Welcome to the Learning Garden!

Thank you for visiting our Learning Garden. The Learning Garden is located in Brierly Brook, Antigonish County, just minutes from town. We have a natural hiking trail where children can explore and learn about nature in the best classroom of all- the great outdoors! Our 5 acre property consists of a variety of natural habitat such as evergreen and deciduous trees, fruit-bearing bushes, a natural stream, frog pond, meadow wildflowers, woodland shade gardens, old snags, brush and rock piles and much more! We have many wild visitors who appreciate the vegetable garden we apparently plant for them! Some of our wild friends include snowshoe hares, white-tailed deer, racoons, skunks, groundhogs, mice, squirrels, bats and a huge variety of birds. We practice organic and sustainable gardening methods (love our compost!) and never add chemicals to our property. My philosophy is basically to gently assist mother nature but we are always delighted by her garden surprises!

We aim to educate children about nature and the environment while getting lots of fresh air and exercise at the same time! We are working on having the garden and trail certified as a protected wildlife habitat. This trail is a perfect size for children, with a variety of things to see, fun child-sized hide-outs and a hiking length that is manageable for children. I hold a current level C Red Cross First Aid and Wilderness First Aid training, have completed map and compass training with the Strait Area Search and Rescue Team, have taken the Mentoring in the Outdoors workshop with Heartwood Centre for community youth development, have a BA and many years of experience teaching and working with children. I am a member of the Nova Scotia Child Care association and the Canadian Child Care Federation and have studied sign-language at APSEA (The Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority.) I have lead recreation programs, taught children's art classes and have been involved with children my whole life. I am also a mom of 3 tree-huggers who provide constant on-the-job training! We also participate in the Scholastic Book Clubs and add to our immense library every month.

We hope you will come for a tour and see what we have been working on! This spring we did a Vesey's Seeds fundraiser as a way to add new plants to the trail; we plan to do another in the fall to add more bulbs along the trail. The children love to see beautiful flowers blooming and also the butterflies and creatures which come to visit the gardens. If you are interested in a tour, please contact Charlie using the email link below.

I plan to add more garden and trail photos to the website soon (as time and weather permits.... the better the weather, the less time I spend on the computer!!) So please visit again!

Every day is earth day.

We are proud Nova Scotians!

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The Learning Garden website was created on the 20th of April, 2006, by Charlie. All photos and graphics (with the exception of promotional links) are originals and are not for other use without permission.
This page was last updated on the 13th of September, 2006
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Charlie.