S.A.K.G
Kitchen and Garden News
What a year it’s been for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden.
These are some of the highlights:
- Cooked food from around the world
- Fed the staff with some yummy and healthy leftovers
- Successfully raised chickens and collected plenty of eggs
- Grown and harvested abundant herbs and vegetables
- Tried lots of new flavours and learnt new kitchen skills
- Received so much support from parent volunteers
- Sold buckets of soup and hundreds of bread rolls at Winter Fest
To finish off the year, some students from 3B and 3C collaborated with Stevenson House to build wicking beds as part of the Community Edible Garden Project.
Craig Castree, a home garden expert was there to give members of our community tips and instructions on how to build a successful wicking bed. Our students worked hard to fill these beds with volcanic rocks and soil. We also planted them out. Then to finish off the project, we got our art on and painted the wicking beds. Next time you’re around Stevenson House, please check out the edible garden. This is what some students had to say about Stevenson House Edible Garden Project
At Stevenson House, we learnt about how to make a wicking bed. First, we had to put a layer of rocks on the bottom of a garden bed but only up to the outlet pipe. We learnt that the wicking bed holds up to 300 litres of water. Then we added a layer of soil, which we collected from a big pile in buckets. It was hard work and it was fun. After the soil, we added bags of compost. Then we planted lettuce, marigold, lobellias, basil and tomatoes. We still needed to mulch but ran out of time.
Jasmine and Myeisha 3B
I used the big shovel to move the volcanic rocks and soil into the wicking beds. The volcanic rocks has holes to trap the water. It was really heavy but it was fun because I don’t usually get to use my strength or get my hands dirty. That’s why SAKG is fun.
Jonah 3B
Companion planting is about mixing flower and vegetable plants together to repel and attract pollinating insects. I learnt that anything that goes together in a dish can be planted together; for example tomato, garlic and basil tastes great together and will grow well together. I had a tactic for digging by putting the bucket on an angle on the pile of dirty and used the side of the trowel to swipe the dirt into the bucket so it’s faster than just scooping.
Jahvia 3B
Catrice from Stevenson House told us we were painting some garden beds. We painted dots, zig zag, swirls, flowers and butterflies on the top and sides of the wicking beds. We got to getting creative because we could painted whatever we wanted as long as it was garden related. Later we signed our names with the special paint pens. Lorelai and Dakota 3C
Lastly, a massive shout out to our parent volunteers. Without them, our program would not have ran as smoothly. Their work is continuing over the break by look after our chickens. “It takes a village to raise some chickens”
Until next time, happy cooking and gardening!
SAKG Team