What’s Happening in the Garden?
It has been a great start in the garden; the enthusiasm has been overwhelming from the children.

Each Monday at lunchtime one class has been coming to work in the garden with me.
To start with there was lots of watering and caring for the new seedlings.
We have planted strawberries, corn, beetroot, silver beet, snow peas, tomatoes, herbs (coriander, mint, parsley, oregano, rosemary, and basil). We have also planted dwarf beans, marigolds, viola, daisies, lavender and a passionfruit vine.

There were a few plants that the wildlife quite fancied and the children helped to put up some chicken wire to protect the plants. It has worked on some of the garden but one persistent possum keeps eating the coriander!!

The Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 children made little biodegradable seedling pots from toilet rolls which have sprouted and are nearly ready to be planted. They planted carrots, peas, beans and cucumber seeds. They will plant the whole thing into the soil. The cardboard will protect the young roots and will break down in the soil.

Year 3 and 4 planted pumpkins seedlings, cucumber seedlings, and sunflower seeds. They built the tee pee structure for the beans to grow up onto, they did an amazing job altogether. Soon we will have a shady Tee Pee made from bean plants, and then we will have a crop of beans as well.

There have been lots of other jobs to do in the garden including staking up the tomatoes which are growing so fast, training and tying up the snow peas, and feeding the garden with Dynamic Lifter (a bit pongy but the children didn’t seem to mind). Also the long garden has been fully mulched after year 4 weeded out the grass.

As well as the edible plants there are some water plants in the garden. Mrs Penning has put some frogspawn into the water which hatched very quickly and the tadpoles are living happily in the pots.

The compost is working nicely and the first bin is almost matured, ready to go onto the garden. Thanks to all the children who are emptying the compost buckets.

I have also set up the worm farm which is full of worms enjoying the fruit scraps and from this we are getting “worm wee” which is water that drains through the castings and is a great organic fertilizer for the garden. If you don’t have your own bin at home please feel free to bring your fruit and veggie scraps from home, the variety would be great as we only have fruit in the bins.

There have been a few plants that have done better than others. Some suffered a little from overwatering which leached the nutrients out of the soil, but seem to be doing better after a good feed of Dynamic Lifter.

We are learning as we go! Please don’t be shy about giving advice on the garden. We are all learning about gardening together. All advice gratefully accepted. Thanks to all those that have given us some tips and advice already and have helped our garden to grow. The parsley, some coriander, tomatoes and snow peas are our first successes. Yr 4 were able to harvest the first crop of snow peas yesterday which they tasted fresh from the garden. For some children it was the first time they had ever eaten them. They thought they were sweet and crunchy and delicious.

The children have loved coming to the garden and I’ve loved being there with them. I am there every Monday lunchtime so if you are free, come and see how the garden is going. We have also formed a representative group of children called “The Garden Gnomes” who will report any news from the garden back to the classes.

There are still a few things needed to improve the garden. I am on the lookout for a garden gate for the top of the stairs as an entry to the garden. I’m thinking of a recycled farm or garden gate. Also we are looking at getting a shed to protect the equipment that we have bought. I am also looking for someone with experience with setting up a blog who might get us up and running on the school website. Ideally the children would write it each month to keep everyone updated on the garden. If you would like to help or have any thing that might be of use please email me on lyndall.paine@gmail.com.
See you in the garden,
Lyndall