WHY ARE WE TEACHING ABOUT THE PLANETS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM BEFORE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE CHEMICALS IN OUR BRAINS?

Grow Happy® is rooted in producing health and happiness in communities worldwide through access to nutritious food and mental health education.

In 2015 we began the program in our community of Peterborough, visiting local schools to build gardens and play our signature game of Mood Tag which builds skills and self-awareness to manage moods…before they spread. Did you know Moods are Contagious? They really really are.

We employed nutrition, fitness and relaxation to generate healthy bodies and happy brains. Our GrowHappy® program ends with students planting their seeds in pots to take home, or smack dab on the front lawn of their school.

Without surprise, our program grew. We began to problem-solve the challenges we are facing not just as a nation, but as a global community. Never before has climate change been such a hot topic. Mental health has never known such alarming statistics. Childhood diabetes and obesity are commonplace. Childhood mental illness is now the norm. We are more connected and distracted than at any time in human history. It’s time for change. 

Gardens can be grown nearly anywhere. You can follow our permaculture plans that transform lawns without digging and conserve rainwater with mulch, or you can up-cycle an old boot or a coffee can. We have also compiled some ways in which to keep costs affordable while connecting with the people in your own neighbourhood. Your garden doesn’t need to be epic or expensive, to be valuable. 

One last little thought to ponder. When we get to feeling overwhelmed by the global challenges we face, let’s remind ourselves that happy people care about their environment. Consuming the right building blocks for happy brain chemistry is the place to begin. Happy people care about their bodies and tend to them with loving kindness. Happy people care about the people around them and look for opportunities to be of service to one another. Happy people are aware that change is necessary, and that our planet needs our love too. To our way of thinking, GrowHappy® gardens are about a whole lot more than just lettuce.

And let’s spread the word because…. Health and Happiness Begin with Food.

Grow Happy® began as a poem. Read our backstory here.

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The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

-Chinese Proverb

THE BLUE ATLAS PROJECT + GROW HAPPY® 2022

As Grow Happy® expands its community support worldwide, we are excited to join forces with The Blue Atlas Project to address issues of food security in areas of the world impacted by disaster. 

At the end of March 2022, our team travelled to the Abacos island chain that was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian. We built gardens with teachers, students, parent volunteers, and Community Health Workers.  We also trained health professionals in Neural Network Therapy® to assist in addressing trauma, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and domestic violence.  We shipped 425 packages of organic seeds to spread far and wide for the Blue Atlas Project Seed-to-School Program and our Grow Happy® Health and Happiness Worldwide Tour. Here’s a news clip from the Tampa Bay Morning Blend coverage of one of the events and below is the full project overview.

If you wish to support The Blue Atlas Project and their efforts, visit their website at https://www.blueatlasproject.org/

Looking back at our past Grow Happy® Adventures!

Media Gallery

  • Happy Shake Ingredients

    Happy Shake Ingredients

    Got the blues? Visit the blue station.

  • Growing Tomatoes

    Growing Tomatoes

    Let’s harvest!

  • Dessert with Chef Daniel

    Dessert with Chef Daniel

    A real restaurant with cooking classes.

  • Star Camper Benson learns to fold fancy napkins.

    Chef Daniel and Benson

    Star Camper Benson learns to fold fancy napkins.

  • Green Party Leader Candidate planting

    Green Party Leader

    Keeping it real with our Green Party candidate.

  • Growing seeds for easy planting.

    Planting Seeds

    Growing seeds for easy planting.

  • Watering Well

    Watering Well

    Sips of water save the compost layer.

  • Mood Tag in the Anger Station

    Mood Tag in the Anger Station

    Red-Right-Return to what you’re doing.

  • Peterborough Green Up Helps Too

    Peterborough Green Up Helps Too

    The community approach to growing food.

  • Kids in dirt wheelbarrow

    Dirt Boosts Serotonin

    Dirt is good for mental health.

  • Mood Tag

    Mood Tag

    Moods are Contagious

  • Children playing soccer

  • Volunteer shoveling dirt

    Preparing for Northshore Public School Garden

    We can’t get enough of our volunteer support.

  • Camp Leader Len

    Camp Leader Len

    Negotiating market value for pricing.

  • Teacher with growth chart

    Growing UP with Rooty

    Measuring success.

  • Exercise for Anger

    Exercise for Anger

    Harnessing the best of our endorphins.

  • Child with raspberries on fingers

    Raspberry Smiles

    Eating healthy food for happy brains.

  • Grow Happy® Summer Camp

    Grow Happy® Summer Camp

    Movement matters to our mood.

  • Yoga in the Park

    Yoga in the Park

    Yoga everywhere for mental health.

  • Sharing resources in our Farmer’s Market.

    Camp Leader Heaven

    Sharing resources in our Farmer’s Market.

  • Campers grow, harvest and sell at their market.

