Snow has arrived in Edmonton, but our Little Green Thumbs gardeners are getting ready to plant seeds with three events to start the year.
New Gardening Supplies
57 classrooms have all they need for another indoor food growing adventure. Teachers picked up their supplies from The Root Seller, a local garden centre that stocks all we need for our gardens.
Kick-Off Event at Arch Greenhouse
We had a fabulous day at Arch Greenhouse, learning about the garden centre’s social entreprise and the special programs for adults with developmental disabilities. We also had a tour of the greenhouse, filled at this time with lovely poinsettias.
Teachers also learned how a local company grows crickets that are then processed into a high protein flour for use in food products. We are looking forward to having Camola Foods visit some of our classrooms later in the season and inspire students to learn about cricket farming as another way to produce food.
We concluded the day with a short hands-on activity where teachers learned about growing microgreens in class or at home. They each planted a container with radish seed or a mix of microgreens seeds.
A huge Thank You to our volunteers, helping with setup, food and cleanup! We are also grateful for some great door prizes donated by Apache Seeds.
New Teacher Training
Becoming a Little Green Thumbs gardener takes some time and a willingness to learn about the requirements of plants grown indoors. Around 20 teachers took over a garden this year and came to a training session, learning about light safety, grow box setup and planning the indoor garden. We wish them well on this hands-on growing and learning adventure.
We hope our Little Green Thumbs classes are now off to a great indoor gardening year!
Claudia Bolli, Little Green Thumbs