overall health of our plants. Did you know that spiders are good for your garden? Spiders eat mosquitoes, wasps and other pesky bugs that we want to keep away from our garden as well as our gardeners. For an introduction to the critters that we often find in our garden for our little friends, click here to watch Ernie from Sesame street exploring nature in his neighbourhood. For our more advanced readers, learn about how you can keep those pesky mosquitoes out of your garden with the power of plants from an article in Canadian gardening: 'Six Plants that Repel Mosquitos' by Anja Sonnenberg. 

Together, we had a discussion about how to naturally attract helpers and deter pests so that we are not harming wildlife and our greater ecosystem. Our delicious snack for the day was a combination of the sweet undertones and crunchy textures of green peppers and cucumbers. Yum Yum! We featured a story entitled 'Monarch and Milkweed' by author Helen Frost which describes the symbiotic relationship of plants and butterflies, each helping each other to survive and thrive in nature. We ended the day with some exercise and fresh air with a Kids Grow favourite, 'The Farmer Game'. One person plays the Farmer who plants their crop in the field and then they must be on the lookout for garden pests that sneak into the field and steal the delicious fruits and veggies. From this game, we learned that planting more than you require is a good technique to ensure that there is enough to feed the farmer and his or her family even when pests come along and steal some of the crop.

If you missed out on the fun this week, don't worry because Kids Grow will be running throughout the summer months until August 31st. Drop by this Saturday, June 28th for some more fun games, activities and crafts geared toward gardening. 

Where?

Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden/ Orchard
10am-12pm

OR

Silver Springs Edible Garden
2pm-4pm

What to bring? Water, sunscreen and your enthusiasm for gardening!

*Kids Grow Cancellation Policy* If it lighting raining or drizzling outside, Kids Grow events will still run! However, in case of heavy rainfall, thundershowers, hail and other extremely unpleasant weather conditions, we will cancel the day's events. Make sure you check our Facebook/Twitter feed before you leave in case you are unsure

Planting Our Garden!

What at  first looked to be a rainy day turned around and was bright, beautiful and sunny. Our first day back in the garden was a huge success! We had a great turnout of children and their families both old and new to our program. We started with a general introduction to the Kids Grow program, an overview of community gardening in Calgary and gave participants a sneak peak of our event plans for the summer of 2014. This was followed by our theme of the day: Planting our garden. The children worked together to choose what kinds of vegetables, greens and flowers they wanted to grow and then we decorated popsicle stick garden stakes to label our plot. After all the hard work planting, we wouldn't want to forget what we have grown! We talked about how to plant seeds, the germination process and figured out what plants require to grow and thrive. Each location enjoyed a delicious snack of bush green beans and grape tomatoes generously donated to us by Sunnyside Natural Market.The kids raved over the snack and there wasn't a single bean or tomato left by the end of the day!

We began at Sunnyside with some hard work weeding and preparing the soil for planting. Each child took a rake or a shovel and began breaking down the tough soil before we mixed in a bag of compost to revitalize the nutrients. Under all the weeds, we found our hardy mint plant from last year, boasting with large and fragrant mint leaves. Working as a team, the children and their families planted our beloved garden plot with many different types of vegetables and greens; Swiss Chard, Peas, Beans, Radish, Carrots, Kale, Chives, Spinach, Squash and Mesculin. Our plot might look empty now but we sure are hoping for a bountiful harvest at the end of the season! 

Over at Silver Springs, the lovely community garden members had started some potatoes and pumpkins for us! The potatoes are growing really well already! We planted our other bed with beans, kale, peas, two different types of squash, and cucumber.

To end the day at both Sunnyside and Silver Springs, we got some fresh air, exercise and our intake of Vitamin D for the day by playing games of Caterpillar tag, Cucumber tag and Magic Garden. To recap our favourite parts of the day we finished with a sharing circle where all participants got to share their experiences with planting our garden.

                             
If you missed out on the fun last week be sure to join us this Saturday, June 28th to learn about garden pests and garden helpers, have a delicious healthy snack, story time and play some fun games!

Where?

Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden/ Orchard
10am-12pm

OR

Silver Springs Edible Garden
2pm-4pm

What to bring? Water, sunscreen and your enthusiasm for gardening!

*Kids Grow Cancellation Policy* If it lighting raining or drizzling outside, Kids Grow events will still run! However, in case of heavy rainfall, thundershowers, hail and other extremely unpleasant weather conditions, we will cancel the day's events. Make sure you check our Facebook/Twitter feed before you leave in case you are unsure