YES! We're still growing!

I must apologize! I know you have been on the edge of your seat(s?) awaiting an update on our garden since my last post years ago! We have been so busy here at school and I have honestly just been unmotivated to write about the garden. There have been some frustrations and set-backs, mostly regarding the fish...but we are growing!

From November 16, 2010 (too lazy to even post!?):

Dr. Pang was in town last week to check up on how things are going around the school and let me tell you…when the Dr. is in the house…shit gets did. He wasn’t on campus 20 minutes and they had water along the wall where he said they would be putting fish in the next few days (I am unsure how said fish will survive as there is no filter or drain in this little enclosed area), some sort of sculpture placed into the ‘water area’ and we were on our way to buy trees to give the garden some green while we are waiting for our plants to grow. Grades 6-8 were all involved in planting last week and we have already got some little seedlings sprouting after the weekend. I am really unsure as to how well some of these things are going to grow (i.e. the watermelon) but we can always dream of big melons. Hmmm…?

Carol and I visited the plant nursery up the street from the school with our tri-lingual secretary, Yolanda. We were informed that there were more trees at another location further up the street so Yolanda asked the workers if they would drive us there. Minutes later we were bopping along in the back of a tree delivery truck to some unknown location to buy trees. Not what I expected to be doing on a Thursday afternoon, but it proved successful. We returned with three trees which have really added to the garden.

Something that did not add to the garden was the dead bird I found lying mere inches away from our freshly transplanted tomato and basil plants on Sunday morning. Janna and I had hauled our butts out of bed bright and early to attend a yoga class and on the way back, I went over to the garden to water the plants which had been neglected the day before. This terrible teacher was having too much fun gallivanting around Hong Kong on Saturday to tend to the gardens. Oops. There is a large staircase that ascends from the 6th floor of the school down to the ground level which is enclosed by semi-circular glass. Birds assume it is a free-fly zone and ram into either side of the glass on the way through on a weekly basis. Luckily, the cleaners or SOMEONE notices dead bird carcasses before the dear children arrive for school most days. However, Jess O. told me once that her entire class saw one smack right into the glass and land with a thud on the ground in front of them once. Traumatizing to say the least.



Now we are almost half way through December and it has gotten to the point where I have demanded that the Grade 12s 'update' the blog for an assignment. I will be posting their comments regarding our progress and some photos of how we're doing.

As predicted, the fish project sank a bit. Pun intended. Except dead fish actually float for a while, so first it floated, and then it sank. Needless to say, there were a few mornings when I would arrive at school to have students run up to me exclaiming, 'Ms. Dingee! There are three more dead fish!!!!' They were placed in this area with no filtration system (i.e. no oxygen source) no food and no care (oh, that was my job?) for over a week until I finally asked if we could get some food for the poor things. They had started attacking each other so it was not a cool scene. I picked up some aquatic plants from a fish store down the street which the few remaining seem to enjoy. Well, they enjoy hiding from predators underneath them. We started with numerous fish, and we now have 4. Fish carcasses have been added to the compost, so at least they aren't completely going to waste. I have, however, become convinced that someone is playing with my mind and it's that damn cat Chairman Mao, I just know it! The cleaners claimed they found fish bones in the water the last time I had them clean it out. This cleaning episode also culminated in the extermination of 6 fish which I had to pluck out of the water the next morning before all the little kids could come and see their pets floating belly up :( Not a great start to my day.

Today, I arrived to find one of the bottom-feeders on the ground 5 feet away from the water and the water inside had almost completely drained out somehow! WHO IS DOING THIS TO ME?!

We have soil!

A group of us teachers have just returned from a glorious week-long trip to Thailand. The land of cheap buckets of...whatever you'd like, delicious food, and fantastic beachy fun. There were nine of us in tow as we traveled from Bangkok; highlights included floating market, Koh San Road at 3 am, being given a Michael Jackson groin thrust followed by the standard Thai greeting of two hands clasped together by a young child along the banks during a boat tour, 4 am wake-ups and bedtimes and throw in just one wrongly booked plane ticket which was remedied by Thai messages on the beach and lovely fresh-fruit cocktails.

