The development of a medicine garden at Six Nations Polytechnic is one project towards the strategy. Our project this year consisted of a number of activities. But our primary mission was to develop a plan to create a teaching/learning Indigenous Medicine Garden.

This summer our project entailed the development of the vegetable and herb garden; the construction of a raised bed garden and a small scale naturalization project. One of the prime advantages of having the site at Six Nations Polytechnic was the abundance of land for the garden, Six Nations Polytechnic is situated on a 25-acre property and consists of a small building that was used for the storage of seeds, plants, equipment and was sufficient for drying the medicinal plants.

One of the short term outcomes of this project was to prepare and plant the garden in the summer of 2005 (Phase One), and to perform extensive research on what types of plants and herbs would be best suited for the garden next year (Phase Two). Another component of Phase One was an analysis of the soil to determine what kinds of plants will propagate in the garden. In reality the Phase One garden will provide us with a testing environment which will determine if the conditions are adequate to support a medicine garden in the future.

In terms of long term planning, Phase Two will entail the planting of the indigenous medicine garden. Phase Two will take place in the summer of 2006. This will allow us to merge the two research projects together; this would include the Six Nations Polytechnic ethno-botany project and the indigenous medicine garden project. Part of Phase Two will be the creation and development of an advisory committee of local traditional healers and interested community members. The committee will be established to advise us on traditional planting times and what types of medicines to grow; this would include acceptable ethical practices in handling the medicines and the protocol for the release of these medicines to the community.

During the later month of June the Garden was developed, for a total 2,800 feet of garden in total. The Master Gardener - Ervin Harris constructed the garden and designed the layout in consultation with other farmers and by taking into consideration a soil sample analysis taken when the property was first surveyed.

As Master Gardener his main task was to design the layout of the vegetable and herb garden. The master gardener was also responsible for tilling and cultivating the soil, recommending plants for the garden, assisting and providing advisement on planting techniques and providing all tools and assistance in planting and maintenance for the garden to grow successfully. The master gardener and his apprentices were also responsible for watering the garden in the evening hours, which is the optimum time for watering aside from the early morning hours. Another one of their jobs was to weed the garden, stake the climbing plants and the overall care and maintenance of the garden. He also employed two part-time apprentice gardeners to assist him with these tasks.

Through the ACADRE grant we also hired a part-time Indigenous Medicine Garden coordinator, Pat Hess. Her main duties were to oversee the implementation of the proper plants and their special needs and to supervise the summer student. The coordinator has worked as an Ethno-Botany Researcher for two years with the Six Nations Polytechnic Ethno-Botany Project. The project was a collaborative effort between the Royal Botanical Gardens and McMaster University. Through her work she has gained extensive knowledge on the types of plants that are indigenous to our community and what community support is needed to maintain the integrity of the garden.

We also hired a summer student - Jamie Lee Pepper, who is working towards a career in the medical field. Jamie was hired as the Medicine Garden Assistant. His primary focus was to research, study, plan and assist with the planting and maintenance of the garden. The Medicine Garden Assistant was required to keep notes on any research that he came across over the course of the summer. He also maintained a daily journal where he recorded his observations on his research and was to make any recommendations towards next year's garden. This proved to be a very effective evaluation tool as well. Throughout the summer advisory committee meetings were held, Jamie also attended these meetings and provided his input. The following varieties of seeds and small plants were catalogued by the summer student; these were the varieties that were planted in the garden this year as part of Phase One.