Our sustainable garden

From Gen, Parent School Council Representative

Autumn Gold

With the change of weather, our school has been inundated with golden and brown leaves all over our yards. As we have a very active and productive kitchen garden at our school, we don't want such a precious resource to go to waste. Leaves add vital carbon to compost piles and help turn our food scraps from lunchboxes, the BEK kitchen, and the SAKG classes into 'garden gold': quality compost. Leaves can also create a wonderful mulch for our plants and habitat for essential insects in our garden ecosystem so we collect them to make use of them while they are abundant. 

There are many hands who have been hard at work collecting the leaves and putting them to good use. Our maintenance team, Craig and Paul have been blowing, raking, and scooping leaves for weeks now. Gardening classes with Gardener Tess have been filling wheelbarrows with 'garden gold' and some students have spent their playtime, raking leaves into piles. We have so many leaves that some were due to be carted away to be recycled in a garden center however they were quickly scooped up by one of our local cafe who will use the leaves to add to their 'closed-loop' composting system. 

Sustainable and green actions such as raking and composting our leaves on-site are examples of the many ways NMPS works toward sustainable practices and creates and connects with the community.