Cooran State School
Is sponsored by Slow Food Noosa Kitchen Garden Project.
The whole school is involved in the Edible Kitchen Garden project
and the community, not just the school community, have been
following the progress of the garden and also supporting
it. There is a real sense of community.
I teach at the school once a fortnight and have a team of parents
that help me on those days, this is for 2 reasons
a) to train the parents so that they can garden with the students
the weeks I'm not there and
b) to increase the numbers of students we can have in the
garden at each session, the more adults the more students
that are able to participant.
Set up day was 7th August and many of the local businesses
and families contributed to the successful day, in fact nearly
everything was donated and our set up costs were less than $500,
which isn't much for a highly productive organic garden set
up.
Set up day was a hive of activity with many parents coming for a
couple of hours or the whole day. The local landscape
business was on call in case we needed any other supplies
delivered, of which they donated. The tuckshop convenor,
with help from the groundsman, worked tirelessly collecting
beautiful big rocks from his property. The rocks,
especially on our Herb spiral, are a real feature of the
garden. Those man were unstoppable on the day, of which we
are very grateful.
All students worked hard on the day but the preps were the solid
workers of the day. I would give them their jobs and off
they went soaking and laying newspaper, spreading minerals,
moving small rocks, spreading compost and watering. They
were so good, we got them back for the last hour again to help us
complete the garden.
By the end of August we had hundreds of seedlings planted, plus
herbs and seeds. 2 weeks later, I couldn't believe how much those
plants and seeds had grown and in 4 weeks we had to harvest most
of the lettuces and asian greens and also about 27 zucchinis,
absolutely amazing for 3 weeks growth.
Our food is totally organic and has had its fair share of
challenges with hot, dry weather, but we still have achieve
remarkable results.
Stage 2 - 2010
Over the school holidays we put in a green manure crop to rest
most of the gardens, some were still productive so they
were left to flourish and any parent/students that came to water
the gardens over the holidays were rewarded with organic
produce.
In 2010 we saw the whole school get involved in the garden
program, that was a new class every half hour, which was an
enormous amount of activities in a day and you have to be very
organised so that students have a job straight away.
Thankfully I always had lots of volunteers that came every
fortnight so they knew the students, the garden and the systems I
taught I couldnt have done it without them.
We always started with a game, it helps settle us all into our
garden space. Different games were celebrity veg, alphabet
vegies, find a ¦., blindfold game name that plant, what herb
smell belongs to what plant, compost game, food miles
activity, pollination game (thats a favourite) and the
list is endless. Games over and time to break into groups
such as diary recording, bug patrol, worm and compost
feeding, when emptying the compost what bugs do we see, emptying
restaurant scraps into compost and noting how much is thrown out
as food rubbish, moisture testing of soil, pH tests, pest
monitoring, making salads and taste testing, planting
seeds, seedlings and paints. There is always plenty to do
in a garden.
The parents have set up a Gardening Club before school and that
is really popular, the kids just love it and the garden is a hub
of activity so early in the morning. This is a positive
sign that having an organic school garden does have a positive
impact on the behalf of the students and they are also rewarded
by being able to take produce home, which is a
favourite. It is also a healthy sign that the
project will continue as the parents and students, supported by
the principal and teachers, have embraced the garden and
continued it with the students, the students are also going to be
having a garden committee.
Thanks to Slow Food Noosa for sponsoring the Kitchen School
Garden Program for the last 18 months and especially for
providing us with talented chefs to cook with the students, the
Harvest Days are a highlight for the students, the excitement of
having a chef work with them and the new tastes and experiences
from cooking several dishes.
I would like to thank the principal Geoff Pelling, staff,
all the students and the parents for being so supportive of my
book Eat Your Garden, Organic gardening for home and schools, and
for coming in over weekends and after school hours to complete
the extra photos and tasks I required. I couldnt have done
it without you.
