JOSH BYRNE:
Six months ago, the Swan Valley Anglican Community School embarked on a journey to transform a wind-swept sandy patch of earth into a productive educational organic school garden. Now, after many, many hours of hard work by students, parents, and the broader community, it's finally finished — and it's time to have a look around. G'day, guys. How are you going? I'll show you how to plant them. Doesn't that look perfect? Well done. And that's ready for watering, guys. Last time we were here, we introduced the chooks to their new home. And they're laying beautifully. We set up these worm farms in old fridges, and the students bring their lunch scraps here to feed them every day. And the compost bins are being filled up, breaking down organic material into nutritious soil conditioner. Since then, the paving's been done, there's a nursery area with benches and a shade frame, and there's also new rainwater tanks. These two collect water off this roof, and there's a third one, in the chicken pen. All up, around 10,000 litres of drinking water, for both students and chooks. This 64 square metre outdoor shelter, will provide teaching space for a whole range of classes. And not just horticulture. It'll also cater for biology, maths, art, and even cooking classes. The fruit trees, grapevines, and understorey plants are settling in, and the trellis is being completed. The native garden is also finished. And the dryland plantings have thrived on good winter rains. The wetland is now planted and mulched. When birds are attracted, the students can view them from this bird hide.
EVE COTTON:
There's a lot of animals around here, but they don't have, well, that much of a home, but it's good to encourage animals to…
GIRL:
It's good to spoil them a bit, too.
EVE COTTON:
Yeah.
LACHLAN BLACKHALL:
I think the garden's really good. And the wetlands idea is quite good, because it gets kids thinking about what important roles wetlands play in the world.
JOSH BYRNE:
These broad beans give just a taste of how successful the students' first winter crop was. They pulled about 10 kilos of spuds, dozens of cabbages, broccolis and cauliflowers, and the onions and garlic are just about ready. The students have been kept busy, and today, they're putting in their summer crops. The garden has already become an important part of the school community, with all ages working together, to keep it productive. The teaching staff have also welcomed the extra learning opportunities that it provides.
MATTHEW COTTON:
I think it's going to be pretty fundamental in the teaching in this school. Hopefully we're going to be using it more and more often. I mean, it isn't a garden, and I don't really want to refer to it as a garden. This is an outdoor classroom that we've got here, that we will definitely use. We've already used it, to an extent already, and it's just going to get used more and more, over the coming years. And hopefully, involving all of the children, through their whole school community.
JOSH BYRNE:
You like the idea of learning how to grow your own food?
BOY:
Yep. It's cool.
BOY 2:
Yep. It would be useful than, rather than going down, buying your own food, you could actually grow it, instead.
JOSH BYRNE:
And the benefits are having an impact beyond the school grounds. Parents have become involved, and the school had realised the support that it has from the wider community.
CAROL EDGECOMBE:
I just love the enthusiasm that the children display when they're coming and collecting the eggs, when they're working in the garden. And already I can see some of these ideas coming into our home garden, and my own children setting up their own vegie garden. It's just been lovely, being outside, getting the children away from televisions, videos, all those things. There aren't that many trees around here, so I just look forward to everything growing up, and creating a lovely green environment.
JOSH BYRNE:
The transformation within six months really is amazing, and just goes to show what can be done with teamwork. It's time to leave them to it. And I'm sure this garden is in very safe hands.
