VEGIE
Contents
Grant Application
Spending
Donations
Gardeners and Benefits
Healthy Eating
Future
In 2005 the school applied for a grant of $1500 as part of the Healthy School Communities initiative - www.healthyactive.gov.au/ and click on the Healthy School Communities link - to establish a vegetable garden at the school. The application was successful and the vegetable garden was established at the school early in 2006.
The grant money was used to fence off the area for the garden so as to prevent damage by vandals at the weekends and after hours. Pipes were also laid and a tap installed so that the plants could be watered.
There was little money left after the fencing and plumbing work had been completed and so the parent convenor of the buildings and grounds committee and a grade six student approached Bunnings to see if they would donate some of the necessary materials to help complete the garden.
Bunnings was very generous and donated many of the needed materials for the garden including vegetable seedlings, redgum sleepers, gloves and tools. A local garden supply business - Red Earth Garden Supplies - donated the soil for the garden.
The school has a number of children who experience difficulty relating socially and who are disengaged from their learning. The school decided to give a group of these children the responsibility, under the supervision of the assistant principal, for establishing the garden beds. They had to arrange the sleepers, move the soil into position and also plant, weed and water the vegetables.
This allowed the children to work outside in a very practical way on a high interest, high profile project. The students developed their social and communication skills as they had to work together cooperatively to make the garden a success. They used maths to measure accurately the size of the garden beds, the furrows and the depth of the holes in which they would plant the vegetables - lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, peas, parsley and carrots. As the garden took shape they took pride in their success and this had s positive effect on their self esteem and sense of achievement.
A working bee was held and parents attended to help establish the garden. A vegie patch progress board was established in the foyer of the school to focus attention on the efforts of this group of students and to keep the community informed as to how the garden was developing. At a school assembly the children presented a PowerPoint slide show to let the school community know of their efforts and the progress they had made in establishing the garden.
When the vegetables are ready to be eaten they will be ingredients in a healthy lunch day being run by the school canteen. The garden group are continuing to tend the plants and have benefited enormously from the experience. Recently it has been proposed that the school develop a compost heap to take all of the food scraps and other organic waste. When it had matured this compost could be used to fertilize the vegie patch garden beds.
Initially only a small group of children have been involved in the establishment of the vegie patch but in the future the whole school will make use of it for a wide variety of purposes. The garden could be used for a number of activities across a number of domains. Examples - measuring how well plants grow in different conditions - too much versus too little water, shade versus full sun and different types of soil, life cycle of plants, water conservation - spray versus drip irrigation, use of compost, what is the best type of compost?, graphing and preparing reports on the growth and development of plants, use of time lapse photography etc.
The vegie patch has proved to be a very valuable resource which has enriched the life of the school and will continue to do so into the future.