Garden and Environment

Garden and Environment News

Mid May, the time of year when any mild and sunny day is treasured in the garden. Sunshine or cloud, many students are embracing the opportunity to come to the garden on Monday and Wednesday lunchtimes to join in the activities of the week. It is wonderful to observe the natural and happy interaction of students working together across age groups, who share a love of the outdoors, plants and animals during Garden club time.

Though daylight is shorter and mornings and evenings are cooler, students are enjoying contributing to autumn tasks such as harvesting the last of summer crops, clearing beds for soil rejuvenation, raking and composting leaves and transporting soil to raise our growing beds for better drainage. Please ensure your child has garden gloves and a warm jacket for Garden and Environment classes.

We are so grateful to our neighbouring families who share the responsibility of weekend and holiday care for our beautiful Sussex Chickens.  We would like to give big thanks to the Apps family for their magnificent renovation of the chicken yard and coop. Timbers and wire have been replaced, strengthened, and repaired, the nesting boxes have been fully renovated, and an additional perching platform has been installed to give the hens plenty of choice and space. They even have a new array of plants in their enclosure to entertain their endless curiosity.

This week, our younger students have enjoyed taking part in our annual olive harvest. Several kilos have been collected already and will be taken to the 3000 Acres Olives to Oil harvest project, run by CERES. 

You can read about the organisation here: https://www.3000acres.org/about  

We are excited to know that the weight of olives we contribute to the festival will be returned to us as olive oil to be used in our kitchen program in three weeks from now.

Finally, thank you to our Foundation to Year 2 families who have already volunteered or intend to volunteer in our Garden and Environment classes. Families of Years 3-6 students are welcome to support the kitchen classes, giving all year levels a chance to be part of our exciting Kitchen Garden Program at Rowville Primary School.  A Volunteer’s Induction (completed this year) and a Working With Children's check registered with our office is all you need if you’d like to be involved from time to time. 

Kate Newman, Garden/Environment Teacher

Belinda Williams, Horticulturist