Gardens are fabulous: fresh air, exercise, healthy food, and colourful flowers. And children learn so much better when they’re out of doors, experiencing the real world, not just reading about it in a textbook.
We’re delighted that so many people are planting community gardens or planning outdoor classrooms. Unfortunately, when people come to EcoFriendly Sask for financial assistance, their proposals don’t always meet our grant criteria.
EcoFriendly Action Grants are intended to prevent, reduce, or repair damage to the environment. That may not be one of your top priorities when you are planning a community garden or an outdoor classroom, but it can certainly be one of the positive outcomes of your project if you think it through from that angle.
Here are a few ideas (in no particular order) to get you started - and they are all activities that EcoFriendly Sask would consider supporting financially.
Build and erect birdhouses and/or bat boxes
Construct insect hotels
Plant butterfly-friendly plants or a pollinator garden
Plan a pesticide-free garden
Set up a composting system
Collect rainwater
Save and use your own seeds (get help from groups such as the Prince Albert Seed Library)
Host a community demonstration project (Saskatoon’s Garden Patch has installed a solar panel, a rainwater catchment system, and a green roof)
Organize community workshops (e.g., bird identification, co-existing with coyotes, beneficial insects, native plants)
