School Garden Project

Showcasing gardens using simple and sustainable systems that work for families and schools is the focus of a project we began in the spring of 2010. With the support of a Frontenac CFDC Local Initiatives Project grant, we created a series of gardens and we host school visits every spring and fall, and school garden projects throughout the year. Our gardens include a Wartime Victory Garden, full of vegetables that are easy to grow and do not require a large amount of space (the photo on the left is the day we dug the Victory garden in the spring of 2010). Another traditional garden is the Three Sisters Garden of the Six Nations. It features corn, beans, and squash (see below). Earthworx provided the soil and stones for the Wintergreen gardens. Earthworx is also involved in the second phase of the project when Wintergreen brings gardens to the schools. Two elementary schools in Kingston and the Frontenacs designed and enhanced their gardens in the spring of 2011, with Earthworx donating soil and mulch to the participating schools. Gerrie Baker from The Worm Factory is giving workshops on vermicomposting (that’s composting with worms!) for the school tours.

The other form of composting that is featured in our gardens is the infamous “Green Cone.” Invented in Ontario, the Green Cone was designed to be an efficient and natural rural solution to food-waste management without worry of animal interference. Wintergreen uses the Green Cone, manufactured in Ontario mostly out of recycled plastics, to manage all its cooked food waste, including meat and bones. The Green Cone is a food-waste digester and uses heat from the sun to create the perfect digestion or decomposition micro-climate.  Wintergreen works with Compostec Ontario, which  donated the Green Cone, to share the benefits of on-site food waste management with schools and visitors. Wintergreen includes the Green Cone in their school garden programs as well as on-site. The Green Cone has been used for 20 years all over the world and is particularly suited for backyards and schools. Read more about the very successful school program that has been operating in Vermont (download the Schools and the Green Cone pdf for more information). Contact Compostec Ontario for info on the Green Cone in Canada.

If you’d like to learn more about our three demonstration gardens, click below:

Three Sisters Gardens

Victory Gardens

Spaghetti Gardens