The Garden is Going Well!!

Thanks to the tremendous effort put in by Tracy and Josh, the Howrah Childcare Centre and our Vacation Care staff and students, the vegetables have survived our summer - and it has actually been a summer here this year!

One of our concerns was that our veggies would ripen too soon, but apart from a few zucchini and a baby pumpkin, all are still waiting for the students to return!

 

 The green manure crops are growing!





Pauline planted another raised bed with broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas and lettuce. She also worked on Red Class's sensory garden, planting sage, lemon balm, anise hysop, apple mint, a bay tree, coriander, rosemary, a curry plant, lime, apple and peppermint scented geraniums, jasmine, an orange scented plant and two lavenders (and then forgot to take a photo of it!!)

All is looking good for Term 1!!

Josh takes care of the garden

Doing a great job Josh - well done!

The green manure crop is starting to germinate



We don't really want the tomatoes to be producing fruit just yet!!





Pumpkins, corn, chives and beans




Capsicums seem to be pretty advanced too!



Cabbage, marigolds and chives



Community Involvement

Oakdale Industries kindly donated beautiful chopping boards, trivets and coasters for our kitchen.

Granton Plants donated lots of seedlings for our vegetable gardens, together with a large bag of lime. The seedlings look really healthy and will hopefully provide us with a good first harvest in Term 1 2012.

Last day of term 2011. Three beds planted with a huge range of seedlings. Seven beds seeded with green manure crop seeds. Fingers crossed for a good harvest next term!!










Seedlings were also provided by Terry and Chris Moran, two members of our local community. Terry and Chris are also keen to become volunteers in our garden program next year.

Community involvement is developing with the contributions mentioned above and also the summer holiday watering volunteers:

• Tracey and Josh Hill - parent and student
• Howrah Child Care Centre
• Southern Support School Holiday Program Workers

AND so good to get feedback from these volunteers about how the garden is doing - Tracey sent a text to say that the green manure crop seeds have germinated already!!

Planting for the Term 1 Harvest

Shannon planted tomato, capsicum, pumpkin and bush bean seedlings.

Week beginning 12th December 2011

A busy week in the garden!

We filled our apple crates with straw and then put soil on top. These four beds will be left with a green manure crop growing in them over the summer. 

To quote the Green Harvest Web-site http://www.greenharvest.com.au/seeds/green_manure.html :

"Green manures are a cornerstone of ecologically sensible agriculture. They can provide outstanding benefits for the soil, crop and you, the gardener by:

• Increasing organic matter, earthworms and beneficial micro-organisms
• Increasing the soil's available nitrogen and moisture retention
• Stabilising the soil to prevent erosion
• Bringing deep minerals to the surface and breaking up hardpans
• Providing habitat, nectar and pollen for beneficial insects and reducing populations of pests
• Improving water, root and air penetration in the soil
• Smothering weeds"



 Next, Pauline and Craig went out and purchased a trailer load of 'Veggie Mix" to put into the beds that will be planted with vegetables before the holidays.

Three of our raised metal beds will get a top-up with "veggie mix"; one was filled this week.

The bed was covered in straw













The next job was to take a look at what is still growing in our beds and decide whether plants should be transplanted or used as compost. Herbs were moved by Jennifer to the Red Class bed - our herb garden. Pauline transplanted pumpkin, zuccini and cabbage into the first replenshed bed - not sure how they will cope with transplanting - we will give them till next week to see if they are up to the challenge!

Jordan did a great job watering the transplanted veggies.

 

Next week (the last week of term)

• we will continue to empty out the existing class vegetable beds, transplanting anything that looks like it can survive the school holidays
• top up two more metal beds with "veggie mix" and straw
• plant vegetable seedlings in these two beds - for harvesting in Term 1 2012
• sew green manure seeds in the remaining two metal beds and the four apple crates

And then we have to hope that our seedlings will survive the summer and be ready for harvesting when we return to school in mid-February. Fortunately we have a number of very much appreciated volunteers who will water and watch over our vegetables over the summer.

Mark purchased 4 apple crates today. Really good value and adding some 'rustic charm' to our vegetable garden. They needed a little TLC - the photos show that this was ably provided by Mark. We will be using the crates as additional raised beds in which to grow our vegetables.

29 November 2011 - today's harvest

Shannon was very excited to harvest some snow peas from White Class Garden today - difficult to stop him eating them all! Nick helped with picking silverbeet - it is swamping our other veggies! Corn, zuccini, tomatoes, peas, beans, silver beet, strawberries, squash and lettuce all going well.

We made a leafy salad for lunch using the tiny silver beet leaves and chives from Pink Class Garden. Everyone was surprised to see the addition of marigold flowers and chive flowers - the yellow and lilac colours looked great against the green. Not too many White Class Students  were interested in the salad, but the brave heroes of  Blue Class were all enthusiastic gourmands!