    Building Markets

    Campers grow, harvest and sell at their market.

  • Grow Happy® began as our front lawn food forest.

    Planting the Practice

    Grow Happy® began as our front lawn food forest.

  • Backyard food-growing competition.

    Grow Happy® Challenge

    Backyard food-growing competition.

  • Our Mulberry Tree fairy forest.

    Fairy Forest

    Our Mulberry Tree fairy forest.

  • Lettuce

    Lettuce

    Simple homegrown goodness.

  • Grow Happy® Sharing Seeds

    Grow Happy® Sharing Seeds

    Planting vegetable and flowers around the globe.

  • Armour Heights Garden

    Armour Heights Garden

    Growing food in perfect dirt.

  • Sam instructs students on the Mood Tag rules.

    Grow Happy® Sam Pillon

    Sam instructs students on the Mood Tag rules.

  • Planting Seeds

    Planting Seeds

    Seeds and greenhouse goodness.

  • Relaxing with the Grade 5 Students.

    Yoga Happy

    Relaxing with the Grade 5 Students.

  • JK and SK students meet Rooty.

    Storytime with Rooty

    JK and SK students meet Rooty.

  • Dirt makes everyone happy.

    Dirt Happy

    Dirt makes everyone happy.

  • Kids playing in dirt

    Happy Planting

    Mood-boosting moves.

  • Planting in Community

    Planting in Community

    Feeling good comes from sharing our experience.

  • Shipped 425 packages of organic seeds to Abaco.

    Abaco Relief Tour

    Shipped 425 packages of organic seeds to Abaco.

  • Shipping seeds across Canada.

    Cross Canada Grow Happy® Challenge

    Shipping seeds across Canada.

  • Growing Trees

    Growing Trees

    And soothing fear.

  • Taste Testing

    Taste Testing

    And smiles all around.

  • Happy Shakes in-the-making.

    Boost the blues with berries!

    Happy Shakes in-the-making.

  • Finding Our Stability

    Finding Our Stability

    Yoga increases focus.

  • Happy Shakes

    Happy Shakes

    Never enough strawberries.

  • Garden Prepping

    Garden Prepping

    Immaculate Conception Catholic School

  • Planter's for Home

    Planter's for Home

    The TASS Greenhouse.

  • Raised Beds

    Raised Beds

    Growing food anywhere and everywhere.

  • Happy Shakes

    Happy Shakes

    Recipes for every pallate.

  • Cardboard Collection

    Cardboard Collection

    Lasagna layering saves the digging.

  • Rich Gorgeous Compost

    Rich Gorgeous Compost

    Spreading to a 3 inch layer of compost over cardboard.

“Plant it Forward”

Grow Happy® Greenhouse

Just a Smidge…

Rooty's Garden of Wonders

Grow Happy® Testimonials

"Grow Happy has been the best experience ever to engage children in a variety of meaningful activities to connect with our mind, bodies and spirit.  The outdoor centres are a huge success with the little ones.  They are always eager to plant seeds, make delicious smoothies and play mood tag.  Thank you endlessly for an amazing program."

-Marlene McMurray

“The Grow Happy Program was a wonderful addition to the grade one program at Armour Heights Public School. The folks at Grow Happy delivered seeds early in the year that the children planted and watched grow into little seedlings which were taken to the secondary school’s greenhouse to grow even bigger. The children visited the greenhouse to learn about how the seedlings were able to grow even during the cold winter days. They were all very excited to plant those same seedlings into both our school garden and the Grow Happy garden. They were happy to imagine how those little plants that they nurtured and loved from a seed would grow into food that would feed the pollinators during the summer or into food that would be harvested in the fall. I would recommend the Grow Happy Program for any school not only for the learning about the nitty-gritty of gardening and the boost to the brain good health can have but for, more importantly, learning about the power of building  community! The children learned about how we can help a neighbourhood grow by reaching out and making connections to the people in our community.” 

-Marcia Campbell

"Dear Grow Happy Team, I just wanted to let you know that Lee loved Grow Happy this year. A few days ago, when she could tell I was feeling overwhelmed, she taught me the “bunny breath” technique for calming yourself. You are doing good work, and it’s making a difference!"

-Care

“Grow Happy is a wonderful school program that looks at growing plants, not just for their nutritional value but also their mental health benefits.  As a teacher, I have watched as teenagers have helped young children plant edible plants.  It was rewarding to see how joyful and inquisitive the children were as they  planted the seeds.  Grow Happy encourages children in schools to grow, tend and care for plants in their school gardens.   The act gardening even for the littlest members of our society not only nourishes their body but also their mind.   Alfred Austin quoted it best by saying “The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.  To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.”

-Michelle Campbell

Treescape is a proud sponsor of GrowHappy®

Treescape has been supporting GrowHappy® initiatives since it began in 2015.