Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden 

Bianca Tondo 

Garden Specialist

September in the Stephine Alexandra Kitchen Garden 🌱🐓

The arrival of spring has brought new energy into our kitchen garden program. Although the soil is only just starting to warm, the students have been full of enthusiasm and curiosity as they dig, explore and care for our much-loved hens.

This month, digging has been the main attraction! Students have enjoyed the freedom to dig tunnels, search for worms and simply see “how deep they can go.” The joy of discovery has been evident in the squeals of laughter, muddy hands and proud smiles.

Alongside this playful exploration, the hens have loved being outside of their coop, always ready to join in and scratch around where the children are working. Their curiosity makes them perfect little gardening companions!

We are now harvesting a beautiful selection of seasonal produce including silverbeet, daikon radish and pak choy. The bright green leaves and crunchy roots have been a delight to pull from the soil. Students have also been busy planting spring onions, beetroot and lettuces - crops that will carry us into the next season and remind us of the cycle of growing, harvesting and planting again.

One of the highlights of September has been watching our Year 6 students reflect on their time in the garden. Many of them have been part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program for years and it is heart warming to hear their stories of learning, laughter and responsibility. Their reflections show just how much the program has given them, not only practical skills, but also mindfulness, teamwork and a connection to nature.

We’d love to share one of these reflections with you by Korey in 6C:

Year 6 Garden Reflection!🌲

This year we did garden about twice every term. Each time it was so much fun and we learned so much that we all wish we got to do it more. Some of the highlights were being able to take the chickens out of the pen and stop them from eating the crops. Another highlight was harvesting a lot of crops. 

Some of the activities we did were cleaning out the chicken coop and letting the chickens out and controlling them from not eating the crops. We also had to clean all of the chicken poo off the ground in the chicken coop, clean out the chicken feeder and water bowl and add more dirt to the dirt bath. 

The garden part of the kitchen garden is really good because it helps me learn how to garden more and know how to use garden tools and also how to prune plants and stuff like that.

It was also very interesting to see what plants are in season and the different flavours of what they taste like at home versus buying them from the shops. I loved tasting them because the food was super fresh from the garden.

The senses in the garden were nice because of the different smells from the fruits and vegetables. 

There were a few challenges  from the garden like trying to keep the chickens out when they were free from their coop. You had to make sure you're doing the right stuff because if you didn't you could kill the plants. 

Doing the garden program connects to the outside world because you see a lot of council people gardening (such as in parks) and also your mum or dad at home.

One of the best moments of the garden for me was when we let the chickens out and had to make sure they didn’t eat crops or ruin the plants, snap plants in half or run away from the garden to the playground or the classroom. 

A really funny thing about garden was at the end of every single time we let the chickens out, we had to chase the chickens through the trees and the bushes to try and catch them. Sometimes we couldn't catch them because they went into the garden patches and we couldn't walk in there because we might trample on the crops. 

So gardening was a fun thing to do!

As we look toward to Term 4, we are excited to see how our new plantings grow and to continue giving students space to be curious, get their hands in the soil and learn through doing. The garden is not just a place for vegetables and hens—it is a living classroom where joy, resilience and creativity grow alongside the plants.