Roof Runoff Flower Beds Update
As part of our action challenge, we hoped to use the flower boxes as an opportunity to fundraise additional funds to further benefit the sustainability of our project. During the March parent teacher interviews, some of our natural resources students set up a booth, with two model boxes (one large, and one small) to sell to the families of Arbour Lake School. We also offered two different types of materials - spruce and cedar - for them to be built out of. In the end we ended up selling two large boxes and nine small ones! This allowed us to raise an additional $650 to further our design.
Our next step was to build the flower boxes ordered. This took about two weeks in all to build the 11 different orders. Through this process, we learned how to manage a project financially, how to research the cost of materials and supplies, and how to use basic building tools to create a wooden structure!
As spring arrived we hoped for our the tulips to bloom in our original flower boxes. This, unfortunately did not happen. As a class we researched and discussed the possibilities of why our Tulips failed to sprout. Based on our research we concluded that the tulip bulbs that we used were not healthy or strong enough to withstand the cold and long winter that Calgary had this year. We also surmised that the flower box structures do not retain enough geothermal heat to sufficiently insulate the bulbs. Unfortunate, due to the failure of the bulbs, our overall timeline for finishing the roof runoff component to the flower boxes has been delayed. Therefore, based on these findings, our focus for next year will be to plant hardy vegetation that absorb a lot of water from the roof runoff, and will be able to withstand cold conditions from year to year.
On a positive note, we were able to build two small flower planters to go out in the front of the school. These boxes have been planted with annual flowers and we water them with rainwater that is collected in buckets. From year to year, the natural resources students will partner up with the younger classes to decide with annual flowers are to be planted into these each spring. So far they have flourished in the sunny weather and the local white tail jackrabbits have only snacked on a few of them.