"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to garden and the whole neighbourhood eats tomatoes". It was so great to come back to the garden at the end of January with lots of produce still alive and thriving, thanks to the help of our wonderful families who cared for our chickens over the holidays. It was nice knowing that we didn’t need to start from scratch again in the garden. Even though progress has been slow this first term, I feel as though our little community are becoming more involved in sharing the responsibility for making our little patch of garden a real community one.
This first term has seen the introduction of our new whole school "Eco Warriors" program (see here for more info). From now on, each class within our school has a responsibility to our environment, not just in the garden, but at home and school also. Our school also participated in Clean Up Australia Day. The students sorted recyclables and non recyclables and it was a great opportunity to talk about the waste we produce and how to keep our rubbish away from the storm water drains and in turn, away from our beautiful Georges River. The Eco Warriors will be planning a Waste Free Lunch Box day soon to follow up. Our chickens haven't been in the best health and have recently been treated for mites and lice. Please refrain from throwing scraps over the fence as this attracts wild birds who can spread disease. On a positive note, one of our handy dads has created a great new drinking fountain to bulk up the chicken’s water supply in holidays and over long weekends. There are still plans in the pipeline for a new watering system, green house and outdoor learning area, which we hope to have underway soon. It will be great to extend the learning space and encourage all classes to use it. Our garden is for EVERYONE! You and your family are welcome in there at any time, and if you have time to weed or water, that would be a bonus for us! The more people who get their hands dirty, the better the crop I say. Happy Gardening, Mrs Mills
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Hello Green Thumbs,
It has been a while since our last blog post and that's probably because, as the title suggests, the garden has taken on a life of its own this spring, and we have been busy trying to keep up with it! If you came to the Revesby South Family Fun Day, you would've no doubt seen our dedicated garden club crew harvesting, bundling, and selling our produce. It was an enormous success and I'm proud to say our little club raised some money to add to our schools fundraising efforts. The bales of hay that were used for the pig race at the fete have been reused and recycled by the garden club, to plant strawberries in. Check them out and try one next time you walk past! We also completed our gumboot display, thanks for everyone's gumboot donations, and there are now some little succulents, growing happily in their new home. Our amazing gardening granny Edna has been hard at work again, and together with her green dream team has set about mulching our garden floor (no easy feat), building and erecting our new scarecrow, and in general, taking care of business! Mrs Mills' class used their writing lessons on "informative writing' to write info cards about the flora and fauna in our garden. Flip over a card to learn something new. Lastly, our Friday morning garden market stalls have gradually been increasing in popularity as the word spreads about how fresh our veggies are. Thanks to all those parents who've supported us. We hope to see you at the markets soon. Until then, happy gardening, The Garden Club p.s. If you have time, below is a link to an article that talks about the benefits of a school garden: "The garden has transformed the school and provided wonderful learning opportunities for the children. It has brought the community together in a huge way and continues to develop. That’s why for me, a garden in whatever guise – from wooded plot to a handful of makeshift containers, hanging baskets or a window sill – should be viewed as an essential learning tool for all schools." https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2017/sep/29/primary-school-garden-teaching-method-improve-pupil-behaviour?CMP=share_btn_tw Our wonderful garden continues to grow and expand, perhaps not at the rate it did during the first semester, but nonetheless progress is being made. We are in the process of expanding our garden and have begun this by building a spiral garden from some old pavers, donated to us by Mr Whitten. A spiral garden is a tiered herb garden, with the centre being the highest point. The herbs placed at the top enjoy the most sun and have more soil to draw water from. The spiral should then taper down to the south, where shade loving herbs are placed in shallower soil. The students are really enjoying the construction process and it has been a great opportunity to talk about the direction of our garden plot in relation to the sun. We would love to make some more, if you have any old pavers or bricks at home, feel free to hand them over! We are also turning some old pallets we found into a plant display. If you have any old gumboots at home, we would love to use them as pot plants. The garden club will be running a stall at our school fete at the end of August. I will be handing out notes this week during garden club, requesting volunteers to help. I have attached the note below for anyone who's missed out. Our weekly garden stall has been a great success with some lovely parents stopping by to purchase fresh veggies and eggs. Thank you for your support. Until next time, happy gardening, Mrs Mills Winter might slow down growth in some gardens, but not ours! In fact winter seems as busy as every for the RSPS Garden Club. Here are some of the cool things we’ve been up to this past month:
Where to next? We are looking for some tools for our shed. If anyone has any unwanted shovels, pitch forks, garden brooms or dustpans we would very much appreciate any donations. This Friday (23rd of July) will be the last garden club for the term. Next Friday we will be busy with the end of year BBQ and Life Skills Market Day. Thanks for a great term and your wonderful support. Happy gardening, The Garden Club Team. What a fantastic Sunday we had at the Panania Mania Harvest Festival. It was great for the Garden Club kids to be part of a real community atmosphere and have an opportunity to network with other schools who also have a passion for gardening. The students got to practise their enterprise and finance skills through the advertising and selling of our garden produce. We sold out of almost everything (our free range eggs were the first to go), and we won both 1st and 2nd prize for “best upcycled art” category, and “most impressive school” category, respectively. What an achievement!
