Our Edible Garden

As well as working on our vegie patch at home we have been busy establishing one at school. We had a working bee a few weeks ago to clear out the few plants in the courtyard garden and get it ready for planting. The folks at the community garden came to give us some pointers and steer us in the right direction as we are aiming for an edible garden with a bit of permaculture thrown in.

So far everything that we've planted has grown and is looking healthy so the kids are very happy. We have some compost bins and a worm farm and have set up a garden club for the interested kids to do a bit in their lunch break. It's early days yet but the aim is to get it up and running and have the kids (and teachers) using it for lessons and making it part of their everyday school life. It's amazing how keen the littlest kids are to have a go and plant some seedlings, they have been so excited. Oldest fishes prep class have been growing things from seed as part of their science lessons and then planting them into the garden .

It's made the fishes very keen to get into the vegie patch at home and plant some seeds, so we have done a bit of maintenance work on it and have things starting to flower now. they have planted seeds, planted seedlings and watched them all grow. It's become part of their day now to go down to the patch in the afternoon and check on the plants and give them a water.

The pictures above are of the awesome mural that the students did on the wall to brighten the garden up. The grade sixes and seven designed the mural with one of our clever, artistic parents at school and then painted it on Friday. All the kids got to come out of class and do a part of it so the whole school was involved. The older kids partnered up with the smallest kids and gave them some help which was lovely to see. The older grades are really wonderful with the littlies and were so good with them.

The kids that were part of the design team stayed for the duration and saw it finished and they were so proud of themselves.

Does your local school have an edible garden or some great artwork?

We've got the gardening bug

We seem to have caught the gardening bug of late.

Stacey has always liked helping in the garden but since we put in the vegie patch she has become obsessed. We have now got two patches as the first one was so popular. So now she has even more space to grow things ( well strawberries really as they are her most very favourite thing.)

The vegies in the first one are all growing well and get checked everyday. And the second one will hopefully grow things very soon. (we have to finish filling it first, the compost has never had such a good workout).

Not much crafting has been done lately. I have made up some more chenille pants for the stockpile and cut out a few kitty cat softies that need to be put together, but apart from that it has all been outside work. The dolls for my friends birthday were a hit and her little girl wanted to have them for herself so they may have to share.

Pete the Pirate and a new vegie Patch

Well, we have been rather busy this weekend doing some gardening and finishing off the vegie patch. Mr Fish wanted to make it out of stuff we already had and managed to get some dirt from work to fill it up. We mixed in the compost from our bin and put some mulch on the top and planted our little seedlings. Stacey was very excited and keeps checking on them to see if they have grown yet. We had to plant some cherry tomatoes as they are her favourite as well as some carrots and snow peas. Hopefully something will grow and give us a bit of food. Mr fish even made a fence and a little gate to keep the dog out too! He is rather proud of his work and stood admiring it for a while.

Apart from gardening I have been playing around trying to make a softie. This is Pete the Pirate and he is rather friendly despite having lost an eye and a leg in a misunderstanding with another pirate. (I think it was over a parrot). He has his own swordy thing and has been told it is not to be used when playing.

His little friend is a sleepy monkey girl that Stacey has adopted as her own. I like her basic design but am not happy with the quilters flannel her hood is made out of, it is a bit stretchy so she will go back for a refit and hopefully come out looking lovely.