SAKG – Garden

2020 – Term 3

The Final Products for our Scarecrows were very good, the students put in the extra time to get the completed in time and should all be very proud of themselves. We had 6 groups this year, each with a different aspect of creativity.  Jordan B, Zac G and Deacon N worked hard and created Dumbledore from Harry Potter. Olivia M, Jess M and Lexi M got creative and produce Fireheart. Holly M and Alice P found their Red Slippers and made Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Mya M, Caitlin D and Shelby Z worked tirelessly creating Ursula from The Little Mermaid. Daisy L, Amy-Jean M found their fire and created Katniss from The Hunger Games. Sophie W, Addisyn M and Kiara T find some magic and made Maleficent. And Matilda A and Gracie-Lee M made good use of a spare sock and made Dobby from Harry Potter.

Unfortunately this year, none of our Scarecrows won a prize, but it was super exciting for all of our students to be able to point out our Scarecrows and say ‘Our school made those!”

Each year, Yr 6 and 7 students have the opportunity to design and create a Scarecrow to enter into the Royal Adelaide Show. There are different categories that the students must choose from, this years categories are; Storybook, Teacher Scarecrow and Traditional Scarecrow. All of our groups have chosen to create a Storybook Scarecrow. This means the Scarecrow must be a character from a Storybook, not just a movie.

We have previously been very successful with our Scarecrow entries, having Won Best Scarecrow in our first year and our Tin Man being selected as the Governors Choice in 2018, the Tin Man spent 3 months in the Governors Garden.

The students spend their lunch times creating their scarecrow, they learn lots of new skills while making them including; sawing, drilling, sewing and much more. We cant wait to see how this years Scarecrows go, and encourage all of our families heading to the Royal Adelaide Show to head over to the Goyder Pavilion and visit the Horticulture Section, where you will find our Scarecrows on display.

The Scarecrows on their way to being ready for the Royal Adelaide Show. Can you guess what Storybook Character any of our Scarecrows are yet?

SAKGarden lessons this week ranged from compost to snails! Year 7s helped empty one of our compost bins so the year 4/5 scrap monitors had a new spot for scraps. We were amazed how our fruit & veg scraps had composted down to rich black soil/compost. We were also dismayed at how the apple stickers had not decomposed at all!!

June 5th was World Environment Day, the theme in 2019 was ‘Beat Air Pollution’. Although this topic is a little harder for our students to change, they were well aware of walking where possible instead of driving. In Prue’s class, we chatted about our produce having no ‘Food Miles’ because there is no fuel burned in transporting our produce to the kitchen and canteen. Prue’s class shared their ideas about what the Environment is as well as how we can care for it.

Produce harvested from our Garden and used in the Kitchen Program and our Canteen this term has included beetroot, eggplant, basil, spring onions, parsley, mint, chives, capsicum and purple cabbage.

The Year 7’s also picked our crop of 27 Pumpkins a few weeks ago. Mrs Shearer’s class were very enthusiastic and helpful in their lesson when they tidied up the old pumpkin plants.

The Year 5 & 6 class have been soil testing with a pH kit.

Our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden regularly has excess produce which we sell at our school Garden Market on Thursday, before school and after school. The students are involved in harvesting and the sales. All of our produce is chemical spray free.

Some of the produce that we have on offer is eggs, basil, parsley, rocket, salad mustard, oregano, rosemary, lavender and chives.

To make our Greek Easter Eggs, I boiled some onion skins, put the skins in the compost and used the dark coloured water to colour our eggs. The students chose a leaf – most chose sour sob or parsley, then held the leaf tight against their egg before wrapping it in a stocking. We then boiled the egg before waiting impatiently while they cooled down so w could see our pretty pattern.

How exciting! Just a fortnight after the bean seeds were planted and look at them! The ‘window’ lets the class see just how many roots the bean has. If you look closely at the picture you will see the seed was actually planted upside down! The green part of the seed turned around and went towards the sun and the roots turned around and went searching for more water. How clever is nature!! 

 This week was Garden Science time for Miss Viki’s room 20. The students carefully tipped soil halfway into milk cartons with plastic windows before adding a broad bean seed and topping the carton up with more soil. The students then watered them and took them back to their classroom. They used spray bottles to water the seeds each day.

Lincoln is showing us the seed has germinated! This was after only one week!

In week 6 term 1, Prue’s year 3 class planted beetroot, lettuce, chives and purple cabbage. The students fed their seedlings with a sprinkle of ‘Blood & Bone’.

In week 8 the students discussed what all living things need to survive. They knew water, air, food and the sun (warm and light) are a must. Today students watered their crops with Go-Go Juice and mulched their crops with straw. 

Miss Viki’s class planted silverbeet, lettuce, beetroot and spring onion seedlings on 14th February. This Wednesday in their garden lesson, Zabella S was amazed how big her groups beetroot had grown and Charlie K was very happy to see the lettuce her group had planted was big enough to harvest for the canteen!

We have a wonderful group pf students that help out in the garden at lunchtime. The job at the moment is moving mushroom compost to the gardens. This lovely sunny but slightly cooler weather has brought the bees, helping to pollen the flowers in The Edible Garden.

The beginning of this term has been very exciting in our gardens! It is Monarch Butterfly chrysalis time of the year! We have had the monarch butterflies flying around, and although their eggs are too tiny to notice, we have certainly noticed the caterpillars! The caterpillars feed on our milkweed or swan bush. They then hang upside down and build chrysalis. We are now waiting for the butterflies to hatch.