Unite.

“To come or bring together for a common purpose or action” – Oxford English Dictionary

A part of the rooftop gardens at Linden Place

Group 8 was tasked with harmoniously uniting the various nutrients in soil and to brainstorm ideas to make a rooftop garden more accessible. Group 8 worked on the developing rooftop garden in Linden Tree Place (a home for older adults with spinal cord or related physical disabilities). The primary concerns were the nutritional breakdown in the current soil and to determine the best most economical and sustainable way to increase and maintain soil fertility. The group collected the soil samples and sent the sample to be analyzed and interviewed the Garden committee and the LFS 350 teaching assistant (Lis) about soil and gardening. Afterwards the group researched and read scholarly articles about the matter. Lastly, the group met with and interviewed stakeholders and the gardening to learn of and hear concerns about the Garden.

A part of the rooftop gardens at Linden Place

The initial findings regarding the soil was that the nutrients were “not as bad” as initially presumed. Other nutrients were high while others needed to be replenished. The group accordingly recommended some changes to equalize these nutrition levels to the appropriate amounts. In terms of addressing the garden accessibility, the group recommended having standing gardens, tabletop gardens, trellis, or long reaching tools as many of the residents were utilizing wheel chairs. On the side, the group also researched and recommended some plants which could be grown in the current soil conditions and the effect of wind and cold on plants and how to protect plants.

Some of what they were growing

The group joined with Linden Tree Place and provided these recommendations that will carry into future considerations. Additionally, Linden Tree Place also receives more help from other professionals which provide them with immediate advice and help to continue the developments into the future. This united approach at the issues is bound to lead to a better environment for the residents of Linden Tree Place and a more successful rooftop garden.

A part of the rooftop gardens at Linden Place

`rtang

 

Compost Education

Group 22 – Think&EatGreen@School – Assessing & Developing a Vancouver School’s Organic Waste Management Strategy

With the help of LFS’s Think&EatGreen@School project initiative four years ago, Grandview Elementary School became an Earth-friendly school (elimination of gravel fields and set-up of a school compost). Group 22 was put in charge of assessing the school’s Earthtub and planing ways to make their 3-compost system work in the cafeterias. The team found that the compost was being misused due to students putting non-compostable items in the bins; because of this, the school stopped using the bins. In order to re-implement the compost program, Group 22 made signs for the compost bins designed to help students discard their food scraps properly. In addition to the signs, the group members held compost-how-to workshops in the school and spent a day transferring compost from a nearby community garden to the school fields. The team feels that their work will have a positive effect on the school’s food system and believe that the students, teachers, and themselves learned a lot and will use that knowledge practically in their lives.

Kat.

Pigs’ Future Brightens Up

Group 18 – Gambier Island Sea Ranch – Pig Management Project

This team is of the lucky few chosen to travel to beautiful Gambier Island for their project. They worked with the Gambier Island Sea Ranch to look into the recent health problems of their pigs – over the past 2 years all the pigs have had to be euthanized due to an unknown disease. Speculations were made (possible ring worm infections?) as a tight budget prevented the farm from hiring a veterinarian and suggestions were given (move the pigs to a different field) along with various other advice for their Gambier Island community partner. Due to the nature of their project, group 18 was left with not much else to do so they were given the task of building nesting boxes for the ranch’s chickens. They were a bit frustrated with this because it didn’t involve their specific project, however it served as a great experience for them as none of the group members had any woodworking experience and reassured them of the strength of their team’s character because the boxes actually turned out quite nicely.

Group 18 has a positive outlook on the future of Gambier Island Sea Ranch’s pig rearing because of the foundation they have set and advice given for having happy, healthy pigs. Hopefully the next round of LFS students to undertake this project will find this group’s efforts useful for improving the ranch in the years to come.

Kat.

Van Parks Board for the Bees

Group 17 – Environmental Youth Alliance – Planning for Pollinators

Some exciting last-minute progress is happening for group 17 as answers from the Vancouver Parks Board are finally coming in! There is some keen interest from one of the commissioners for setting up a native bee friendly space in Queen Elizabeth Park as part of their Greenest City initiative. The proposed bee space will act as one of the several pollinator hotspots across west and east Vancouver to increase the viability of urban agriculture. This is not the first time the VPB has partnered with the Environmental Youth Alliance – a few years ago they together established a native bee promoting site at Fraserview Golf Course. While group 17 will not get the chance to directly be involved with the Queen Elizabeth Park site, they are definitely excited to have had the chance to get the idea started.

Kat.

Group 14: Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust

Hedgerow Stewardship Program

This group worked with local farmers and conducted literary research to determine the effects of hedgerows on the pest population in Delta farms. They met with their community partner and refined their research topic to evaluate the influence of hedgerows on potential predators of the pests, the pests themselves, and the role of the hedgerows themselves. They did extensive literary research connecting different pests and predators with specific native trees used in the hedgerow stewardship program by the Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust. A few members were even able to get out there and plant some hedgerows with their community partner! It was a really fun experience that they enjoyed but one that showed them just how difficult planting trees was. The group had a great dynamic and they enjoyed working with one another.  They were able to conduct telephone interviews with a few farmers to get some information on the hedgerows and their opinions of their roles on pest management. They described the interviews as very interesting and fun! The farmers seemed eager to share their knowledge and talk to them about everything. They even have plans to have tea with one of them so that they can go over the results of their report together!

