October 18 - Westmount Independent

Adventures in Urban FarmingTime to bring the partyindoorsBy Marci BabineauSmart Living Daycontinued from p. 3Children’s Hospital. Tips to help an agingpopulation live healthier and safer will includethe latest in medical devices andhomecare, as well as info on the RotaryClub’s Life Line.There will also be testing of blood pressure,glucose, cholesterol and balance, anddemonstrations on how to prepare a firstaid kit and a 72-hour disaster-survivalpack. Details on body mass index, organicfoods, diets and even animal nutrition willalso be available.A city table will provide information onrecycling, composting, parking, permits,This is a sad transition for most gardenersas we begin to pack up our outdoorliving for another year. And, it is a busytime for most of us.When our survival counted on what wecould store for the winter, it was a time ofendless gathering. People would wait forthe first frosts to gather seeds and harvestdandelion roots for winter tonics. Greens,broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are relishingthe cool air, but tomatoes havecome in to the windowsill. Nasturtiumsand dahlias are enjoying the cooler temps.Asters and chrysanthemums are cominginto their own.Our raspberries have had a stellar secondyield as well. It is time to begin gatheringleaves to mulch and protect the rootsystems of your trees and perennials beforethe snow comes.For the more hard core, it is time to establishcold frames for the last outdoorplanting of greens and cold rooms for storageof root vegetables and cabbages.Apples in the basementLast year, I covered a shelf in my basementwith Spartan apples picked in thethird week of October. This room maintainsa fall/winter temperature of between0 and 4 degrees Celcius.When you store fruit or vegetables likethis, select only undamaged pieces. Itshould not be washed and stems shouldbe left on. In addition, the pieces shouldnot be touching to allow air to circulate betweenthem. By April, I had some wrinklyapples that were perfectly delicious andcrisp below the skin!Besides getting your winter apples “in,”temperature-sensitive plants must abledealt with. Scout out places near the doorsfor your houseplants so they can get backoutside on the warm days. Potted fruittrees like citrus or fig trees will need tostore as much sunshine as possible if theyare to fruit in their next season. It is a goodtime for repotting and to provide them onelast gulp of organic fertilizer.When the plants come in for good,many need a simulated winter in a darkercooler place. Potted fruit trees will do bestif stored in a cool basement for the wintermonths, with a small amount of water.One idea for watering these plants is topack snow around the top of the pot onceevery month so the water can trickle in asit melts. Potted figs and grapes can comeout of their pots and be buried in a shelteredplace to over winter “underground”.A student in one of my gardeningclasses asked how was it sustainable toship exotic plants from foreign greenhousesto Canada, so as to remind ourselvesof warmth and sun when we aresurrounded by several feet of snow.Houseplants help maintain air quality duringthe winter (while our houses are shuttight) by inhaling carbon dioxide and exhalingoxygen, and they offer humidityfrom their soil. As a reminder of thebeauty of nature, they sustain us spiritually.In January and February, that can beinvaluable.sports and recreation, library and othercity services. The Westmount brigade ofSt. John Ambulance will also demonstrateCPR and other life-saving techniques.“Many new people have moved intoWestmount since the last Smart LivingDay in 2007,” Wallace said. There are alsomany new issues and needs that havearisen and can be addressed by resourcesright here in the community, she added.“It’s time to bring everyone together.”In 2008, the Healthy City Project heldan off-shoot of Smart Living Day called“Live Smart, Live Green” that was dedicatedto environmental concerns.By Marlene EisnerEven before Nancy Sweer knew she wasready for a new challenge, the universewas setting the stage for change.Sweer, the new head of school at TheStudy, was in her sixth year as principal atthe West Island’s John Rennie HighSchool when she got “the call.”“The school [John Rennie] was runningwell, and I was looking at how I could helpyoung people reach their potential,” saidSweer in an interview with the IndependentOctober 11.“Then I received a call asking if I wouldbe interested in interviewing for the positionof head of school at The Study. By thesecond interview, I knew it was going to bea good fit.”Making the switch from a public, co-edhigh school of more than 1,400 studentsto a small private all girls’ school of 300 elementaryand secondary students seemedlike a natural progression for Sweer, an educationalprofessional with more than 30years experience under her belt.Originally from Scarsdale, New York,where she was an educator in the publichigh school system for 13 years, Sweermarried and moved to Montreal 20 yearsago and for the last 11 years has worked asa vice principal and principal at a numberof Montreal-area schools.Before starting in her new position inSeptember, Sweer was aware that TheStudy environment would be strikinglyWESTMOUNT INDEPENDENT – October 18-19, 2011 – 21Sweer: ‘re-energizing themission’ of The Studydifferent from that of John Rennie. Shesaid she spent a good deal of time readingand researching the topic.“I knew girls learn differently,” she explained.“They learn by seeing and doing, theyare verbal learners and they like collaborating.”But it’s more than just how they learn;From her office, Nancy Sweer, new head of school at The Study, discusses, October 11, how her firstsemester is going.the homogenous gender environmentseems to allow the girls to fully concentrateon academics, and according toSweer, with positive results.“In an all-girls school they don’t getcaught up in the ‘din’ of boys. They havean opportunity to display self-confidence,to really be out there. That’s what I notice:that the girls are extremely articulate andself-confident. They seem to have a higherself-esteem within the school environment.”Slightly more than two months into thejob, Sweer has settled in nicely.“I’m feeling as though I have alwayslived here,” she said.But perhaps her greatest sense of inspirationcomes from the school’s founder,Margaret Gascoigne, whose goal 97 yearsago was to create strong women for the future.“It feels for me as if I am re-energizingthe school with her dream. I really do believein the mission in terms of creatingstrong women leaders of the world. WhenI came here, I knew we had the resourcesto help the girls realize that dream.”