Children Learning at the Garden About Community Gardening

The mission of the Garden Path Society (GPS) is “to provide an organic garden to cultivate plants, build community and share our resources.” One of the ways to achieve this is to share the Inglewood community garden with children and youth.

As part of the 2009 summer programs called Nature Discovery Camps and the Environmental Stewardship Camps offered by the City of Calgary Parks Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (IBS), children will be learning how food is grown organically at the GPS community garden. A maximum of twenty-six 6-14 year-old children are expected to grow food at the GPS community garden beginning on July 6, 2009. The campers would come to GPS for an hour on Monday afternoons and an hour on Friday mornings accompanied by IBS Nature Educators.

They will plant and tend a shared plot, where they will grow vegetables under the supervision of the Nature Educators who are organizing the program in partnership with GPS. The children will also have an opportunity to interact with other GPS gardeners and help in tending some of the Cornucopia plots where food will be grown for charity.

Through a hands-on approach, the children will learn what is takes to grow healthy food, what makes organically grown food different, and what it takes to make their vegetable plot be productive. They will also learn how community gardens like GPS add to the quality of life of the Inglewood neighborhood and the City of Calgary. For example, some of the vegetables from the garden will be donated to supplement the diet of senior citizens and homeless Calgarians.

The young gardeners will also participate actively in applying some of the principles and techniques of backyard composting. For example, in addition to what they will learn about composting at the IBS from Clean Calgary Association staff, they will also have a chance to help with composting at the GPS.

The GPS part of the IBS summer camp program is part of Learning at the Garden, a GPS garden-based environmental education initiative that consists of informal educational programs aimed at beginners, intermediate, and advanced gardeners.

For more information about summer camps with the City Parks at IBS, visit the website at www.calgaryparks.ca.