African violets --those fuzzy-leaved, purple or pink flowered tropicals--are among the most popular houseplants around.  My grandmother's house always had collection of African violets growing under fluorescent lights.  Mine sit on a kitchen windowsill above the sink, and although they are a little finicky about soil and sunlight, I have found that they are surprisingly easy to grow.  The best thing about them is that if you provide their basic needs they will bloom all year long and brighten the darkest of winter days.  So after a little research online and in old textbooks, I decide that starting African violet plants would be a fun project for Resource kids this week.  It really wasn't difficult to do, but will require a little patience since plants need a few weeks before babies will emerge.  
We started by first carefully cutting a few select leaves off the middle part of the mother plant, a ruffled, purple African violet given to me as a gift that has been growing really well in my kitchen window- a bright, humid area with little direct sun.  Once the violet leaves were severed from the mother plant with about a one inch length of stem attached, I carefully sliced the stem lengthwise (to have more rooting surface and because that's what my research told me to do) and inserted stems into moist, coarse rooting medium. The potted leaf cutting container were then placed into an old plastic mini 'greenhouse' from the grocery store that was used for croissants.  (Recycled trash is treasure!)
If we planted them correctly and we continue to monitor the rooted leaf cuttings, we may in fact have a bunch of new  African violet babies ready by springtime.
​(for more on African violets and their care, check the African Violet Society's website  at: http://www.avsc.ca/index.htm)

 With all the buzz lately  about the decline of bees and Monarch butterflies and the loss of their native habitats, it's no wonder Asclepias tuberosa, a.k.a Butterfly Milkweed,  has been selected as the Perennial Plant Association's perennial of the year for 2017.   It's selection is a sign of the times.
Past perennial winners in this category are attractive, low care plants that are pest and disease resistant and include many of my favourites such as Russian sage, Japanese forest grass and Coreopsis 'moonbeam'.  When I was a new gardener, I found that knowing the annual PPA winners was a great tool on which to base many of my new perennial selections. It's hard to go wrong with perennials on this list.
 Butterfly Weed  (not to be confused with Butterfly Bush) is a North American native and as its name implies, is a magnet for butterflies, hummingbirds and other beneficial insects.  Plants in the milkweed family are the only food source for Monarch caterpillars and their adult butterfly butterflies.  The plant is definitely NOT for human consumption, however, as it is known to be poisonous if ingested.  This toxicity is transferred into adult monarch butterflies, protecting it against predators.   It needs a sunny spot with good drainage and may be slow to emerge in spring.   Once it is established in the garden, it doesn't like being moved due to the large taproot that anchors it in the soil, which it isn't too fussy about.   I will definitely try to find a place in my garden for this cheery bright orange native plant  this year, and may  even try growing it from seed. (For more on native plants of Quebec see the space for life pages of the Montreal Botanical Gardens http://m.espacepourlavie.ca/en/native-plants-your-garden​)

It's a NEW YEAR, and even though I haven't blogged in awhile it doesn't mean that the JRHS Resource students haven't been busy gardening indoors.  Just before the holidays for instance, we learned about food chains and the valuable creatures that make up ecosystems.  We watched a couple of fun, food chain videos and learned how CONSUMERS (insects and large animals), PRODUCERS (plants) and DECOMPOSERS (soil organisms) all have important roles to play in food webs to keepboth local and global ecosystems balanced and healthy.  
This past week in the Resource department, it was all about VERMICOMPOSTING, a type of composting that happens indoors rather than outdoors in the yard.  It's a good alternative for those who do not have backyards and want to do their part in reducing food waste.
We made our own RESOURCE WORM BIN by first cleaning then drilling holes into an old plastic bin with a lid.  Next, we added shredded and moistened computer paper and newspaper for the worms' bedding, threw in some earth and a little sand,  then added the most important players: the worms, (thanks to Mr. Cadot, the science teacher who gave us worms from his own small worm bin in the science lab.) A large tray was placed under the bin which will collect any precious vermi compost liquid that drips from the bin and which will be diluted to fertilize our plants.
Resource students learned a lot about red wrigglers (a.k.a. Eisenia Foetida), the worms that create vermicompost.  Different from earthworms, red wrigglers are important decomposers naturally found in decaying leaves and manure piles and are native to temperate areas so they can't live in the extreme temperatures found in our outdoor Canadian compost piles. They will die at temperatures above 32 degrees Celcius and become inactive or freeze when temperatures are too low.  Red wrigglers are vegetarians that prefer a moist, not too acidic environment, so the students will have to be careful what they feed them: mainly small pieces of scrap vegetable and fruit and not too many citrus fruit.  They will have to take care to bury the food they feed the worms placing it it in a different area of the bin each time and hopefully in a few months, the worms will have transformed our food waste into a clean, high quality compost that can be used to fertilize all our container-grown plants.  I can't wait to harvest the results!