The real icing on the cake, however, is that we raised enough money to pay for a native bee hive to add to and pollinate our garden. It's coming next Thursday, along with Melissa from Sydney Stingless bees, who will help us set it up and instruct us on how to take care of it. I have attached the website to this email for more information about the bees we are getting. Thank you to the parents and students who came to the Harvest Festival to help raise money for our school and allow your kids to "reap what they have sown". Thanks also to Edna, Janet and Catherine for growing and potting plants and herbs for us to sell and to Kristy for helping us set up, sell and pack away. It couldn’t have happened without your help. Lastly, we are getting the slab for our shed poured this Thursday. We are looking for parent volunteers to help assemble the shed for us. If you have any spare time (week days or weekends), please see Mrs Mills or Ms Bassani. Happy Gardening, The Garden Club Team http://www.sydneystinglessbees.com.au/ Autumn is here and the garden is in fine form after the break. The chooks survived too thanks to the help of the wonderful YMCA staff and the students. We have hit the ground running this term and have already begun painting the signs for our new garden and chook run. Soon the students will be able to put a name to each chook by checking the coloured band, against the corresponding name, on the sign. On Sunday, May 21st RSPS Garden Club will be participating in the Panania Harvest Festival, which is taking place at this year’s Panania Mania Mega Fete. We have been entered into an upcycled garden art competition and will also be running a garden stall to sell some of our wonderful garden produce. I have attached a copy below of the note that went home today with garden club. There's been a lot of work put into our garden and the chickens so far this year, we cannot wait for the kids to start picking some vegetables soon! Happy Gardening, The Garden Club Crew The rain may have kept us out of the garden this term, but it hasn't stopped us from being productive otherwise.
Here are some of the things we've achieved together this term:
If the rest of the year is anything like this first term, we're going to have a great year. The only question is, where to next? Any suggestions on how we can "grow" our little club would be great. Special thanks this blog post to Mr Whitten for helping cook up the breaky and to Mrs Millard for donating loads of succulents for our upcycling project. Thanks again for all your support, Happy gardening, Mrs Mills Congratulations to Charlize from stage 3! Your fantastic design will now become the new sticker for our RSPS egg cartons. You will also be the first student to cook up some delicious scrambled eggs from our fantastic chooks. Well done to everyone for the wonderful name suggestions too. The teachers got together and picked the most creative names for our new chooks:
1. Princess Layer 2. Yoko 3. Nugget and 4. Harriette Princess Layer, Yoko, Nugget and Harriette have settled in nicely and have begun to lay. You may have seen them free ranging this week. In case you didn't know the chooks are a breed called "Rhode Island Reds" and lay approximately 260 eggs a year. They are an American cross breed, bred for their egg laying ability and hardiness, so they should adapt to school life rather well. "A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust". - Gertrude Jekyll The saying goes that "many hands make light work" and this was certainly true for our first week of Garden Club. With so many enthusiastic students ready to exercise their green thumbs, we had the garden beds cleared of weeds in no time. At the students' request, we have selected some Autumn greens to plant. Look out for snow peas, kale, broccoli, as well as some carrots, at the farmer’s market soon! There is also a couple of new banana trees donated by Mrs Mills neighbours that are loving all this rain at the moment! The wet weather gave us an opportunity to talk all things chickens. Our new roster for the chickens (who we will meet next week), is attached to this post so please have a look at the week your child is responsible for locking up the chickens. Please also note if you have a holiday time slot. The chickens will need to be checked on at least twice a week during the holidays. If your child is not yet on the roster, don’t worry. Each Friday we will be cleaning and feeding the chickens as a group and by the end of the year, everyone would have had an opportunity to lock up the chickens at least once. Special thanks to Ms Bassani and Todd's grandma for helping out last week with all our fresh soil. Happy Gardening, Mrs Mills
some of our super mums painting the hen house! Welcome back to another year of growing scrumptious veggies and watching in amazement as our garden grows. I can not wait to begin sowing the first seeds of what will become our blooming veggie patch this year. But wait! It's not just vegetables we will be tending to this season in the garden. The finishing touches are being put on the amazing chicken coop that was built by our wonderful parents over the holidays. What super mums and dads we have in our midst! Soon we will be the proud owners of 4 chickens, who will help us fertilise the garden, take care of bugs and provide us with eggs to sell at our weekly 'farmers' market. If your child has indicated an interest in joining garden club, they may have come home with a note and contract to sign. The letter asks for a commitment to before school, as well as school holidays. It is an important commitment as we now have animal welfare to consider. Please think carefully about your availability before signing and returning the form to school (if you did not receive a note I will attach a copy to the bottom of this post). Garden club will begin this Friday morning the 24th of February, before school at 8:30am (should it rain, we will meet at Mrs Mills room at the end of H block). Parents are welcome to come and help anytime. Many hands make light work. I look forward to working as a team with your children again this year. Thanks for your support, Happy Gardening, Mrs Mills p.s. If you would like to be added to the RSPS Garden Club mailing list, feel free to email me at: [email protected]. I will send notifications when new pictures or blog posts are active.
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