Project Description: (version française ci-dessous)

BUILDING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

On the grounds of Invermere’s David Thompson Secondary School is the Groundswell Community Greenhouse and Permaculture Gardens. The Groundswell Community Network, a grassroots organization, owns and operates the greenhouse, which provides food for the school cafeteria, as well as integrates the school’s chef training program. The greenhouse itself is built to be carbon-free with the utilization of solar heat and solar electricity as well as an annualized geosolar technique to harness thermal mass.

Outside of the greenhouse, 12,000 ft² of property is transformed into public space featuring a wetland, community garden plots, a teaching area, cob oven, and a multilayered forest populated with plants for food production. Rob Avis, founder of Verge-Permaculture Consulting in Calgary and Adaptive Habitat, teamed up with students to transform the space in partnership with the Groundswell Community Network.

Using the principles of permaculture, which is the development of agricultural ecosystems to be self-sufficient and sustainable, Rob’s team used a systems thinking versus a reactive thinking approach to find opportunities within various connections in the project. One example was their method of boosting nitrogen and organic levels within the soil, which they did by employing cover-crops such as buckwheat and annual rye to prepare the soil for food growth, an alternative to importing soils with fertilizers for adequate nutrition levels. The philosophy of permaculture is to work hand-in-hand with nature, instead of against it. Another one of their innovations includes the creation of a rainwater collection system that is pertinent in the drought-prone area. Utilizing a combination of rooftops, tanks, and groundwater reserves, the development is able to capture 250,000 litres of rainwater annually.

Overall, the project exhibits exhibits the symbiotic relationships that can exist between the shared ownership of spaces, organizations, and the natural versus man-made environment.