August in the Little Sprouts Kitchen Garden

Date posted: 07 August 2019

Companion Planting
A lot of plantings have taken place in the last couple of months in the Little Sprouts Kitchen Garden, with some emphasis on the diversity of plants within each area.

Many of you would be familiar with plant rotation where different crops are planted in succession in the same spot. This practice contributes to the soil health and helps to controls pests and diseases. Diversity attracts insects and provides habitats for future generations. It has many benefits including:

• Soil is conditioned
• Ecological balance is maintained
• It is more attractive to earthworms
• A self-sustaining environment occurs

Explore companion planting to see what you might find to suit your school or home veggie patch.

Garden buddies

On another topic we recently had two school groups visit the Little Sprouts Kitchen Garden that brought the younger children (five year olds) with their older "buddies" (students from year 6 and 7).
It worked beautifully with the older buddies mentoring, interacting and leading the younger children. Great outcomes, great day!

Snails in the kitchen garden!

One of the many ‘animals’ the students will meet in the Little Sprouts Kitchen Garden is the garden snail.

Julie, a Kitchen Garden educator, has a collection of well-fed snails at home, and she brings them into the garden on Thursdays to show students taking part in the school program.

Julie’s snails live in an aquarium in her house, and she brings a couple of snails into the Kitchen Garden each week. Students can get up close and personal to a snail via a magnifying viewer.

Students learn about the eye stalks and how they retract when the snail goes back into its shell. The ‘foot’ of the snail is clearly seen as the snail goes around the plastic container and can see how quickly lettuce is eaten during their session. Students learn where snails like to live, and what they like to eat…. and it’s not always vegetables!