Kitchen Garden

On Wednesday 3/4 G enjoyed the afternoon in the garden for their last session of the kitchen garden program. 

The activities included a drawing activity; window to my garden, fabric painting a table cloth for use in cooking sessions, clearing and replenishing a garden bed for planting tomatoes, adding coffee grounds to all the compost bins and feeding the hungry worms some greens. 

To end the session everyone shared some pickles on savoy crackers while reflecting and sharing their program highlights, the cooking session proving very popular. 

Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteer parents and grandparents for helping make the sessions run so well. The children really enjoy sharing their experiences with their special people. 

LADY BEETLES

Ever wondered about the life cycle lady beetles? 

We got to see some of it action in our kitchen garden this week; the larvae and the adult. We didn't spot any eggs or pupae, but they would have been somewhere amongst the nasturtiums.

The nasturtiums have been infested with aphids over the last few weeks. Aphids are sap sucking creatures, so by sucking all the sap from the plants it kills the plant or an area of the plant. 

Lady beetles (beneficial garden insects) and their larvae love feasting on aphids (garden pests). Lady beetle larvae (babies) are about double the size of an adult lady beetle before they go through the pupa stage and turn into an adult lady beetle. 

We were all very excited to see so many lady beetles in our garden. 

Would anyone like to try growing some Queensland Blue Pumpkins at home? 

I potted up about 50 seeds and all of them have germinated so have a few spares. 

Contact me if you would like some seedlings. 

Small donation to the Kitchen Garden program is appreciated.  

Allesha: allesha.gardner@education.vic.gov.au

Does anyone have any rhubarb stems to spare? 

I'm hoping to make a couple of batches of Rhubarb and Raspberry Jam for our WEPS Community Celebration Night. 

We usually have an abundance of rhubarb in our school kitchen garden, but we've just divided, replanted and replenished all of the plants. 

If you can spare a little or a lot, drop it off to the school office as soon as possible.  

Many thanks, Allesha