By Jaimie Rosenwirth, Suwa’lkh Environmental Education Program Lead
The students at Suwa’lkh have a leadership class, during that class they are working in the garden once/twice a week. I have asked them to write about what they are enjoying and what they hope to see or continue while they are out in the garden.
One of the recurring themes was more flowers. This is something that I would love to see as well. I want to see an increase of bees and ladybugs out there. Those are both beneficial for us. Pollinating and helping us with the aphids. One of the students has asked to release caterpillars. Getting to see the life cycle of the caterpillar to a butterfly seems like it could be interesting.
The youth have shared that they enjoy eating things out in the garden. I want to be able to keep growing produce that they are able to eat out in the field. Carrots and tomatoes are their favorites to eat out there. I would love for them to be able to just go out and try new things when they would like to. One of the students has helped to harvest, clean, bundle, sell at market, as well as eat beets from the garden. They have made and or helped eat roasted beets, beet salad and beet chocolate cake.
The orchard is a place where they are able to try new fruit on breaks and when they are finished with school. The autumn olives and raspberries are some of their favorites to eat.
It seems like the youth all agree that they like to see the bugs/insects as well as the birds while they are in the garden. We will see how they feel about the bugs once we are able to see more of them in the spring.
