Hannam Vale Public School

By Learning We Conquer

Telephone02 6556 7636

Emailhannamvale-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

2018 - Garden

The return to school at the end of January saw a garden that had felt the brunt of high temperatures and minimal rain. We were faced with quite a bit of maintenance work .

Weeding

 

Students found It was a hot and sweaty business – but we all managed to get the job done! 

The gardeners – zucchini and eggplant groups – got into about 7 separate projects! We were all over the place. Projects included:

  • Weeding the Herb Garden nearby the Garage (Mr Gough's Shed). We left the thyme plants there – they seem to be thriving. Weeds and parsley had to go!
  • Removing Green Manure foliage to Compost – This allowed us to dig and supplement the soil in 3 of our garden beds in order to plant lettuce, basil, coriander and another artichoke!
  • Mixing up a batch of extra good soil for the revamped beds – including mushroom compost, organic garden soil, composted soil and organic vegetable fertilizer.
  • Pulling out the old cucumbers…
  • Re-creating the Sweet Potato patch!

Clearing  Wheelbarrow

 

By the end of February the gardeners had many small projects on the go. We revamped the wheelbarrows; Benjamin tested students for their Wheelbarrow Licences; we harvested a LOT of green tomatoes and pulled the plants up; we then added extra soil to the garden beds where the tomatoes were, and planted some new spinach plants….not sure if they will survive; another group planted seeds into seed raising mixture; we are still painting new Kitchen Placemats. It was a very industrious session.

Tending garden

 

Gardening groups were busy again undertaking several mini-projects – including Thyme drying, preparing and planting garden beds for Pak Choy, silver beet and snow peas, we had a weeding group working on the far side of the garden, there was the Thai basil trimmers,  a stick pick-up brigade and an Easter Garden Decorations Table…….. Ben didn't even get to test the remaining students for their Wheelbarrow Licenses. We were really busy.

 

Digging  Group

April -

A huge thanks to Liz Rowley who helped out with the Gardening side of things on Friday.  It was a hectic session of gardening for the Zucchini and Eggplant groups.

In the kitchen, the Tomato group cooked up a tasty lunch.  They used HVPS-grown bok choy, coriander, silverbeet and spring onions to make Asian omelettes and fried rice.  Eggs involved were also laid by our own hens!  There was also a delicious lemon cake for dessert.

The gardening group had quite a few responsibilities.  We revamped gardens and planted mini cabbages, bok choy, butter beans and rocket.  There was a group who repainted the Chook House Sign.  Another lot of mulchers took to the back row of native shrubs and bushes to mulch the lemon myrtle, mango, Davidson plum, lilly pilly and orange tree.  Students raked up fallen persimmons, popped compost on gardens and re-mulched new vegetable plantings.  It was hot work!

Working hard

 

 

Harvesting spinach 

May

 In the garden we harvested sweet potatoes, bok choy, spinach and herbs. The gardeners were weeding, mulching, and reclaiming the sweet potato mound along with creating another for potatoes! There was also a lesson about geotropism and Ben completed testing students who had not been about the last time he was organising wheelbarrow licenses.

Licencees

 

Preparation

 

 

girls in garden

 

 

July

We had a great time in the garden  pulling out weeds, learning about pseudostems and doing some much needed maintenance. We also ate beautiful spinach and ricotta cannelloni, pikelets with lemon curd and Vietnamese spring rolls

 
Thank you, Liz and Mrs Everingham for volunteering your time to help sustain this project, and thankyou to whoever bought a cabbage and some dried thyme! Community support is always welcome, and Kitchen/Garden is a great time to help! working on maintenance

 

 

 
Our garden

 

Girls with cabbage