The Percy Pegler School Garden is entering its first harvest and celebrating a successful growing season.
An outdoor learning experience for children to see where their food comes from, explore ecosystems and acquire practical skills, the garden has been a work in progress for several years.
Tanya Roberts, a parent volunteer who helped establish the garden with Explore Program teacher Kristen Whaley, said she and Whaley wanted to create more opportunities for students to learn outdoors.
“It’s come together faster than we expected once we hit the building phase,” said Roberts. “It was about two years of planning prior to that to get permissions and apply for grants and really put a plan together.”
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In June, students helped plant the garden but didn’t get to see its progress over the summer. When they returned to school in the fall, Roberts said they were quite surprised and impressed by the growth.
“When we said we were going to build a garden for the school, people just thought it would be a small garden, but it’s so much more,” Roberts said.
The garden is maintained by a group of volunteers. Many are parent volunteers from Percy Pegler, but local community members and volunteers from the Okotoks Optimist Club also frequent the garden to help keep it maintained.
Produce harvested from the garden is donated to the Okotoks Food Bank.
“We will do a big, big donation once we dig out all our root vegetable beds in the next coming weeks,” said Roberts.
A garden of whimsy and learning
With about 7,000 square feet, the garden has space for two outdoor classrooms.
Looking ahead, Roberts hopes to plant a food forest with fruit trees and perennial food. Another big project is building a permanent roofing structure to allow students a year-round space for outdoor learning.
A dirt pile next to the Percy Pegler School Garden where volunteers hope to establish an outdoor classroom. Submitted/Stephanie Rees
Each bed in the garden is named after children’s novels. Roberts said they are looking to build a free little library to house books corresponding to the garden beds, so children can match their book to the garden and read outdoors.
“We’re trying to make it as fun and whimsical as possible because we want the kids to be out there and want to enjoy it,” she said.
Sharing garden success with the community
On the evening of Sept. 16, Percy Pegler School hosted its annual Family Gathering night, where parents and families were invited to explore the garden.
“We wanted to give everyone a chance to come into the garden and to see what was happening,” said Roberts. “It was so well received. It was so nice to see the kids and the families all out and running around and asking questions and being curious.”
A basket of produce harvested from the Percy Pegler School Garden. Submitted/Tanya Roberts
She hopes to recruit more volunteers for the garden, ensuring it has plenty of hands to keep it maintained throughout the growing season.
“We’re hoping we’re going to get a lot more community buy-in and just increase our volunteers,” she said. “You don’t have to be a student at the school to come volunteer with us.”
Volunteers gather every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon to work at the garden. Roberts said community members are welcome to drop by then to express interest.
‘There’s so many lessons to be learned in the garden’
Stephanie Rees and her daughter Hazel have been volunteering with the garden throughout the summer.
With three kids attending Percy Pegler, she saw it as a place to explore her own passion for gardening and expand her children’s knowledge.
“There’s so many lessons to be learned in the garden,” Rees said. “This really shows how we can plant a seed, we can grow food, and it goes straight to our plate.”
She said Hazel joined the school’s garden club and has enjoyed learning about the different types of carrots.
Her oldest child, although they are not involved in the club, was very intrigued by the “pizza garden,” where ingredients like tomatoes, basil and oregano were grown.
Hazel Rees is part of the Garden Club at Percy Pegler School. Submitted/Stephanie Rees
In the garden, Rees said you also learn about different insects and their purposes.
“I’ve learned a little more tolerance of the bees,” said Rees. “I was that child that would run around screaming, and my kids are kind of fearful of the bees, but I think they have a purpose and there’s lots of different species and parts to a garden that all serve different purposes.”
More than learning, she said the garden also gives children a place to go and explore nature.
“Not everybody has a big backyard garden. So, they’re not always seeing how our food is growing,” she said.
With her children enrolled in the French immersion program at Percy Pegler, she said the garden gives her kids the opportunity to get outdoors.
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