Ross Road’s Woodland Walk

In addition to the Edible Garden at Ross Road, the Environment Club is creating a Woodland Walk Habitat Area.  Due to the natural setting of our school located in the forests of Lynn Valley and the Hastings Creek, the Woodland Walk will be a positive addition to our environment.  The path will start at the front of the school and run along the boundary fence to the Edible Garden.  From there it will continue through the trees beyond the wooden playground, through Spooky Island and ending down by the Creek.  

The goal is to create an outdoor learning classroom where children will be involved with nature. We feel that by enhancing the already naturally occurring features of the area we will be able to incorporate the school curriculum for all grades K thru 7.

Designated areas of interest will be: recycling and the compost, edible garden, butterfly habitat, bog area for frogs, newts and salamanders, rotting logs for insect observation, native trees and shrubs for wildlife, meadow flowers, seating area for an outdoor classroom, meteorological stations, and the creek for our salmon release program.

In order to make the Woodland Walk a reality, we will be having a “Community Clean-Up Day” on Saturday, February 4th from 10:00 – 1:00.

If you would like to join us in the tasks of taking out unwanted brambles, and the cutting back of branches and weeds, we would love your participation.  Please come equipped with any gardening tools you have, such as: pruning clippers, rakes, wheelbarrows and gloves. Delaney’s coffee will be available for volunteers.  Please bring your own mug to stay “green”! (Cancelled if heavy rain)

We look forward to seeing you there for the first step in creating a truly “Eco-School” for our children.

—Gillian Gorton

On October 20th, the Environment Club held an assembly at Ross Road to launch the composting program again this year.  The students were reminded about the importance of composting and enjoyed a presentation from a group of students from Carson Graham  called “Tap Bottles” whose mission is to eliminate all plastic water bottles from the North Shore schools.  On the following Monday some of the Environment Club members went into all of the classrooms to educate the students on the “who, what, where, why and hows of composting.

On another note,  you may have noticed over the past few weeks that the garden beds have been installed by the swing set in the primary playground.  For all of you MINECRAFT fans I will say that we have been very busy “diggy diggy hole” and mining and crafting for the Environment Club’s Edible Garden at Ross Road.  Although they look like giant graves at the moment, just in time for Halloween, the Club will be planting garlic over the next few weeks which will be ready for harvesting in the spring.  Perhaps the garlic will keep the vampires away during this ghostly season.

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I would like to welcome Jill Mackay, a parent at Ross Road, to the Environment Club and thank her for all of her expertise and hard work in the installing and digging of the garden beds.  Jill comes to us as a Landscape Designer who was involved in setting up wildlife and edible gardens in the UK.  I would also like to thank Jim Gorton, my husband, for constructing the garden beds and for being such a wonderful provider and husband.  He made me write that. :-)

Many hands make light work and I hope you will enjoy watching the garden grow.

—Gillian Gorton