Upon my return last week I was thrilled to see that the raised-beds had been built in the center of our area along with the concrete beds along the walls! It looked almost identical to the image we had provided. Kids were running into the class announcing 'the garden is here!' I'm not sure if they realize that this thing isn't going to plant itself yet or not.

I was nervous about our little sprouting seedlings the whole week I was away, which I had left in the fairly capable hands of one Gregory Sheppard who did not join us on the Thai-trip. When asked if he wanted me to show him 'what to do' to water the plants, he replied, 'Uhhhh...yeah, pour water on them?' 'Well...sort of, but you can't just go dumping water on these little seedlings...some need misty drops! MISTY DROPS!' Anyway, they mostly survived, some I dare say thrived in Greg's care, so I will be sure to repay him with a bottle of juice, or pop or something that mixes well with either of the two.

Since our return, I have met with Ms. Hao, the lady who is responsible for ordering all of the supplies and materials for both the International and Chinese Schools on campus. She seemed very open to all of my requests: organic soil, re-used tables/chairs for the art class to decorate, old plates and dishes for making mosaic art, a bench for seating, a small storage space with a roof, etc.

I had requested that we have some sand or small rocks placed at the bottom of the raised beds to help with drainage and after my conversation with Ms. Hao, I returned to my class to finish up some work. 20 minutes later, my friend Janna poked her head into my room on her way home and said 'Did you know that they're pouring sand into your flower beds?' Sure enough, workers were coming with bags of sand and raking it out along the bottoms of the beds! Sometimes when you want something done in China, all you have to do is snap your fingers! It reminds me of the billboard displayed along the road coming from the Hong Kong ferry into Shenzhen, something about how 'Time is Money, Efficiency is Life...' Ohhhhh China...

On Wednesday, Spencer from Grade 12 said he would go out and buy soil if we could start planting the next day. To his delight and my surprise, we could have as the first bags of rich (looking), dark soil were poured in during our Environmental Science class the next morning. I felt like a bit of a hypocrite, but I insisted that Daniel haul out his cellphone (which I had confiscated after he used it to calculate something a couple of weeks before) to capture the moment.


This week and next are going to be filled with projects, midterms, tests, and report card marking so we will see about getting started on our planting ventures. It seems like it would be a good time to start as the weather is finally dropping down to a 'not-so-ridiculously-sweltering' 25ish degree temperature average. Really starting to feel the autumn in the air. Or maybe that's just the CO2 emissions...

'Our Garden Project' - By the grade 12s

From the whole garden project, I expect something beautiful where we can rest, study or have fun with others. I hope the school garden will be a nice, quiet place what will last for many years. I contributed my garden plan for the school garden, like everybody from G12, and tried to grow up a plan. I learned that i’m fail at plant growing, my plant didn’t grow up, the seed is too shy to show of. :D I think the garden will give some “green” intro our life, we will have a place, where we will have some fun, I like it! ~ Daniel

I hope we can have a beautiful school garden and our plants will grow like they will. I planted Onion and I sketched a plan for our school garden. I have learned about the importance of our green earth and how we can save the earth by stop using too much natural resources, turning of the lights after you leave the room, etc. this is a valuable class because it teaches us the importance of trees and how it affects the world. also, a school garden is important for the other students to learn about planting small plants or even big trees. ~ Spencer




I expect the school garden is very gigantic and pretty. The school garden should be very huge. Therefore the students feel that they are surrounding by environment. This makes the students to feel comfortable. Moreover, they could study much better. Also I expect the school garden has a number of colorful flowers and the plants that we can eat. Thus, the students could eat after the plants grow. I hope someone will take care of the school garden during school days and during holiday or vacation. So the plants could get enough water to grow. I hope everyone in our school like the school garden. Because it is ISNS’s school garden and our classes contributed a lot to design it. I hope the little kid won’t harm the plants. There are numerous of benefits for school garden. At first, it gives students the responsibility to care about something. The students could learn about nature and plants. I have contributed to design the school garden. Some of my ideas are included in the design of school garden. I have learned much stuff during school garden project. I learn how to make the garden, benefit of it, and what plants could live in Shenzhen. It is a valuable project because I could learn about plants. In addition, I could learn about the relationship between plants and weather. ~ Bo Whan

