Organic Gardening

Organic Gardening

Gardening engages all senses. It gives an opportunity to teach children where their food comes from and in turn enables them to make healthy food choices as they enjoy sampling the produce from their own gardens. We grow vegetables, flowers and some fruits either from seed or through transplants and use organic gardening techniques by using compost, mulch, planting seasonal vegetables and using benefical insects for pest control. Through this the children to learn:

• Plant Lifecycle – Some vegetables are started from seed if so sometimes the students tend to them in classroom until they are ready to be transplanted. As we compost onsite the plants that bolt are thrown into the compost pile to decompose when we are ready to plant for the next season.
• Bugs –  Because we don’t use pesticides we talk a lot about good and bad bugs and sometimes bring ladybugs so they can feast on the aphids.
• Seasonal Vegetables – We plant what is in season which teaches children which vegetables prefer warm weather and which vegetables grow in cold weather.
• Patience – Some plants take weeks if not months to harvest. The children practice patience and restraint and wait for the produce to be harvested and eaten.
• Sharing – Sometimes the excess produce is shared with other classes, teachers and chickens.
• Caring – Caring for tender seeds and plants and feeding the overgrown produce to the chickens in the school chicken coop. They also cover their plants with blankets when there is a freeze