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Gardening Australia: Planting an orchard

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School students stand beside vegetable garden
Gardening Australia: Planting an orchard

SUBJECTS:  Science

YEARS:  3–4, 5–6


Imagine eating oranges straight from a tree in your school orchard.

Watch this clip to see how the Swan Valley Anglican Community School began creating their own orchard complete with fruit-bearing orange trees.

Josh Byrne explains how to position an orchard, prepare the soil and select suitable plants.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What plants would you include in your own orchard? Other than fruiting plants, what other types of plants might you include in an orchard? What are some of the tasks you may need to do before planting fruit trees?
  2. 2.In the clip, Josh explains why the spacing of the tree trellis is important. What is the reason? What are some of the companion plants that are being planted in the garden? What is the purpose of these plants? How does mulching new plants benefit the plants and the garden?
  3. 3.Explain the steps involved in creating a new orchard from the beginning. Consider things such as the design of the garden, soil preparation, plant selection, planting, and garden maintenance. You could draw a labelled diagram to describe the steps.
  4. 4.Josh Byrne explained that companion plants attract insects that prey on pests such as aphids. These natural predators are a type of biological control. Use the internet to find out more about biological control. See if you can find some examples of it, and discover how it can help build healthy gardens.



Date of broadcast: 5 Apr 2008


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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