At the suggestion of our very experienced home gardener Levi, we planted a winter crop of broccoli, brussels sprouts, broad beans, snow peas, spinach and purple and orange carrots. Each day we have been nurturing our garden by watering the plants with recycled water collected in our rain water tank and monitoring the gradual growth. We have been truly amazed by the growth of our garden and the production of vegetables that are now ready to be harvested.
“Come over here and have a look at what has happened! Come quick! Check out how big the broccoli has grown! It’s massive!,” said Korban.
“Yep! That’s because it has been raining and now the sun is shining and we did such a good job at planting these broccoli. The leaves are so so green and so so big!” said Pippi.
In conjunction with our vegetable garden, we have set up a compost bin in order to recycle and re-use waste materials to produce food for all our garden beds. Regularly, we take time to collect our fruit scraps from morning tea, collect leaves fallen from nearby trees, collect rain water and add to the compost bin. From children’s comments and discussions, it is evident that we are all gaining a deeper understanding of the process and importance of recycling and how we have the ability to reuse waste materials for other purposes.
“We need to put leaves and fruit scraps on top of the paper that’s already in there to make food for the plants in our gardens. That’s called recycling isn’t it? I don’t have a compost bin like this at home, but maybe I should ask my mum and dad if we can get one?" asked William.