Reviving a Community Garden at École Varennes

by Master Gardener Suzanne Simpson

You find yourself in the school yard of a K-6 school and are drawn to the garden beds brimming with fruit and flowers. If you pause for a moment, you’ll discover an eclectic mix of legumes, squash, herbs, cut flowers, and native Manitoba perennial plants. If you crouch down, you’ll notice tiny mushrooms have fruited amongst the wood chips as beetles react to your footsteps and scurry under the larger pieces. If you close your eyes and listen, you’ll hear the cheery chatter of birds swooping between lilac bushes and garden flowers as they feast on the insects that are drawn to the nectar and pollen found so abundantly throughout.

Gardens at École Varennes. Photo by Suzanne Simpson

Welcome to École Varennes Community Gardens. At an unknown time in the past, these extensive gardens, which run the entire width of the school, were established within a concrete border and sprinkled with lilac bushes, some raised beds and an abundant dose of daylilies and rhubarb. Over the course of the last 75 years, various teachers have taken on the responsibility of caring for this space, and like most shared gardens, the success of these endeavours have ebbed and flowed.

I had just started working at École Varennes in 2022 when the principal at the time approached me and asked if I would consider taking over the task of its care. There was a modest budget supplied by the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) and I would have carte blanche to manage the space as she had heard that I was a Master Gardener and trusted my expertise. I agreed because I believe strongly in the educational value of a teaching garden, I was looking for a community garden in which to volunteer, and my gardening heart was breaking to see the current weed-filled garden beds. Some teachers and I formed a garden committee and set to work.

Summer abundance at École Varennes. Photo by Suzanne Simpson

Step one was to remediate the dry, clay-packed soil. I immediately invested in some compost containers and started a compost collection at the school. Not only did this start the process of rich soil creation, but it proved to be an excellent teaching tool and started conversations about organic matter, biodegradation, and the importance of diverting organic matter from landfills. We also were grateful for a donation of woodchips from a local tree service provider. We laid down cardboard and students shovelled the woodchips to act as mulch and to help suppress weeds and retain moisture. In year two, we purchased a large water cube container that could be filled during school hours but accessed by volunteers in the evenings when the school was closed.

Step two was deciding what to plant. Very early into the planning process, the committee realized that the gardens were simply too large to meet our needs. We divided the space into three zones. One zone was offered to the father of an educational assistant (EA) who had moved to the city and missed his large country garden immensely. We were happy to share our space with him. This aligned well with the Louis Riel School Division’s multi-year strategic plan goal of showing generosity and allowed students to see different gardening styles within the garden space.

The second zone was dedicated as a pollinator garden, and plants were donated from Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) and Monarch Teacher’s Network of Canada. We also wrote and were awarded a grant from Learning for Sustainable Futures (LSF) and purchased plants from Prairie Originals to supplement these planting. As is common, the first couple of years required a lot of watering and support, but now that we are in year three, the pollinator gardens are independently thriving and providing nectar and pollen to a wide variety of insects from early spring to late fall. This too was an important goal as the garden became a teaching tool for conversations around ecosystems, pollinators and the relationship between host plants and certain insects like the monarch and milkweed.

Students working in the garden at École Varennes. Photo by Suzanne Simpson

The third, and largest zone, is the vegetable garden. We have a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers chosen by the students in the École Vert-ennes Club and selected for easy seed collection in the fall. You will find squash, carrots, herbs, cucumbers, calendula, lavatera, snapdragons, sunflowers, nasturtiums, radishes, peppers, celery, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, malva, cabbage, rhubarb, chives, zucchinis, beans and strawberries growing harmoniously. As teachers, we noticed that students are often very disconnected from their food and many do not know that potatoes grow underground, or that cucumbers can climb a trellis. We felt very strongly that children should use all their senses to experience where their food comes from, appreciate the time and care required to produce food and be given opportunities to learn skills which they can apply later in life to grow their own food.

The Club Vert-ennes students started some seeds from scratch and students from the school helped to sow the seeds and transplant the seedlings into the outdoor gardens. It was a school-wide effort to weed and water during the months of May and June. Students knew that if Mme Suzanne was in the garden at recess, they were welcomed to grab a shovel or a bucket and come help. Many worms were discovered with squeals of glee and students learned quickly to ask before pulling a plant they didn’t recognize!

Summer maintenance in the garden at École Varennes. Photo by Suzanne Simpson

The biggest challenge for all school gardens is summer care. We decided on a drop-in format where one teacher volunteer would sign up as a host and welcome any volunteers who wanted to help with the garden over the summer. Every Monday during July and August at 6:30pm, student, parent and community volunteers gather to visit, to share gardening knowledge and to weed, water and harvest. All harvested produce is shared amongst those who volunteer with the surplus being donated to local food banks. We also leave some fruit to ripen so that students can learn how to collect and save seeds in the fall for use in the spring next year. Extra seeds are shared with the community in the Free Little Library whose bottom shelf transforms into the Free Little Seed Library during the months of May and June

Gardens at École Varennes. Photo by Suzanne Simpson

It has now been three years since I have been caring for the École Varennes Community Gardens, and amongst my favourite memories and experiences are the times when I could share some of my knowledge with eager students such as the kindergarten student who took me by the hand and asked me to name all the plants in the garden for him. I also remember the father from the community who had arrived with his family from Kiev, Ukraine and was eager to teach his boys how to garden since they had always lived in urban centres and never had the opportunity. Another time, I became the student as a parent-volunteer explained that the purslane I was weeding was edible and grown as a crop where she grew up in Nigeria.

I am grateful for the gardening community which meets once a week to create a beautiful space for learning, a habitat for our more-than-human relatives and a catalyst for community connection.