Students from Years 3-6 are involved in our Garden Ambassador program for our Living Classroom. This term we have worked on our no-dig garden and planted the first of our vegetables!

Illawarra Mercury 11.11.14

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2687089/coledale-publics-garden-turns-produce-into-meals/

Coledale Public School’s award-winning garden has secured a place in Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Program.

Year 5 student Kye Pearsall admitted the garden was sometimes a victim of its own success.

“We used to have a lot more mulberries but people eat them, there was some this morning but they were gone by lunch,” he said.

Luckily, mulberries only make up a small percentage of the huge variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs harvested from the school garden.

Bananas, passionfruit, mangoes, sugar cane, lettuce and potatoes are collected from garden beds maintained almost entirely by students.

The produce is sold in the canteen or bundled into bags and sold to mums and dads at the school gate.

In line with the garden’s permaculture philosophy, anything yielded financially or environmentally is reinvested in the project, whether in the garden’s bank account or compost heap.

The program engaged permaculture specialist Aaron Sorensen to first design the sustainable gardens and then educate young gardeners on ecologically sound gardening practices.

“We use no-dig gardening beds by layering soil and mulch because it makes things like celery taste sweeter and we grow the sugar cane and potatoes next to the compost because it loves the nutrients,” said year 5 student Maya Bartlett.

“The new syllabus is about real-life application and the kitchen is a big part in showing the final process,” she said

“It also gives kids who might find it hard in the classroom [a chance] to excel at something hands on.”