Thursday 28 September 2017

Start-up Updates!

Wow, so much has happened in the last month! The students have been hard at work harvesting tons of produce from the gardens!

We've had celery, swiss chard, tomatoes, kale, lettuce, beans, potatoes, kohlrabi, beets, parsnips, carrots, crabapples, dill, oregano, parsley, sage, nasturtiums and sunflowers!



One of the first weeks of school, our students participated in the Harvest Moon Festival at Berrington Park in Orleans.  We had over 200 basil seedlings that we gave out to people who came to visit our booth at the festival.  We taught people how to transplant seedlings into their own little pots to take home.  We also had a square foot gardening workshop set up where we taught the public about how to implement square foot gardening in their own gardens! It was so cool to see all the people walking around the festival with their Norman Johnston basil seedlings in hand!

 

















In our second week of classes, we took the students to check out MosaiCanada in Gatineau and were so blown away by the creativity and beauty of the displays. 

 

 Students worked hard at organizing NJ's first open house in which we were able to showcase all the hard work going on in the gardens! It was a huge success and we were so happy to invite the public in to see what goes on in our building.  It was wonderful to see parents, friends, grandparents, siblings and neighbours come to see all that we have to offer at Norman Johnston.



The big project currently going on in the horticulture course is the building of our very own Norman Johnston outdoor classroom. Students worked so hard at digging up all the sod to create a footprint of where the classroom will be located.  The students then laid down landscape fabric and are in the process of spreading out woodchips to create an accessible area for all students to come to learn and hang out.







We are thrilled with all of the projects and successes of the horticulture program and are so excited to continue sharing what we're up to! The next project we have planned is building an outdoor 8ft x 12ft greenhouse that will help to extend our growing season!

Happy gardening!