Chris Williams teaches Alternative Education at Milliken Mills High School, in the York Region School District. A winner of the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence, Chris also coaches cross country running and is dedicated to hands-on outdoor education. His dream was to build an extensive vegetable and herb garden at the school to provide a hands-on learning experience for the staff and students.
In early 2016, Mr. Williams received a grant to fund a food garden, but he faced a number of challenges as he considered how to best create a sustainable and productive garden. His options were limited when it came to building a traditional garden as he was not able to build structures on the school site, was not able to use the school-yard soil (due to possible risk of contamination and lack of fertility), and there was the challenge as how to maintain the garden during the summer months while the kids are off on their summer break.
With only a few weeks to use the funding, Mr. Williams learned about the Caja sub-irrigated container and The Growing Connection’s history of setting up school gardens in a variety of traditional and non-traditional sites. The Caja fit all of Chris’ requirements, as well as providing several other benefits.
- The Caja stands alone, with no structural requirements. It is versatile and adaptable to grow on any flat surface
- Soil contamination risk is eliminated by using local, organic inputs to create a custom soil blend that is highly fertile and able to be reused year after year.
- There is no need for all of the typical labour that goes into preparing and digging a traditional garden plot
- The Caja eliminates weeding, uses 80% less water than a conventional garden, and makes summer maintenance much easier
- Teachers and students can bring demo Caja units into the classroom for hands-on learning all year round
Working on a short timeline, The Growing Connection was able to organize and deliver 100 Caja planters within two weeks of getting the project approved. In addition, TGC helped to lead a planting day session during Earth Week to train several hundred students and help supervise the installation. During this and a second planting session in May, over a hundred of students pitched in, learning how to plant and direct seed into the containers, as well as getting hands on experience planting an edible garden at the back of the school.
Now, Milliken Mills High School has the largest, most innovative garden of any school in York Region. Moreover, their investment has been made for the long term as the containers are designed to last through many gardening seasons, while the soil will be enriched each season with the addition of new plants and fertilizer.
Read more about our other case studies featuring unique and inspiring gardens.
