About The Knowlton Academy Secret Garden
Cultivating Success in Every Child
Welcome to Knowlton Academy Garden and Greenhouse Project, a long term project for our children's future and community.
The Knowlton Academy Garden and Greenhouse Project has been the long-time dream of many people in this community to bring garden and nutritional learning to the curriculum.
We believe that growing a garden, from seed sowing to harvesting, is an important part of a child’s education. By instilling this knowledge in their formative years, students will acquire the joy of growing their own food, and eventually leave with the tools necessary to begin their own gardening projects and other life skills such as working together, sharing and being involved in their communities. The students also benefit from the harvest in the KA cafeteria, where the literal ‘fruits of their labor’, the bounty of their garden, are prepared and served for lunch. In this regard, the students learn to understand and appreciate the value of homegrown food, and how to include local produce in their home-cooking. Extra produce is donated to local food banks so the ripple effect is not only for the students but the local community as a whole. As the garden project grows so does how much produce can be shared from the students' efforts.
Our school is located in the rural town of Knowlton surrounded by farmland and wildlife. Our region relies on agro-tourism and eco-tourism to sustain the economy. We want to inspire our students and equip them with sustainable skills and transferrable knowledge.
Like the seeds with which we will grow our food, this project began as the seed of an idea, and through the communal efforts of lots of people from many different areas of expertise and experience, the Knowlton Academy Garden Project has blossomed into a wonderful place of learning, interaction and growth, where individuals of all generations alike can experience the sense of community while strengthening sustainable, relevant skills. “A community that sows together, grows together”
To the Table
Nutritional initiatives such as free weekly vegetable snacks at recess, 'flavor of the Month" samplings are in place and hundreds of pounds of produce are sourced for the school from our own school garden as well as from local gardens in our community to feed the students. Each year we are seeing a growth in what we can contribute to the community in access to what the students use.
Related activities
In keeping with our inherent connection with our rich biodiversity, we are striving to provide activities that result in balancing the local ecosystems. Bat workshops were held for the students by internationally acclaimed biologist and bat specialist, Dr. Michel Delorme and bat boxes have been built and installed around the garden by the students.
Activities have taken place to tie into the student's curriculum such as the grade 5 students digging holes in the garden after reading Holes by Louis Sachar.
The creation of our garden club has been a great success with an average of 40 students attending weekly for outdoor garden activities. When the cold weather arrives, indoor projects such as growing microgreens, making birdhouses and cooking workshops begin.
Community Partnerships
We have many more plans in the works with new and exciting activities inside and outside the school to continue growing the project such as adding additional greenhouse space, starting to create green programs to work towards our goal of becoming a zero waste school which would include waste free lunch weeks, green apple initiatives, school wide composting, school waste assessment - weighing the output and seeing how much we are able to reduce by on a monthly basis, green initiative programs, heritage projects and much more.
Our Goal:
To grow and contribute year round even during winter conditions
Progress to Date:
2017 - The garden layout was built – Following a bee to clean up the area thanks to the help of the 1st Knowlton Scouts, a team of volunteers, including students, built 14 raised beds for planting vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. Being in an area where wildlife is abundant, it was necessary to install an 8 foot deer fence to protect the space.
2018 - The buzz about our project exploded in our little community and thanks to generous donations we were able to erect a seed starting shed followed by an outdoor classroom space. Community members dropping off plants for perennial gardens both inside the deer fence at the back of the school and also in the front yard to create our pollinator gardens. a 60 foot hoop house was erected and a bean tunnel was also built with the help of the students using an old car port that was donated by a local family and waterlines were installed to help irrigate the garden.
Regional Media (see press link page) becomes interested in project looking to cover program.
Fostering relationships with local businesses not only for garden project support but with the additional goal of highlighting their businesses in the community in return (via social media, print, radio etc.) The garden layout has now really taken shape
2019 A pergola was built by volunteers and Secondary 1 students to provide shade for the outdoor classroom and we continued to develop our relationship with local businesses such as garden centers, farms and merchants and an outdoor kitchen with counterspace and sinks was added as well as a BBQ for the students to prepare food for themselves in.
2020 saw grape vines added, a tree house, many new vegetables and 6 new beds measuring 1000 sq feet of new growing space and an extension of the fence to enclose this new space. 2 to 3 classes a day worked in the garden, important in the times of restricted covid condition, both for the students and teachers to have a release.
2021, we started early! Greenhouse has already been put up in March and we have many exciting plans for the year such as hugel culture beds, new artwork to decorate the garden, seed starting, . A successful seed fundraiser program that will see the whole community sowing and growing