Our Autumn Term

A full year has gone by and we are busy cleaning up our garden - clearing and preparing for the coming winter. Our gardeners have been hard at work all summer developing a compost heap. As the veggies from the tyre gardens were harvested, the gardeners began planting in herbs for a more layered, sensory feel. The tyres have been re-filled to create good rich soil. The little fish pond which we fitted into the garden is still a quiet place to visit and our tiny fish are happy. The saddest part of this summer is that our efforts to grow watermelons were hampered by silliness - the few baby watermelons which started showing such promise were picked and destroyed. However our Roots and Shoots gardeners are quiet and determined and keep up a positive attitude. The foundation phase have plans this month to plant in bulbs, succulents and beans in their Sundial patch.

Today is the first day back to school - the beginning of a new year. 2012!!! It was such a lovely surprise to see that the seedling which we planted last year have grown up over the holidays. The mielies are 5ft tall (one is taller than Morgan) and the pumpkins have ballooned. Happy 2012 everyone...may your fingers stay green and may you reap the fruits of your labours in the garden, in outreach and in caring for the animals around you!

roots and shoots was so cool today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today roots and shoots was realy fun I finally got to pick my radishes =)
but the realy sad part is that today was the last day for roots and shoots =(

Harvest

Today we ate some of the radishesI think they were Dan's,Andrews and Bens but still they were good and Mrs Esterhuizen said she would get guppys for our pond ,well thanks for reading.

Pond

My tomatoes are growing very nicely =)

Doing nothing

Today I did nothing so I played hand ball and thats it!

In the last week a picket fence was put up and the garden was expanded, but sadly it is not all for us and some will be seperated for the younger children. My radishes have grown and are soon ready to pick, but I will keep my Prized Radish. Today we dug a small trench between the two areas and are going to plant corn or sunflowers. Leave a comment and tell me what you want to plant...

separation

Today we divided the roots and shoots garden with the soon to come foundation phase garden.We have decided to separate these gardens with 'plant trenches' an idea made up by our founder Caroline Esterhuizen.She also suggested that we make a pond type pool in the middle of our garden as a sub-source of water.Ben,Andrew and I went to look for a round tub for the frame of the pond.We returned several times with no luck in finding any suitable tubs and decided to give up.

Roots and Shoots was awsome today."I love roots and shoots!!!"

I decorated my tyre !

Today I decorated my tyre and I watered my plants it looks awsome Roots and Shoots is realy fun!!!

Finding out about the shoots!

On Monday the 31 of October I finally found shoots I was like Awesome and i told everybody but they all saw last week and today I planted lavender and in the first week I planted chives.Oh ya today I painted my tyre green.

Finally

Finally my, Dan R-G, and Bendaman's shoots have grown :). Happily last week Thursday, the beans and radishes sprouted and are growing well. They will be ready in about a month. Also the red basil and the ?Mystery? seed have sprouted recently.

From ACWoolard

I modified my garden!

Today we all painted our tires that we are growing our veggies in and it all looks great!!
I painted my tyre white and blue!
In my tyre I am growing peppers,tomatoes,corn and a wild peach tree.
Today seb and I planted lavender and it smells great!!!!

MTA

Cement plants

Today we put plants that we had bought into cement blocks supplied by Forres into a slice of our 'Pizza garden'.

Finally a shoot!

After weeks of nurturing, my tomatoes have sprouted!!
I'm looking forward to having a bumper crop!

My coriander and chives are doing well. I have got my mom's green fingers.

MTA

Abundance in Re-using

 This term we are looking at recycling and how much we can recycle to create greenness and beauty and bounty. Our original little sandpit garden is blooming and we are seeing buds and flowers and the first signs of baby beans and tomatoes. Our chief concern for this little garden is how to control pests: at the moment they are being relocated by hand and we have started using an organic spray made from garlic and chilli.

We planted small hanging gardens this last week: in recycling old milk bottles and plastic soft drink bottles we can make a walk of green herbs. We used wire from the fence which was taken down, to make a hanging garden wall and the hooks to suspend the bottles.

Our tyres in the sandpit are happy and all seeds, except for the carrots, have come through. We are especially excited about the potatoes and watermelons!

This is our new garden. It is a "Pizza Garden". This means that the tyres have been set out in a pizza formation and each tyre has been planted with ingredients that go into making exciting pizza toppings...except for cheese vines. We will have to bring in a cow for that at some stage :-)

This term we have 16 Roots and Shootsers and each has a tyre garden to look after. This little Pizza Garden represents a LOT of recycling. We have found uses for old tyres, the cut-down fence, old cardboard to line the tyres, old milk and soft drink bottles, the broom sticks from the school play...even mini water bottle have become an intricate drip-watering system.