Victoria students, seniors make 'bee bombs' for Earth Day project

Students and seniors work together on an an Earth Day project on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (CTV News)

Earth Day has some students from Victoria's Lansdowne Middle School teaming up with seniors at Parkwood Place to make "bee bombs" to support one of nature’s most important creatures.

The goal is to plant the bombs along "bee highways" of pollinating flowers to help bolster the bee population and assist with bee sustainability.

Bee bombs are made of clay, compost, wildflower seeds and water. The ingredients are mixed together and formed into chestnut-sized balls, which can then be placed into gardens where the flowers will grow.

“Doing the bee bombs attracts bees,” says Cheryl Chalifour, director of administrative services for Parkwood Place, an independent seniors living facility. “It helps the environment and also beautifies our neighbourhood.”

Students were very enthusiastic about learning about bee highways and how to make bee bombs.

“The bees are dying and doing this will help them boost their population,” says Jude, a Grade 7 student at Landsdowne Middle School.

“Bees are important to humans too," his classmate Elijah said. "They pollinate our food for us, vegetables, fruits and all that stuff.”

The collaboration between the students and seniors here at Parkwood Place isn’t anything new. The housing complex backs onto the school's property, so it’s a perfect fit that benefits both young and old alike.

“It’s a great way to help our environment and connect with different people,” says Bronwyn, “It was really fun.”

Parkwood Place resident and garden committee member, Shirley-Lou, says it’s important to teach the students about the environment.

“It’s encouraging the youth to have a good attitude towards nature,” says the senior, “It introduces them to the fact that nature can be helped and the more that all of us do to help nature, the better it will be for everybody.”

The hope is to raise awareness and inspire others to do their part and create gardens that will help support the health and well-being of these important pollinators that we all relay on to grow our food.

Once the collective of seniors and students completed making the bee bombs, some were tossed into the garden of the housing complex, with the remainder being spread throughout the community by the Grade 7 class.

The class also helped to plant a self-sustainable herb garden to support the residents in hopes of becoming less reliant on the commercial food chain.

“Growing a self-sustainable garden is something we really want to do,” says Chuck, a resident at Parkwood Place. “Getting out in the garden and creating something that will help feed the people that live here and help the bigger community is a wonderful thing.”