I hope our school garden will go well as we have planned and get all the materials needed. Most importantly, I have high expectations towards our little plants! I am really looking forward to see the fruits or flowers to bloom someday! I have so far sketched a plan about how our little garden should look like, and also planted 3 seeds of a type of flower in a recycled "paper" pot. I've learned a lot about planting, things that I usually wouldn't know, such as how much soil is needed, how to mix ratios of soil and fertilizer, what type of plants are suitable for certain types of weather, etc. To me, this is a very meaningful project, because it gets us learning more about the environment, and more importantly, knowing about the global concerns. It also triggers the little children's curiosity and they might develop an interest in farming! *----* Children nowadays don't even bother to learn about planting and farming as they live in urban areas where there isn't any greenery. Let's plant our earth green~ :D ~ Frances


I am Jisu, I am grade in 12. This year in ISNS, Grade 12 have new course, environment science. In this class, we are doing really cool project, “making school garden!” Not only Grade.12, but also Grade 6, 7, and 8 are making together. Our final purpose is a harvest our vegetables. We designed our school garden. We chose what vegetables are easy to adapt in Shenzhen’s weather, what materials we should to use to minimized the pollution, and the process to use water. The last step of the design is finished by Ms. Chapman who is the art teacher of ISNS. ISNS students finished planting seeds. I planted radishes; my radishes are growing in the small pot which is made of paper. Now we are waiting for stuffs what we need for the school garden. We will make really perfect the school garden! By this project, making the school garden, we learn the importance of farming, and how difficult to get one vegetable. Therefore, the students never waste food! I want our school garden will be started as soon as possible! After started, students who involved the school garden must keep watching the garden in rest time and lunchtime as well as the class time! If ISNS newspaper will start, I hope we mention about the school garden, so many students know about the garden more.

Andy G12
Environmental Science
Blog Entry – School Garden

We (Grade 12 and other members of ISNS) are currently doing a project to build a school garden. This is apparently my first time in building a garden, which means it is a whole new experience. I have high expectations for this particular garden and have contributed my time, ideas and designs in order to make this project come to life. I hope that the garden will grow and flourish so that this project may succeed. I wish to see the through the garden’s construction from naught to finish. There is something important that I have learned from working on this project. I have learned that gathering ideas from different people is essential in teamwork, which will result in a better final product. I know that everyone involved will put their best efforts into the creation of the school garden as I have seen it in class. I’m glad to say that I feel great when everyone else on the team feel enthusiastic about this project. We are doing something that has never been done before on school grounds. A school garden will make the school more green and interesting to look at when you point your vision at it, which is also why this project presents itself as a valuable one. It will also enable us to learn more about plants and vegetations more up close and personal.

Getting Down and Dirty with...Dirt

Here are some pictures of the Grade 7 class inspecting a soil sample. I asked them to really 'examine' the dirt. They had to explain what the soil looked, smelled, felt, sounded, moved and tasted like. Their assignment after this was to create some sort of interesting, funny poem/drawing featuring the characteristics and importance of dirt. I am interested to see what they produce today!




P.S. No, I did not actually make my students eat dirt. They did however get bonus points for doing so. ;)

The Design!

Thanks to Ms. Jessica Chapman, our Art teacher, who took our pictures and sketches and created this design for our garden which I have sent off to Dr. Pang for approval. Hopefully we can get this started this week!

Planning

Here is the area we are working with. I took these pictures while the huge Grade 12 class surveyed the space and sketched some ideas for a design.

