A Day in the Garden

At the Intermediate we have around 30 students split between two sessions every Friday. Some weeks there is so much learning going on that Ms Barr and I look at each other at the end of a session and go, “Wow!’. Each student has their own interest and we encourage this. Yes, it’s crazy at times, but each student comes away learning something different, and in a way that resonates with them as an individual.

No experiment is silly. For example:

Kids: “Let‘s plant sunflowers!’

Whaea Clare: “This is a summer flower and we’re coming into winter, it probably won’t grow.”

Well, you can see the result below. We have three of these beauties in our garden right now. Sometimes I am the student.

So for this blog post, I thought I would give you a snapshot of one day’s learning. There is so much that goes on:

Look at all the ladybugs eating the powdery mildew - our milk spray didn’t work but the ladybugs are doing the job.

This is Lucy’s last courgette. It should have finished growing in February/March BUT it’s still going strong!

The Block 1 boys, with help from Jeremy the caretaker, started making compost bins. This led onto both blocks working together to tidy up our three compost piles, and turning them into one big pile. We are going to make a three bay compost bin system.

Also in Block 1 we had cooking to do, some made a salad from bits and pieces from everyone’s gardens. I hadn’t had time for breakfast that morning so a fresh salad was a lovely treat.

Other students brewed up some fertiliser. Everything in the fertiliser is from the garden area. Mulch, leaves, weeds, food scraps, seaweed fertiliser, grass clippings.

In Block 2 we harvested potatoes and baby carrots which was so exciting.You could hear the screams in the next block.

Some seeds were also planted. Look at them now, just a couple of weeks later.

I can’t wait to see what we can achieve in the next month before the term ends.

Whaea Clare.