Urban Harvest

Urban Harvest – Epping Secondary College Winter Vegetable Garden

The Urban Harvest crew have been busy preparing for our first crop of vegetables! With the guidance of Tony Panozzo and Rosa Neri, the raised garden beds were completed by the Urban Harvest and Hands-On Learning students of 2022. 

The 2023 Urban Harvest students began the year by undertaking some general garden maintenance to remove those summer holiday weeds. Prior to planting the winter greens students used the North-West Seasonal Planting Calendar to work out what they wanted to plant and when. Students discovered vegetables are particular about which other vegetables/herbs they are planted next to, so we used a companion gardening chart to pair vegetables together. We then jumped straight into the planning and ordering of soil, and students used those numeracy skills to work out the volume of soil, and they calculated that 3 cubic meters of soil is needed to fill our raised garden bed. 

The vegetable soil mix was delivered, and the students wasted no time shoving the soil into the beds, as the students were keen to plant the first crop of winter vegetables. Students also planted marigolds, not only will theses flowers provide our garden with a splash of colour, but marigolds are also beneficial flowers which attract beneficial bugs and pollinators. The White Cabbage Moth is our greatest garden challenge, this pest loves a good brassica (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower etc) for breakfast, lunch and tea! 

So, students have been brainstorming ideas on how to keep these pests at bay – netting, companion planting, beneficial flowers and decoys – such as scarecrows! Students will participate in a sustainable scarecrow challenge in term 2, the two Urban Harvest classes will go head-to-head and the winning class will have their scarecrow take up residency in our school garden.

The Vegetable Garden provides students with a simulated learning environment, and this allows students to exercise valuable key employability skills such as teamwork, commitment, communication, initiative, leadership, adaptability, problem-solving and enterprise skills. 

At Epping Secondary College, we focus on providing students with the best education possible. No matter where they want to excel, we strive to make sure all our students, including VCE VM and VPC students have the tools and resources they need to prepare them for tomorrow’s workforce. Of course, none of this would be possible without the generous support from our community. Urban Harvest would like to sincerely thank Bunnings Warehouse Epping for their generous donation of seedlings, Whittlesea Community Connections and Sunshine Cross for their invaluable guidance and community contacts and a sincere thank you to all the staff who have donated their own garden supplies such as pots, garden tools, planters etc.

Stay tuned for our green ribbon opening in Term 2 where the name of our school garden will be revealed. The Urban Harvest students will be organising a student & teacher survey, to allow the college community to have their say on the official garden name. For those keen green thumbs out there, click on the link at the top of the  to access the planting calendar.

Ms Neri

Urban Harvest Classroom Teacher