École Eardley Elementary

Eardley Elementary hosts two distinct habitat zones as part of the Aylmer Butterflyway — one of the most ecologically diverse school stops on the corridor. Located adjacent to the Jardin Collectif Nord community garden on North Street, students in 12 different classes participated in hands-on planting sessions as part of our Little Steward Learning series, learning about pollinator needs and native plant identification. The school already featured garden boxes, an adventure playground with outdoor classroom, and a pollinator flower bed, making it a natural fit for expansion into a multi-zone pollinator habitat.

Today, both the adventure playground as well as the front garden at the school feature student created pollinator habitats. While the plants for the various pollinator gardens were originally donated by Localeaf Nursery, today the students continue their learning journey by helping Pollinate Aylmer grow native plants from seed, and becoming seed sitters to help support this season’s community planting projects.