From the Garden

From Tess, Garden Teacher

Year 2 students have been busy in the garden. 

We have raked the autumn leaves from the sports grounds and paths, relocated snails and slugs. More autumn leaves have been raked and scraped and scooped into wheelbarrows, collected and carted, tipped, and sorted into piles and composting bins.  We propagated peas and broad beans from seed.  We propagated rosemary, lavender, pepino, peppermint, spearmint, and chocolate mint, a spider plant, and a succulent leaf from cuttings. We did all this in jars of water so we could see roots growing, pots of coir, and upcycled loo rolls that can be planted with the seedling when ready. We also direct planted, protecting seedlings beneath donated ricotta pots until they are ready to survive alongside the healthy population of slaters and mollusks that love the North Melbourne Garden.  

We have replanted all the seedlings that Year 3 managed to get growing from seed the last term and now the garden has beetroot, bok choy, broad beans, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, coriander, cos lettuce, celeriac, cauliflower, silverbeet, turnips, mizuna, mibuna, radish, Rapa, kale, native ginger, flowering galangal, fruiting guava, new tarragon, rosemary, thyme. 

We found moths, caterpillars, ants, spiders, scarab beetle grubs buried deep in the soil, and ladybird beetles searching for aphids and mites.  We swept up the mess left by the noisy rainbow lorikeets shredding flowers in the spotted gums. 

This week we have planted potatoes, have propagated from cuttings and have raked the rest of the leaves!  

Guardians never stop gardening.