For the past couple of weeks, the students and I have been planting seeds, planning a design for our space and learning about the importance of water, soil and sun in the process of plant growth. My Grade 8 class is currently studying a unit on Water Systems, so they have been in charge of learning about drainage in a bed and what we will need to do to keep our plants healthy. The Grade 7s are on Ecosystems and looking at the living and non-living factors. Soil is a crucial non-living component of any ecosystem so we are exploring the components and contributions of soil in plant growth. We recently completed an experiment using different soil samples from around the school yard. We planted radish seeds in 3 different soil samples, two from outside, and one from bought soil with chopped up banana peel for compost. The kids were to hypothesize which seedlings would germinate first. Surprisingly, numerous seeds from the ‘good’ soil sprouted the very next day as did a couple from the outdoor soil. I poked my head into the Grade 7 class before dismissal on Friday afternoon to tell them to come see what had popped up in the classroom. They all came barreling in on their way to the bus to see the little green shoots.
I find the kids to be really interested in the whole ‘growth’ thing. Each class rushes over to their little plants every time they come into the room. I am planning on making a sign this weekend to remind everyone to keep their paws off the sprouting seedlings!

It’s so nice to see them be enthusiastic about it though. We did have a minor disappointment with the Grade 8s. We used those decomposable planters and the kids put their names, the date and the plant name on a piece of masking tape, taped to the planter. We had them nice and moist and placed under plastic over night and discovered in the morning that the humidity had caused the ink to run. A few sprouted right away and no one knew whose they were. A few boys have decided to claim the most fruitful seedlings as theirs and have ever-so-slyly re-written their names on them.

The Grade 12s completed a research assignment for Environmental Science class wherein they were to discuss the benefits of a school garden, the supplies we would need to implement one in our area, how we would manage and care for the garden, and some plant varieties that would be successful in Shenzhen. They were also required to sketch a design for the garden. I was really impressed with what they came up with! They included pathways, creeping vines, a small rock wall that would hold water, tables and chairs, benches, a water diversion system, and many more details that we tried to incorporate into one final sketch that we will send off to Dr. Pang for approval.

A great addition to our project has come about with the contribution of Ms. Chapman who used our final sketch as a template for creating a computer generated image of our space. It looks amazing! Will be posting soon!

I have sent a proposal to the 'Chairman' of the school (not Mao), Dr.Francis Pang about the benefits of starting a school garden on our campus at ISNS. I sent it the first week of school, and heard back from him within a week with an 'all systems go'! All I have to do now is plan and organize what will be needed for materials and supplies to get us started.

I am scared/nervous about taking this on in some ways. Excited mostly, but I am worried that we're totally going to blow it with the seeds, and if they make it to plants, blow it with the plants. I've been spending most of my spare time researching how to start particular types of seeds and sites on school gardens. I found the following site to be particularly helpful: www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0218e/a0218e00.HTM. It's got over 200 pages that outline the process of planning and implementing this sort of project. The most helpful part is the horticultural fact sheets that provide information on helpful and harmful insects, how to encourage and repel them, companion gardening, crop rotation, harvesting and conserving foods, healthy and unhealthy plant characteristics, etc.

I introduced the idea to my Grade 12 Environmental Science class today and they (all 6 of them) seemed really enthusiastic about it and couldn't believe that we're actually starting a real garden at school! This week, I plan to bring them outside to survey our area, and I have given them a little research project to get them thinking about what they would like to plant, how we could design the garden, the materials we will need to accomplish this, and the tasks we will need to delegate to make it all come together.

I also spoke to our awesome Art teacher, Jessica Chapman, about getting her Art classes involved by making signs, mosaic art, or whatever else they can come up with to add some style to our little area.

I'd like to come up with a way to collect rain-water so we don't have to use so much, but I guess focusing on getting the project off the ground...well, into the ground, is the best bet right now.

The Inspiration

Welcome!

I decided to start keeping a record of my adventures teaching at an International school in Shenzhen, China. This is my second year living here in Shenzhen, and my first year teaching at the International School of Nanshan Shenzhen (formerly the International School of Sino Canada). I was further inspired to create a blog when I decided to start a school garden this year. I am going to be teaching Environmental Science, middle school health and science and personal growth/family studies.

