Elementary Schools in the Manitouwadge Memorial Community Garden

A big Thank you to Marlene Turner for calling OntarioNewsNorth.com the night prior to let me know this was happening. If you know of or see news happening in town – Call and I’ll do my best to cover it! 807.826.4745 OR 807.228.1747 . ALSO please remember submissions of news articles, photos and videos are always welcome, send to Editor@OntarioNewsNorth.com

MANITOUWADGE, ON – Wednesday, June 6th, students from both Manitouwadge Public School and École Publique Franco-Manitou, took advantage of the warm, sunny weather to work in the Manitouwadge Memorial Community Garden directly across the street from the building the schools share.  Garden Collaborator Marlene Turner was on hand to share her knowledge with the young gardeners and their teachers and, offer advice in regards to use of their space in the garden and summer maintenance that might be necessary after the students had finished their school year at the end of June.

Mrs. Turner, who continues to be an active steward of the memorial community garden, was integral in its establishment, a long process even after, in 2008, the township signed a Use Agreement for the vacant property at the corner of Wenonah Ave. and Shingwauk Ave. where the Manitouwadge Community Memorial Garden now flourishes growing, in regards to both content and user base, each year. It would be two more years before the first flowers and vegetables were planted but since then, the garden has progressed consistently. (CLICK HERE to read Marlene Turner’s history of how the MCMG was established)

Last week OntarioNewsNorth.com was invited by Mrs. Turner to visit the garden when she was expecting visitors from two nearby schools and so we had the opportunity to watch as Manitouwadge Public School and École Publique Franco-Manitou transplanted the vegetables and sunflowers they had begun indoors this spring.

MANITOUWADGE PUBLIC SCHOOL
@ the Mtwdge Community Memorial Garden

Manitouwadge Community Memorial Garden (MCMG) Steward Mrs. Marlene Turner, weeded and checked flowers as she patiently waited for the special team of gardeners she had plans to work with.  The Manitouwadge Public School Environmental Club members, students from Grades 4 through 8, their teachers/volunteers Mrs. Lynch, Mrs. Woodrow (MPS/MHS Librarian) and Mr. Larsen and Manitouwadge High School student Justin Fleurent who is currently doing a co-op placement at the MPS library.  Mrs. Turner had volunteered at the school during their Earth Day Challenge, April 20^th, when students had originally planted the sunflower seeds and she, like everyone involved, was pleased to see the students continuing the process of growing their plants.  “We were very happy to have Mrs. Turner join us during the planting of the sunflowers.  She has helped make participation in community gardening a possiblity for our school.” said Mrs. Woodrow, MHS/MPS Librarian and MPS Environmental Club Volunteer.

The kids of course were very eager to begin the work of transplanting their sunflower seedlings and so after a little instruction from the adults in attendance, they put on their gardening gloves and got to work.  While they planted, Mrs. Turner discussed with the group the importance of maintaining their corner of the garden during the summer months, when school is out.  They discussed the weeding, watering and harvesting frequency that would potentially be ideal and a few students committed themselves to these tasks for July and August.

The group also took the opportunity to check on their apple tree, Mrs. Turner shared that it had indeed born fruit the previous summer however, the little apples had been picked a bit too soon and were likely a bitter snack for whomever had eaten them.

The apple tree was among the plants started by MPS last year, when Kindergarten through Grade 3 students had planted a variety of vegetables.  The Junior and Senior Kindergarten students plan to be gardening again this season as they will be planting vegetables later this month.

Mrs. Woodrow thanked everyone for their efforts as the group took a last look at the plant-box they had filled with seedlings.  A quick group photo ended the morning’s work and will serve to compare weeks from now, how the plants are progressing.

…more photos of MPS Gardeners below.

École Publique Franco-Manitou
@ the Manitouwadge Community Memorial Garden

Having said goodbye to the MPS Gardening team, Mrs. Turner advised that École Publique Franco-Manitou would soon be arriving as Renelle Tousignant Cultural Animator for their school board, Conseil Scolaire Publique du Grand-Nord de l’Ontario, had already been in ÉPFM’s part of the MCMG for some time, preparing for the students and teachers to arrive.

The ÉPFM’s portion of the MCMG has been significantly developped, in large part due to Mme. Tousignant, who visits at least once a month specifically to teach the students and their teachers about gardening, to maintain their part of the garden which includes two in-ground greenhouses (‘serres chaudes entérrés) which allowed the group to plant their potatoes in April, just after the last major snowstorm, as well as many regular plant-boxes where they are growing a wide variety of organic vegetables in this, their 2nd year using the MCMG.