Group 25: University Hill Elementary School

This group determined a suitable site for a school garden at university hill in order to help them apply for a grant. They were able to work with a few of the kids and do an art project with them so that they could see what the kids thought a garden was like. They really enjoyed working with the kids and communicating with the Vancouver school boards dietician. They had a few bumps along the road and weren’t sure what they were supposed to do but once they figured it out it all fell into place! Their group is very large and so they had many issues trying to coordinate, but in the end they got the job done.

Group 12: Farm Folk City Folk

This group was on a mission to unveil the mystery of who exactly the seed saving community is. They wanted to see who was attending the BC seeds gathering conference at Kwantlen and determine just how much knowledge they had, how long they had been saving seeds for, and what they planned on doing with all that information!
They completed their community service learning by volunteering at the conference. During the lunch break they were able to gather the information they needed. They made a questionnaire and determined all of the participants were from BC and that there was no correlation between the size of seed saving operations and years of experience.
The group worked well by bouncing off ideas from one another and divided up section of the work.

Group 15: Compost Tea

Root Down Organic Farm

This group’s aim is to determine if compost tea is a viable option for use at Root Down Organic Farm. Additionally, they want to provide guidelines for future research projects by suggesting recipes for compost tea that Root Down can try. They did extensive literary research on compost tea and even sampled some tea! No, they didn’t drink it – they had it analyzed for bacterial populations.
They spent an entire day at Root Down Organic Farm where they learned about the problems the farm was facing, and had the opportunity to shovel sand into bags to help weigh down sheets and protect the farm’s precious organic crops.
One of their group members was already well versed with what compost tea was, so they eventually believed him when he told them it was not the kind of tea you enjoy on a cold rainy day. They had a conflict free semester and are looking forward to finishing their report!

TA Q&A: Rachel Gutman

As we reach the end of this academic term we start to wonder where has all the scheduling and planning and promises to stay on top on our work gone. We’ve all taken at least one LFS course before, and by this time we know our way around our piling towers of essays and papers. But encouragement is always needed, so here’s a Q&A I got to do with my homeroom TA, Rachel Gutman. Rachel was once an LFS350 student herself, now she gets to sit in the first row on the left-side of our lectures with all the other TAs and gets to mark our awesome reflections and papers.

Thanks for your supportive feedback Rachel!

And to everyone else, hold on, the end is near. The end of the term that is.

-H

Q&A

Q: What is your educational background?

A: I am in my final semester of my BSc in Global Resource Systems where I have focused on Food and Resource economics. Before UBC, I spent two years at Uvic studying biology. Over the course of my degree I’ve taken courses at 4 Universities!
When did you take LFS 350
I took LFS 350 in the fall 2011 semester

Q: What made you want to TA LFS 350?

A: Many reasons. Last year I worked at a local high school mentoring a garden club. There, I realized how much I enjoyed teaching and thought helping LFS students through their projects would be a meaningful experience. Also, I’m planning on going to graduate school in the next few years and thought that TA-ing as an undergrad would give me a leg up when applying.

Q: What is it like TA-ing LFS courses?

A: This is the first class I’ve ever been a TA for so I don’t have anything to compare it to! But I’d imagine you have the opportunity to interact more with your students. In the LFC series, there is a lot of time spent in homeroom and I get to interact with all my students every class. As a TA, it’s really wonderful to get to know everyone and their projects.

Q: What advise do you have for students from your past experience as a student?

A: Keep in touch with your community partners! The most valuable thing I’ve gained from the LFC series and CBEL projects are the connections I’ve made with my community partners. My community partner in LFS 250 was the Environmental Youth Alliance. Through this connection I was able to get an internship with their Growing Kids program the following year.

Q: What advise do you have for students from a TA perspective?

A: Take time to critically reflect on the skills you’ve gained through your projects, many of these are transferable to the work place. Community mapping, survey building, interviewing, soil sampling- all these things can go on a CV! Even if your project did not go as well as you hoped, being able to work effectively in-group settings is an invaluable skill to have.

Group 27: Harsh Winter Winds – Follow up with Bridget Kirkland

Group 27 assembling cold frames with students

I got a chance to sit down with Bridget Kirkland to speak to her about the experiences and the execution of their project. Group 27 had to build cold frames and create a crop rotation plan for Tyee Elementary School. They needed to create a survey in order to proceed with their projects so, two members were delegated to crop rotation plans, two were delegated to the cold fames and three members conducted the survey.

In order to put together the cold frames, 3 individuals went shopping for supplies at Home Depo. Unfortunately they faced a few set backs such as sold out inventory, limited services at Home Depo and the fact that the cold frames were too large to fit into the car. They were able to resolve these problems very quickly by cutting up the frames into smaller, reassembled sections. Two pre-assembly sessions were held within the team to ensure that all members knew how to put together the cold frames.

Two different models of cold frames for school garden

November 7th rolled around and group 27 headed to Tyee Elementary School to demonstrate the construction of the cold frames with students in grade 6. Two different models were presented and Tyee has the choice between which frame they prefer after the winter months have passed. Each of the frames had different advantages. The hood house (arched frame) allows more sunlight and gives the plants more space to grow, whereas the shorter one protects more from strong winds. We will just have to wait and see which frame Tyee Elementary School picks.

-H