SAKG News

Due to Kate being on leave we don’t have any kitchen news to report on this newsletter, however in the garden there have been lots of excitement and activity.  This year we grew a giant pumpkin (18.5 kgs) and Jodie entered it in the Ballarat Show. It was given a blue ribbon and the show organisers have decided to start a pumpkin growing competition, inspired by Delacombe Primary School’s pumpkin entry! The secret to our success was to build a hot compost and plant pumpkin seedlings straight into the finished compost. Pumpkins are hungry plants; ours got fed very well by the compost resulting in a bumper crop. We used the lasagna style hot compost where layers of organic matter were built up to create a large compost heap. This was turned every 2 weeks so that oxygen kept the compost decaying rapidly. We also added a homemade bacterial tea of molasses mixed with worm wee and the bacteria helped the compost break down fast!

This fortnight students have been busy weeding and pulling out old crops, the wheelbarrow loads of weeds are keeping the chickens entertained. Chickens get bored, so giving them weeds to scratch around in keeps them happy!  Students are also planting lots of seedlings into the garden. We have been planting tomato, zucchini, corn, spaghetti squash, tromboncino, kohl rabi, lettuce and silverbeet seedlings. We plant now, so that next year we will have lots of produce for the kitchen.

With the end of term approaching please keep an eye out for our SAKG annual Christmas Raffle.  With over $3000 worth of prizes to be won and tickets only costing $1 each it well worth the investment. Money raised will go towards building a community herb garden on the school grounds which will be maintained and cared by our senior students. Raffle tickets will go home in the coming weeks with the eldest member of the family. Below is a list of all our generous sponsors.