Mme. Tousignant helped the students lay black gardening tarps over the plant boxes through which they transplanted their various seedlings; spinach, broccoli, green beens, tomatoes, beets, ect before adding a top coat of wood chips.  The tarp, explained Mme. Tousignant would help keep weeds from growing around their plants while also increasing the heat absorbed into the ground from the sun while the woodchips, would help keep the plants moist to ensure they could make the most of any rainfall and keep watering they recieved for longer periods.  She emphasized that the school and school board, have put these measures in place in the hopes that Manitouwadge residents will feel welcome to explore their corner of the MCMG and harvest vegetables as they are ready during the summer months.  Tousignant has promissed OntarioNewsNorth.com that she will send some “Gardening Do’s and Don’ts” to help make people more at ease when exploring or enjoying the École Publique Franco-Manitou corner of the MCMG.

Mme. Tousignant says she sees the students knowledge of gardening and organic gardening methods growing from year to year “Now they can speak to me in gardening terminology, Mme. the roots have torn from the stem’ rather then just ‘Mme. it’s broken’ there development is exciting to watch” explained Mme. Tousignant. The highlight of this trip to Manitouwadge she told us was when she brought the kids to the spinach plant and was showing them that is was edible “How often do you hear kids saying ‘Wow I love spinach, can I have more’ it’s not everyday but when they have grown the vegetables themselves they are more open minded about trying them” said Mme. Tousignant clearly very proud of the young gardeners she is teaching.

[CLICK HERE to watch an interview (French) with Mme. Renelle Tousignant the day she and the ÉPFM students/teachers were working in the MCMG OR CLICK HERE to hear OntarioNewsNorth.com Editor Karina Hunter’s weekly interview on CBC Radio Canada’s CBON-fm program ‘Le Matin du Nord’ June 7th when she spoke about the MCMG (French)].

Keep reading OntarioNewsNorth.com as Mme. Tousignant’s “Gardening Do’s and Don’ts” for the École Publique Franco-Manitou portion of the MCMG will be published as soon as we receive them (watch the ticker near the top of the pages as they will appear there 1st).

RELATED ARTICLES

• MORE FROM MPS ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB (05/04)
• Environmental Club Celebrates Earth Day at Manitouwadge Public School (04/28)
• Écoles Élémentaires au Jardin Communautaire Mémoriale de Manitouwadge (06/10 -French article)
• Couture, Jardinage, Sciences, ect à l’École Publique Franco-Manitou (05/27 – French article)

MORE INFO

• Learn more about public education in Northwestern Ontario
• Learn more about French language public education in Northern Ontario

Tags: Community Garden, conseil scolaire publique du Grand Nord de l'Ontario, CSPGNO, Earth Day 2012, École Publique Franco-Manitou, garden, Garden Collaborator Marlene Turner, Garden Steward Mrs. Marlene Turner, growing sunflowers, growing vegetables, Manitouwadge Community Garden, Manitouwadge Community Memorial Garden, Manitouwadge Community Memorial Garden Steward Mrs. Marlene Turner, Manitouwadge community newspaper, manitouwadge daily news, manitouwadge daily newspaper, Manitouwadge High School student Justin Fleurent, Manitouwadge local news, manitouwadge news, manitouwadge newspaper, Manitouwadge Ontario Community Memorial Garden, Manitouwadge Ontario community newspaper, Manitouwadge Ontario daily news, Manitouwadge Ontario daily newspaper, Manitouwadge Ontario dailys newspaper, Manitouwadge Ontario local news, Manitouwadge Ontario news, Manitouwadge Public School, Manitouwadge Public School Environmental Club, Manitouwadge Public School Environmental Club members, Marlene Turner, memorial community garden, memorial garden, MHS Librarian, MHS/MPS Librarian, MPS Earth Day Challenge, MPS Environmental Club, MPS Environmental Club Volunteer, MPS librarian, Mrs. Woodrow, Northwestern community newspaper, Northwestern daily news, Northwestern daily newspaper, Northwestern local news, northwestern news, Northwestern newspaper, northwestern ontario community newspaper, northwestern ontario daily news, northwestern ontario daily newspaper, Northwestern Ontario dailys newspaper, Northwestern Ontario local news, Northwestern Ontario News, SGDSB, summer maintenance, sunflower, sunflower seedlings, sunflowers, Superior-Greenstone District School Board, teachers, Wenonah Ave. and Shingwauk Ave., young gardeners
Posted in EDUCATION/School News, Environment, Manitouwadge/Marathon, Municipal, Northern Ontario Gardening, Northern Ontario Headlines | Comments Off on Elementary Schools in the Manitouwadge Memorial Community Garden

• 
  Digg
• 
  Facebook
• 
  Delicious
• 
  StumbleUpon
• 
  Twitter
• 
  Technorati
• 
  reddit
• 
  Mixx
• 
  Newsvine