Our goal in the Kitchen Garden is to nurture, to educate and to grow as a school community. What began as the plot of weeds, has become a bountiful and beautiful kitchen school garden. In less than 18 months, the patch has been transformed from overgrown eyesore to a productive and valuable living classroom for teachers, students and community. Thanks to the helpful hands of the Garden Friends Club, weekly class visits to plan, plant and maintain the Patch, we are harvesting weekly for our canteen. The students love to taste and experience new flavours in the garden and learn life skills they can try at home.
Our goal in the Kitchen Garden is to nurture, to educate and to grow as a school community. What began as the plot of weeds, has become a bountiful and beautiful kitchen school garden. In less than 18 months, the patch has been transformed from overgrown eyesore to a productive and valuable living classroom for teachers, students and community. Thanks to the helpful hands of the Garden Friends Club, weekly class visits to plan, plant and maintain the Patch, we are harvesting weekly for our canteen. The students love to taste and experience new flavours in the garden and learn life skills they can try at home.
The Patch is more than just a plot, it provides an opportunity for discussions, interactions, a chance to try something new and to observe and taste what real fresh food tastes like straight from the soil.
With the composting champions working hard to convert scraps to compost, our garden beds are thriving with so much life. Our recycling team collect for return and earn and the cash is used to buy seedlings for the garden.
In 2019, we started a cooking class in one of the Year 2 classes using our home grown produce. This was a huge success, loved by the students, volunteers and parents. In October 2019 we were honoured with a visit from Paul West (from River Cottage Australia, ABC Catalyst, Back Roads and featured on ABC Gardening Australia). The students and garden volunteers showed Paul around our garden, healthy canteen and presented him with a copy of the class cookbook.
We let our garden rest over summer but the patch is prepared and we have started planting. We have 3 allocated class plots in term one as well as plots for our regular classes and for canteen harvest.
In 2020, we have a new garden shed and outdoor learning space. What would you like to see in the garden and classes this year?
Would you like to be involved but don't know where to start? We would love to welcome volunteers to the Garden Friends Club, volunteers for the assist with classes, donations of seeds, sugar cane mulch, seedlings, garden tools etc. If you would like to help with our new garden designs, we would love to hear from you. We have a lot of awesome projects coming in 2020 including canteen gardens, K-2 Edible Playground as well as a bush tucker garden. Are you an artist or creative person? We are looking to create more signs and artwork for the garden.
We are grateful for support of the local community, businesses and parents and the P&C. Without you, the Patch wouldn't be possible.
For up to date information please see the BEPS Kitchen Garden Facebook page. Feel free to email us at bepskitchengarden@gmail.com.
