It’s a dirty job but these kids do it Teens third growing season

Dennis Hanagan –

In Cabbagetown, high school students are learning how to make tea. But not the kind they’d want to drink.

It’s tea made from compost, and the plants in the vegetable garden at Winchester Public School—where the students volunteer their time weeding and watering—love it.

“It’s a type of tea you put on the leaves and on the soil to boost the plant’s immunity and give it an extra boost of nutrients,” says Leslie Topness, co-ordinator of Urban Roots Youth, a garden growing program open to young people from Regent Park, Cabbagetown and St. Jamestown.

The students design gardens to make maximum use of space and use natural methods, rather than chemicals, to fertilize and preserve plants. They learn that compost fertilizes plants, and predatory insects protect the plants from bad ones. They learn the use of cuttings and how to make many plants from just one.

Overall, they learn how nature does the work it’s been doing for eons. At the same time, however, they see how a little help from man doesn’t hurt.

“This is my first time doing this,” says Regent Park student Betty Huang. “I thought that you just put a seed in the soil and then it just grows. But you have to take care of them, and many plants are different from others in the way they grow, how they’re exposed to light and how much you have to water them.”

Urban Roots Youth is in its third year and part of a bigger program called Green Thumbs Growing Kids that has been around for more than a decade. The program even has Kindergarteners getting their hands dirty with gardening lessons.

Another student-operated garden is at Sprucecourt Public School east of Parliament. Youth learn about the gardening opportunity from Pathways to Education, based in Cabbagetown, and from the counseling office at Jarvis Collegiate.

Food justice is another aspect to it. “They’re learning about the food system and food sovereignty and these kinds of issues that are pretty relevant to our community,” says Topness.

“Everybody should have access to good, healthy food. And no matter what your income—what your background is—that there’ll be culturally appropriate food available. The food we want people to have access to is going to give them nutrients and vitamins and brain power, all the things they need.”

Some of the plants students want to grow are choc and long gourd that are used in Bengali and Southeast Asian cooking. By the end of June they hope to have their own vegetable stall at the new Regent Park Farmer’s Market.

Student Sheikh Ramen of Regent Park is learning how weather and the planet’s environments are connected to each other.

“We’re learning how to do things in a way that continues. In a rain forest there’re trees, and there’re oceans and all those things take care of other things. Basically it’s a circle.”

Prushodhj Niranjan is an environmental co-op student. He likes the peace and quiet of garden work. “Mostly the quietness, and you feel good growing stuff, especially food.” Does he want to work in agriculture? “I’d like to, but it’s pretty hard to do. As a hobby for sure.”

Community volunteers Saskia Vegter, Alex Carafelli and Robyn Cheung help with the work. Nettleships Hardware in Cabbagetown has supplied equipment, and Seeds of Change, Toronto Community Garden Network, and Urban Harvest have provided organic seeds and seedlings.

“It’s wonderful they help the community that way,” says Topness.