There’s no doubt about it – gardening during summer is becoming more and more of a challenge. Melbourne’s sudden heat waves, with temperatures around the 40C degree marked with gusty northerly winds, have become a common occurrence and are a major threat to our gardens. Thankfully, the wellbeing of our Toorak Primary School Garden is in the hands of the grade 3 and 6 students in term 1! The student’s journey of becoming organic gardeners has started by acquiring the basic knowledge on how to look after a garden in this challenging weather. The novice gardeners are organised in teams led by team captains to work on tasks autonomously, leaving the classroom teachers and sustainability leader with little more to do than sit back, supervise and watch the magic happen! As food gardening is still new to the students, we have been putting a focus on getting to know the garden by learning what food plants look like and what parts of the plants are edible and ready to harvest. Tastings of the heirloom produce gets everyone excited along the way. Luckily there is a bumper crop in the garden for the gardeners to explore. Later in the program, the produce will be used in cooking classes to learn about a healthy and sustainable diet and how to prepare some basic but delicious dishes. Excess produce will go to all things pecked by birds or ‘over the hill’ produce will be turned into nutrient-rich worm castings or organic compost in our worm farms and compost system.
