By James Wall
A few years ago in another life, I had some spare garlic bulbs and had given them to Southmoor Primary School, a little school situated in Moorabbin. This school has been at the forefront of kitchen gardening and the headmaster had managed to chase me up to see if we had a few spare vegie seedlings. This morning I dropped them off.
To see what had been achieved over those few years was nothing less than inspirational.
They now have 2 hydroponic huts where they grow a variety of vegies, a prolific orchard, yabbie pond and potting shed. They are raising their own trout and also have the capacity to harvest 110,000 litres of rainwater (rain permitting) and a fantastic windmill that pumps the water to the various garden areas. The organic vegie garden is ever increasing in size and they now have fruit crates dotted around the garden area to increase the growing space.
All in all, they've done a lot.
The kitchen has also been finished since I was there. It's in the old boys toilets ! The class is given a list of fruit & vegies required to make the meal, and off they go and source much of it from the gardens.
Another interesting progression is that there is a big piece of land being cleared for four new class rooms and a library. This is part of Julia Gillard's school development stimulus initiative. I had heard some negative press on this, and that maybe the money had been mis-spent. For this school, which has had unsatisfactory library arrangements for years, the investment is a truly appreciated and a wise investment. In short, they are rapt.
Two of the really keen staff are John and Chris - that is them pictured above with the pumpkin patch - "there's over 37 pumpkins here," they exclaimed proudly. The students are going to have a pumpkin festival and make all things pumpkin - scones, soups, pastas etc. I also liked the decorative espaliered olives pictured below - it just ads a touch of creativity on the side of an otherwise boring shed.
And like all good things, this school garden relies on students, parents and staff, to keep the passion alive. To have someone watering over the christmas holidays, means that when school starts, there is literally food upon the table - and the boys and girls love it !
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