Author: Robert Patterson – The Growing Connection
The Growing Connection collaborates with schools and communities across Canada and around the world, engaging young people in solutions right at their doorsteps.
All TGC gardens use the Caja sub-irrigated container, thus relieving school administrators / facility managers of any concerns about installing and maintaining a garden. With the Caja, the garden can be installed virtually anywhere (yes – we still need sun!), there is no possibility of contamination, and the containers can be taken home by students/families during the summer break.
At TGC, we realize that teachers everywhere are working so hard because it is their passion (certainly it is not for the money!), so we try to orient our inputs and training services in ways that are completely adaptable, flexible to each and every situation, and in a manner that makes the teachers’ lives easier and more rewarding. The simplicity and ease of use of the Caja system makes this possible. And teachers can use the Caja both indoors and outdoors.
TGC has been building space/water efficient gardens at schools around the world since 2002 – this links schools into an international network that allows kids to share / compare their learning and growing experiences with peers across Canada and around the world…. Here is a brief, touching example of the value of gardening at school:
Carmen Oliviera is the teacher/coordinator of the TGC garden at Burrows Hall Public School, a very multi-cultural elementary school in Toronto. Carmen told us this story shortly after the Caja garden was installed in 2017:
“This afternoon I was called to the Kindergarten class because one of our most difficult students was having a huge tantrum. I asked her if she wanted to walk to the garden with me and she immediately calmed down and went to put on her jacket. We spent some time looking at the plants, talking about their growth, and then she began to open up and share with me her feelings about what had happened in class. She said that every time she feels like she’s going to have a meltdown, she’ll ask to go to the garden because it makes her feel good… it just goes to show what contact with nature can do for us all. She now regularly asks how the garden is doing and during recess joins me to eat some of her favourite spinach and watch the progress of our strawberries. You can see and feel the calm the garden brings to her. It has become one of the most special places in our school in such a short time.
We usually highlight education, health and taste at our school gardens… we should not forget the emotional impact as well.”
Let’s get growing!
Contact us at: robert (at) thegrowingconnection.com