Our garden has been very appreciative of the rain that has fallen in the last few weeks. Everything has greened up and is growing at a rapid rate. We have been harvesting some enormous cucumbers and golden zucchini that the Master Chef’s used in this fortnights recipe; Zucchini slice with cucumber salad (p22 Cooking Creations). We have also been enjoying lots of lovely sweet pineapples from the garden. It takes two years for a pineapple to grow; many of the pines were planted when our current Year 2 students just started Prep….That’s a very long time to wait when one is so young!

We have been very busy in the garden. Many punnets have been potted up with seeds of cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, beetroot and snow pea. Into the garden beds we have planted seedlings; red onions, sugar snap peas, beans, capsicum and eggplant. Our corn is also flourishing after the rain.

Classes learnt how to distinguish a male from a female flower in the cucurbit family. Cucurbits include cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkin and melons. The female flower is the one with the fruit at the base, the males have a longer stem. The flowers need to cross pollinate with one another in order to fertilize and grow the fruit. We learnt how to hand pollinate our flowers with small paint brushes and the results have been impressive; lots of enormous cucumbers!

Many of the children will be disappointed that our term of bug catching has come to an end as this has been a favourite activity in the garden. Students have gained an understanding of the diversity of wonderful creatures that are necessary for a healthy garden to flourish.

Until next term,

Happy gardening!

The Kitchen Garden Team