Students really dig the Garden Club
Instead of playing games during their lunch break, a group of primary school students from Australian Christian College (ACC) Moreton are learning the fundamental skills of gardening.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, students from Years 1 to 6 meet at the school’s garden where they experience first-hand what it takes to make and grow their own fruit and vegetables.
As members of the Garden Club, the kids have learnt valuable skills such as preparing the ground, sowing, weeding, watering, fertilizing, picking and harvesting the produce.
At the club’s recent spring Harvest, roughly 30 students attended and helped pick potatoes, snow peas, cherry tomatoes and more.
Teacher Mark Hodges, who is also the Garden Club Coordinator, says he is impressed with the student’s interest in ensuring the garden continues to thrive.
“We run a number of clubs at lunchtime to expand the options of playtime for children, and the Garden Club is one of the clubs that the kids are most excited about,” Mark says.
“The kids find the garden a real solace – they will come down and stand there and do some watering or have a chat with me or the other teachers, and they love looking at what is growing.
“The kids aren’t so fond of the weeding though!”
Mark says the kids were extremely excited about the huge number of potatoes they grew this year.
“Each week the kids were asking could they dig up the potatoes yet, and occasionally I would scratch some soil away and show them how the potatoes were growing,” Mark explains.
“Each of the kids took a potato home with them, and we still had 15-20 kilos of potatoes left.
“We shared the rest amongst the staff.”
The kids are also learning how to eat healthy, with many kids snacking on the snowpeas and cherry tomatoes.
Mark says some of the kids love the garden club so much they have started their own little garden at home.