When I was home in New Brunswick over the summer, I took the opportunity to visit the Falls Brook Center in Knowesville, New Brunswick where I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of hours with Emily Shapiro who is working there as an Organic Agriculture Coordinator. Emily began her experience at Falls Brook last summer as an intern and was hired on full-time after her 6 month stint. She was able to provide me with a wealth of information and ideas from her own personal experience working with women and children in Honduras to start organic gardens.

I have always been interested in gardening, although my parents have always been the ones who have actually grown anything. One of the many scoldings I received as a hyperactive toddler arose due to my penchant for picking and sometimes eating the under-ripe peppers, peas, carrots, etc.

I can always remember my parents having a large garden, until we moved from suburban Florenceville, to bucolic Carlow where efforts were made to maintain the same type of lush crop, but were quickly thwarted by the local wildlife which could clear a garden faster than my chubby little hands ever did.

Over the past few years, my parents have resorted to constructing raised beds around the property which seems to have provided some respite from the hungry faunal neighbours.
I believe my first real efforts as a horticulturalist would have began when I lived on Windsor Street in Fredericton with a rowdy group of boys who used my make-shift garden as a bottle-smashing receptacle. Needless to say, my induction into gardening did not leave me very motivated to try again. I believe the only crops that were harvested were some meager sprigs of lettuce; enough for a few salads that I DID NOT share with my housemates, some very sad carrots and a few hot peppers. Maybe not so bad for a novice who was living with seven apes?

Coming away from the visit to Falls Brook I felt absolutely inspired and excited about my plans to implement some sort of gardening into the courses I will be teaching in China this year. I did manage to grow some small basil plants, as well as mint, coriander, and lavender outside my room on the balcony the previous year. My efforts paled in comparison to the “Jones” next door (aka Lana & Luke from Newfoundland) who grew huge basil and tomato plants.

Before my visit to Falls Brook, I had already started to plan how I would implement my gardening project with my classes this year. Ideally, I would like to have a plot or a raised bed for each class which would include one each for Grades 6, 7 and 8, and another for the High School Environmental Science elective class. The more I thought about and planned this project, the more I realized that it can touch on almost every aspect of the courses I will be teaching this year. I have been assigned to teach Grade 6, 7, and 8 Science, Grade 12 Environmental Science, and Grade 6 and 8 Health. From pollination, to soil composition, composting, nutrition, plant structure, traditional and cultural importance of food, the water cycle, the sun – the ideas and course relevancies were simply astounding!

As I spoke to Emily, I was enthusiastically scribbling down ideas for various activities I can have the kids participate in and came up with numerous lesson plans to help make this project relevant to all 6 courses I am teaching.

I hope to have the kids research the types of vegetables that they enjoy, or any they know of that may be culturally significant to their personal backgrounds. I will be teaching at an International school, so this will be a great opportunity to show the worldwide benefits of organic gardening and how important food is to every culture. I would want them to have a gardening notebook in which they could record dates and observations they make about progress, weather, germination, planning and reflection. For students who may arrive in the classroom with difficulties speaking, reading and understanding English, I think many of the activities I would like to try will allow for them to use pictures and visual aids if they are experiencing difficulty.
Emily suggested starting off with some plants that will grow quickly so that the kids will be enthusiastic about a potential year-long project right when they see results right away.

I have a feeling that many of these kids have very little experience with the outdoors and certainly very few would have any idea of what it would be like to walk outside your home and collect the food you will eat for dinner directly from your own garden. I can recall asking my Grade 12 Environmental Science class at the Chinese High School last year about their ‘lawns’ (something about how often they water them). I was met with raised eyebrows and faces of complete confusion from the few who were awake. They were so unfamiliar with a concept of a lawn that they didn’t even recognize this word in English. Once translated, they were still like, “Uhhh….no one has one of those.” Recalling this story to people back in Canada, I have encountered similar grimaces of confusion; “They all live in apartment buildings? Don’t those have lawns outside of them?” When my family saw me literally roll around in a patch of grass on our huuuuge lawn (which I am so thankful for) they understood.

The lush, clean, vastness of rural Canada is something many of us certainly take for granted. I hope I can show these students and maybe even their families that this type of project can be easy, fun, healthy, interesting, and great for the environment.