Green School Grants - Prince Edward Island
Fall 2010
Parkdale Elementary SchoolHere's a pop quiz: If you were starting a garden on Prince Edward Island, what organic fertilizer would you have readily to hand to amend your soil and nourish your plants naturally?
The answer, at least for Parkdale Elementary School in Charlottetown, P.E.I., is shellfish compost. This grant will help buy one yard of it, along with topsoil, mulch and lumber, which together will create Parkdale's School Ground Biodiversity Gardens.
A group of students from Grades 4, 5 and 6 have developed the plan for the project, which includes two wildlife gardens and a vegetable plot near the school's outdoor classroom area.
Those students will be doing the frame construction and choosing the seeds, seedlings and plants, an experience Donna Clarke, the school's guidance counselor and the project's leader, says "can supplement the science and math curriculum outcomes."
Once it comes time to wield the shovels, rakes and wheelbarrow funded by the grant, "all students will be invited to participate in the planting," says Clarke, "and the harvest will be available to all classes who choose to participate in our organic, pesticide-free vegetable garden."
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