WPS Community Children’s Garden

Spring is here and the rain-sun-rain-sun weather means lot of action in the garden! This week we cleared out the old Tuscan Kale ‘trees’ and planted corn. There were lots of discussions and inquisitive questions from the students: 

Q: “Why do herbivores have their babies in Spring?” A: Because there is lots of food for the mums to make milk and lots for the young animals to eat to grow fast and strong.

Q: “What is that plant?” A: Green stalked rhubarb

Q: “Can you eat it [green rhubarb]?” A: Yes, you can eat green rhubarb stalks just like red rhubarb stalks, but the leaves are poisonous. We have red and green rhubarb growing next to each other in the garden so you can see the difference.

The questions kept coming and the conversation continued for half of our time at Garden Club. It was wonderful to see all the students so engaged. We chatted about different coloured veggies you can grow, but in Australian supermarkets they only sell one colour, such as red rhubarb, orange carrots, and yellow corn. This results in us believing our food has to look a certain way and be a certain colour, which isn’t the case in nature. I had seed packets for purple, yellow and white carrots, black corn cobs, purple snow peas and we found some purple potatoes from last year’s crop. All of these varieties and more, we grow in our school garden. 

If you can’t make it to the Monday sessions, but you can help out another day, simply contact me to see what needs to be done. 

Volunteer WPS Gardening Group Facilitator

Nicole Middleton - 0418 233 366