Thursday 23 May 2013

Club Day. The Nature Version.

Nature Club took another step forward in making the pizza garden a reality.  We got their hands dirty today, as we moved the peppers we started indoors out to one of the garden boxes.  As we worked, we talked about why there was wood (mulch) in the garden and the purpose it serves, which is to allow the soil to retain as much moisture as possible, as opposed to it evaporating.  We walked through the steps (dig a hole, gently push the seedling out of its cell, place it upright gently in the hole, cover, and replace wood chips as necessary.  We served our little peppers a bit of compost tea, then gave them a generous watering.  I was amused that the Clubbers thought that a little water bottle of water was sufficient for their plants.  They were amused when I squirted myself in the face as I replaced the watering lid to the water bottle (I found these awesome lids at Lee Valley, so each child can have a water bottle of their own to use). 


How did the Clubbers know where to dig the holes for their seedlings?  I placed large rocks in the garden box in the spots where I wanted the seedlings to go.  Each Clubber got a row to work with - they would remove a rock and go through the steps as independently as they felt they could.  My main job was to help get the seedlings out, and warn if the digging of one child would bury the seedling another had planted.


We also prepared a pot and moved one spindly tomato into it, as I've decided the rest of the tomatoes will go out into the community garden plot, where they will receive tons of sunshine.  This way, I can do a better job rotating the produce we grow, and hopefully we'll see the same bumper crop this year that we had last year at the community garden!  The girls did most of the work to prepare the pot.  They lined the bottom with small rocks, collected some composted manure from our neighbour, poured soil, mixed some Soil Moist (which we're trying in our clay pots for the first time), then planted and watered.


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