Closing St. Cecilia Gardens 2020

 Just like so many things in 2020, the St. Cecilia gardening season looked a bit different this year. 

With all the uncertainty and changes to the coming school year, we decided to close the gardens early, before the students return to school.  Normally it requires parent volunteers to facilitate the classes coming through the gardens - and we know at this point that volunteers just won't be able to be at the school right now, because of Covid-19 restrictions. 

So instead, we had volunteers come out on a Monday evening and we unceremoniously picked the harvest and cleaned out the beds.  It was certainly quieter than usual without all the students there but the sense of community was still alive and well!  

We also had problems with our watering source this summer, and with all the very hot days in July along with the late planting dates, many of the crops just didn't thrive.  So we got some squash, rutabaga, onions, garlic and a few beets and flowers.  But the carrots, parsnips, sunflowers, green onions, and many of the beets just didn't make it this year.  

Thank you to the parents who helped throughout all the summer months in keeping the gardens going.  Without you, this would not be possible!  You rock!   

Thank you to Mrs. Prevost and our amazing custodians who were always available to help when we had water challenges.  Your support is appreciated!  

 

A Different Gardening Seasoning Has Begun at St. Cecilia School Gardens

It was a quiet beginning to St. Cecilia's gardens this year.  

Usually, we have many volunteers and families gather to help clean out and prepare the gardens.  Usually, we have hundreds of kids and their teachers come through the gardens to help us plant the crops for the season.  Usually, we have lots of pictures of kids smiling as they get to participate in this outdoor, hands on learning experience.  

This year, because of the school closures with Covid-19 and the need to physically distance, we had a very quiet planting experience with only 2 St. Cecilia students and one former St. Cecilia graduate helping to plant the gardens and cut the long grass.  While we got the job done very effectively, it was definitely not the same without all the energy and enthusiasm of the students!

We were not sure that the gardens would proceed this year with all the restrictions, but in the end we got the OK to proceed.  It would not have been possible however without the amazing support of 14 St. Cecilia families that have helped to keep these gardens going in the past and stepped up immediately when asked if they could help again this year by each taking a week to weed, water and cut the grass.  Thank you for your dedication!  

While we hope that the students will be able to experience the harvest come September, we are also not certain that will be possible.  We do know though that we will again be able to make a donation to a local food bank with our crops and even if the students can not participate this year in person, the efforts to continue with the gardens will still benefit those in need.  

Thank you again to these amazing parents/families that are donating a week of their summer to help tend to the gardens:  Shannon O'Hearn; Estelle Mendonca; Laura Villeneuve; Fedja and Wendy Pejic; Jackie Kung; Megan Kunsken; Jodi Brown; Elviro Spremo; Julie Bowman; Catherine Fisk; Kristen Tipman; Meghan Debuc; Fernanda Correa and Terri Poole. 

Annual Harvest and Closing of the Gardens

We had a lovely completion to our 2019

St. Cecilia gardening season this year!

We had 20 classes come out and help parent volunteers harvest all the crops that we grew this year.  In year's past, we have given some of the harvest to each class to explore.  This year, because we grew primarily root vegetables, we knew we'd have a good harvest - so much food that we wanted to make sure that it went to individuals who needed it most.  So the kids were awesome to not only harvest the vegetables but also help sort and package them up so that we could donate it to 

Parkdale Food Centre.  

Thank you again to all the parent volunteers, educators and administrators that continue to make this project possible.  We are looking for new garden leaders for the next growing season - if you are interested or curious about helping to keep this project going, please don't hesitate to email at stceciliaschoolgardens@gmail.com

 

 

Donating the food to Parkdale Food Centre

Our gardens are growing!

July 17, 2019: Garden Update!

St. Cecilia's school gardens are growing well.  We have some beets, sunflowers, potatoes, carrots, and lots of onions.  The broccoli and parsley and green onions we planted are not doing quite as well as we had hoped - but that's ok!  They were new crops for us this year and we are learning!

We plan to plant some radishes in a few empty spaces in the next few weeks that should be ready when students return in September. 

Thanks, as always, to the volunteers that have helped maintain the gardens so far!  Not that we're complaining that summer actually arrived but with all this heat recently, it has been a bit of a challenge keeping the soil from drying up!  

Sunflowers

Potatoes!

A New Garden Season at St Cecilia has Begun!

We've officially opened the St Cecilia School Gardens!

We typically prepare our garden beds on a weekend with many parent volunteers, but this year on May 21, we decided to try something different and invited a Grade 5 class to help weed, till and add new soil to our beds.  They did an amazing job, willingly got their hands dirty and worked for a solid 45 minutes in pairs doing all the tasks that were required.  It was so great to see their enthusiasm and eagerness to help!  Thank you to Mr. Pashkoshki for bringing your class out to help.  Thank you to the parents that came out to help too!  

Then on May 24th, we had 18 classes come through and help us plant all the seeds for this year's crops.  As we learn more and more about this gardening process at St. Cecilia, we have decided to focus on mainly root vegetables that will grow throughout the summer season and will be ready for harvest when everyone returns next year.  So we have planted potatoes, white and red onions, green onions, garlic, beets, parsnips and carrots.  We are also trying Romanesco Broccoli (also referred to by us as "Stars Wars Broccoli") which takes a long time to grow.  We had a generous donation of seeds from a St. Cecilia family last year and put some of those seeds to great use!  

 


We also had some lily bulbs donated last year by another family last fall so they are starting to peak up in one of the gardens and we have decided to make that one bed a "flower garden" by adding Sunflower seeds to it this year.  A work in progress, we just might make this a perennial garden moving forward if anyone has any bulbs or plants they want to donate to this, that would be great!  They need to be a sun-loving plant as there is no shade in our garden area.  

We have many volunteers scheduled to help take care of the gardens as well as our new trees over the summer months.  Thank you to all of you for helping to make this another successful gardening season!  

Our 2019 Volunteer Gardening Crew: 
Garden Lead: Brandy McDevitt

Clean up Crew: Sarah Fraser, Maria Fe Otero, Andrei Dumitrecu, Yukang Li, Tina McLean, Terri Poole

Garden Planting Crew: Jackie Kung, Estelle Mendonca, Yukang Li, Jodi Brown, Fernanda Correa, Michelle Eyamie, Wendy Prichett-Pejic

Summer Maintenance Crew:   Shannon O'Hearn, Estelle Mendonca, Laura Villeneuve, Fedja and Wendy Pejic, Stephanie Chafe, Sarah Yorke, Stephanie Davis, Liam Gerofsky, Elvira Spremo, Julie Dunphy-Bowman, Catherine Fisk, Kristen Tipman, Maria Fe Otero

The Harvest!

We had 16 classes come through and help harvest our school garden on September 18!  We had some crops that grew amazingly (beets, carrots, basil) and some crops that grew just OK this year (lettuce, spinach, onions, potatoes).  We also saw what happened when we leave corn on the stalks too long (they dry up) and when you plant them too late in the season (they are still baby corn!!).  We also learned that you can keep old, dried up corn kernels and plant them as seed for next year.  Some classes may take on that experiment for our next growing season 😃

A special thanks to Laura Villeneuve for helping me to manage the crowds :)  

 

 

The garden is all ready for BACK TO SCHOOL!

The grass is mowed and trimmed.  The weeds are picked and the soil turned.  The crops are patiently waiting for the classes to come through early September to see what grew throughout the summer!