By Craig Westcott/September 23, 2022
One of the most successful and diverse fruit and vegetable gardens on the Southern Shore this year is one that has been planted and tended by a group of pervasive needs and skilled trades students at Mobile Central High.
While principal Gary Petten and vice principal Kara Bourgeois came up with the idea of having the skilled trades students build a greenhouse and for the school to go after a grant to buy seeds, it was teacher Trent Templeman who grabbed the hoe by the handle, so to speak, and cultivated the project to a blossoming success.
Templeman, who hails from Bonavista and keeps a good garden himself, also happens to be the teacher of the pervasive needs class and is the school’s skilled trades instructor. While Petten heaps praise on Templeman for the success of the project, which incorporates math and home economics as well as other curriculum, Templeman credits the interest of the students and the support of staff.
The greenhouse and garden have taken a couple of years to come to fruition. The work of building the 17’ x 12’ greenhouse and raised planting beds actually began last year under then skilled trades instructor Kristen Kavanagh, to whom Templeman gives a lot of credit.
“We had our Skilled Trades Class do the building of the greenhouse over the last year,” said Templeman. “We also installed raised bed garden boxes that were built by our Skilled Trades class, which is our high school grades 10, 11 and 12 students. Our Pervasive Needs class did most of the planting and growing, and we had a lot of support from our teachers and student assistants throughout the building.”
The students built everything except the roof trusses, which came from Witless Bay Home Hardware. “They are pre-engineered for safety,” Templeman explained
A grant from Living for A Sustainable Future paid for the purchase of trees for a “food forest,” which includes an apple tree, plum tree, a pear tree, damson tree, some gooseberries, black currants, raspberries, and blackberries.
“All the stuff that grows well in Newfoundland,” said Templeman. “I had our students research what would grow well in Newfoundland and that brought in the science component… Along with that, we brought in a math component because we had to purchase our seeds and purchase plants, so they learned how to do spreadsheets, and to do some small accounting. This year is our first year and we were in pretty good shape until that hurricane hit (last week) and we're looking a little blown down here now sunflower wise, but that's part of the learning component for the students – learning that next year we need to build some trellises and some supports. I kind of want them to experience success and some problems and learn how to become better problem solvers. We did some soil testing to test the pH balance of the soil to see what plants would grow well in different garden beds or raised beds… The students did a really good job. We're lucky that this area doesn't get a lot of wind, so we selected this as the area for the most sun with the southern exposure in the day and kind of brought that in as an education piece for all of our students who were involved… So, they are learning a lot and in a short amount of time. First when we started, they were mildly interested and right now, everyday they can't wait to come in… It's a deep learning process where they are actually seeing something and not just reading about it in a textbook or reading about it online. They are actually living the experience, and they are responsible for the plants and the greenhouse.”
It’s the kind of experience that the students can carry forward in their own lives, after they leave school, and may even help some of them get jobs such as in a garden centre, Templeman allowed. One graduate from last year has gone on to agricultural college and another is training to be a carpenter.
There are plans to cultivate a gardening group at school for any students who are interested and to build outdoor classrooms near the garden and greenhouse.
“There will be benches, seats, maybe some desk writing areas, a nice little spot for students right through grades 5 to 12, so any teacher can take their students out, hopefully, in the Spring,” Templeman said.
In addition to the pervasive needs and skilled trades students, other students have taken a keen interest in the project too and have participated in the construction and planting. This past summer, Templeman organized a rotation of students to take turns checking and watering the plants they had seeded last spring before school ended. Templeman himself would show up every two weeks to tend to the crops as well.
And what crops they are.
“We've got green onions, radishes, we're ready to plant new lettuce here for the Fall, spinach and kale. We've got mint, which we are going to dehydrate so they can make tea,” said Templeman. “We've got dill here, which I'm hoping with the cucumbers we have to make some dill pickles and bring in some students from our Nutrition Couse and get them to help our students learn how to do some canning and preserving.”
There are also carrots, savoury, peas, zucchinis “which we're making loaves out of for our baking project,” onions, sunflowers, two beds of potatoes, “which the students already pulled and made some french fries out of,” corn, raspberries and blackberries.
About the only plant that didn’t do well this year was beets.
“We planted in June before school got out,” Templeman said. “From our grant we bought a damson tree, a plum tree, a yellow apple tree and a red apple tree. We've got some pumpkins there, small sugar pumpkins that they can make pies out of. We've got good gooseberries, black currants and red currants. We've got three grapevines. Grapes actually grow well in Witless Bay and the Southern Shore. So, I guess they'll make grape jelly and not wine.”
The greenhouse is full of cherry and beef tomatoes, along with some very large and abundant green peppers, sugar baby watermelons, cucumbers, and spaghetti squash
“Our peppers were the big hit,” said Templeman. “We've had some nice size peppers and the students have been coming out recess time and grabbing one for a snack… As a fundraiser to restock all our seeds and plants for next year our students, along with the Nutrition Class, or Career Class, we're going to haul our vegetables and do a Thanksgiving Dinner for the staff for maybe $10 a plate. We’re just trying to teach our students some financial responsibility.”
Templeman said many students explore the garden recess time and lunch time. “But we haven't had any vandalism and, surprisingly, no one has been pulling vegetables,” he said.
Near the front door of the greenhouse, a sign made by students in the school’s art and design class reads, ‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.’
“I don't know who came up with the saying, it wasn't me,” said Templeman.
But he believes in the truth of it, noting it agrees with the tenor of the times when interest in local food self-sustainability is growing.
“It's opening up, especially with agriculture becoming such a big part of Newfoundland and with the cost of food and everything now,” Templeman agreed.
