“Invisibly within the seed,

The plant is waiting for its day of birth

Root, stem and leaf, the flower and fruit

Will sprout and bloom and ripen.

As the sun and rain call them forth,

So life will call from me what now is invisibly waiting.”

  (Dorothy Harrar)

I love this quote that provides the image that enables the children to picture the real work of their gardening classes.  It draws a nice parallel between the growth of the plant and their own development.

This year in the school gardens has started off with a real bang... with pumpkins, corn, tomatoes and plums fruiting in abundance.  The recently enclosed orchard is proving it’s worth with apple trees, feijoas and pears laden with fruit.

Class 3 have embarked on their farming year preparing large garden beds for garlic and potato crops.

They have built a big compost pile inoculated with Biodynamic preparations, that will provide winter nourishment for their crops.  Many thanks to Mark Broughton (Jack and Mia’s Dad) for his time and energy assisting with Tuesday's classes.

Class 6 harvested bucketfuls of tomatoes and turned them into a delicious passata sauce.  The Class 6 kids have been encouraged to provide a seasonal recipe using at least one ingredient from the school gardens.  I hope to collate these recipes at the end of the year into a recipe book for the class.

Class 1 have hit the ground running in their gardening sessions.  They have been looking at what the soil is made up of and which animals’ manure we can use for compost.  They planted two new fruit trees in the orchard (a nashi pear and a persimmon... both gifted to the school last year).  We also harvested carrot seed and sowed a new bed... they are all counting down the 100 days it will take for the carrots to be ready.

The girls in Class 4 really enjoyed setting up the new (temporary) kitchen garden classroom in the old staffroom.  It’s already been well used and many thanks to Kylie Collyer for offering kitchen items, stove and oven for the new setup.

Class 2 have literally enjoyed the fruits of their labour munching on fresh biodynamic sweetcorn.  They are establishing some winter crops, having seeded up broccoli and cabbage in their own pots.  They will tend these plants, potting up, feeding, weeding and eventually harvest and eat them.

Class 5 have been practicing Botanical drawing in preparation for their main lesson Botany later in the year.  They have pressed flowers and leaves to decorate their main lesson books and continue to work in the garden.  This year they will learn to use different hoes, and apply the knowledge gained from botany lessons in the field.

Happy Gardening,

Neal