Sunday, 15 March 2015

Spring has arrived!!

Well, not really... but some of us from more seasonal climes still associate the renewed productivity of gardens with the turning of the earth towards the sun...even if here on the equator it's constantly overhead. For antipodean teacher (how eurocentrist is that?! sorry, southern hemisphere teacher) Susan Edwards, it must feel like October at them moment as her fantastic herb and vegetable garden at Dover is thriving with thai basil, okra, tomatoes and much more. Our hard working, full time-gardens team have enjoyed several harvests of the tasty Kang Kong and the herbs and beans have been shared with some of our secretaries and parent helpers too. Everyone in our community should feel free to sample the food sustainably and enjoy the garden. Campus gardeners operate Monday and Wednesday after school and Grade 2 Gardeners on Wednesday 1.45-2.45pm...drop by and talk to the teams if you'd like to know more about urban gardening.

Alumni and Gap Year students with a strong interest in food sustainability may want to consider this new summer school.















Campus Gardeners gets great help from parents and staff and has members from Junior, Middle and High schools working together.







Our great gardening team (From L-R: Andy Tan, Kalam, Salem and Alamgir (with bin driver Alex!)
Good news for all of us is that Alamgir, one of our Bangladeshi gardeners, is on the mend after a long illness. He'd been looked after well by the nurses in the clinic and his friends at Dover and will be gently easing his way back into garden duties as he recovers. We hope he takes it easy (tell him if you see him working!!) but its great to have him back.



We recently recruited parents, kids and staff for some heavy gardening work as the campus gets redesigned. thanks to all those who gave up a Saturday morning for our second Gardening Working Bee.


A times the gardens resembled World War 1 trenches, but thanks to some sterling effort by volunteers and the gardening team we saved lots of plants from a small garden that had to be removed for Fire Access.




Grade 2 Gardeners learn propagation of plants for the new high school building.....





 .....and work come rain or shine!


We've also sown seeds and planted out vegetable seedlings this term as part of our weekly service.