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Pictures of the beautiful milies and summer veggie garden of 2013 are on our Facebook Page. The latest team of gardeners have been tending to the veggie garden and caring for the water-wise garden - they stand side-by-side and each have different requirements. Well done Forres children!

Spring is Springing in the air - Gilbert's lettuce is very excited about a new season and the gardeners decided to paint their tyres and climbing frame to usher in some warmer weather and cheer the garden up for the newly planted radishes, beans and tomatoes. 

Making paper mulch out of old classroom scraps. 

I love roots and shoots!!!!!

Roots and Shoots is awsome. We painted our tyres,we grow our vegetables in our tyres i grew alot of stuff in my tyre!!!!!!

The Last Roots And Shoots Day For Me

Today is the last Roots And Shoots day for me.

Itching to get going

Spring is knocking at our door. There is still so much rain in Cape Town and the average day is very icy indeed. We have made a tentative start to our term and seeds have been planted in well-prepared tyres. In just 2 weeks we can see little sprouts. The radishes are the most enthusiastic about popping up!

Inbetween rainy days, we have been keeping ourselves busy by recycling paper and making our own paper to use in home-made gardening journals. This last week we also turned our focus to raising awareness about pet ownership and the great responsibility we have to our beloved and loyal. Each Roots and Shoots member has been working on an "Awareness Poster". When they are finished we will post them here.

Last week we made paper out of newspaper. We got new plants and seeds for our garden.

Rain Rain Rain

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.

Great day at Roots & Shoots today... Lots of water. Tyre's are clean and are ready for the new recycled door. Planted Red Basil in my Tyre. Lovely square tiles all around our pizza garden. The potatoes are getting along and are nearly starting to blossom. The hanging garden is doing well. Hope there aren't anymore roots showing. Roots are shooting and the Term 3 garden should be ready for harvesting soon, we all hope. I can't believe it Forres Roots and Shoot's page has 323 views. I would have never guessed. Can't wait till next week's Roots and Shoots!

Our garden has grown: this term we have taken some brilliant ideas from the delightful publication Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots

Our Roots and Shoots club has grown from 5 members to 14 this term. We have had to think about what we can all get involved in for the next 8 weeks without crowding the original tyre garden (which, by the way is doing beautifully). We have been given a lovely patch of ground adjacent to Tyre Garden, and this is where we will lay out our "Pizza Garden". This will be in the circular shape of a pizza with "slices" of planting zones in which we will grow fresh herbs and veggies organically. Each club member is also going to recycle 2 litre plastic  bottles to create a hanging garden of planters. This is just another experiment in growing useful plants in a small space. If you can't spread out your gardening in a large sunny area, then why not go "Up" and start gardening vertically?

Game Reserve Adventure

Hi Roots and Shoots members - check out my slide show for photos of my Luanga Valley trip in Zambia.

Wonderful Work

Well done Forres Roots and Shootsters, your garden is looking amazing. I am looking forward to your new projects this term.

A New School Term - Little Green Shoots are Thriving

The Forres Team has put the owl box in place and our veggie garden is growing beautifully. No disused object goes untested for its usefulness in the veggie patch. Enthusiastic gardeners found an old washing up sink and turned it into a fabulous bean planter and potting shelf. Another important part of bringing a garden to life, is attention to personal design and decor.

Owls and Veggies

Full steam ahead!!

1. Our Earth Project: sustainable living in container gardening. We are setting up our pilot project in tyres, old containers and so on. Our mission is to become experts in growing veggies and herbs in small containers. We want to take what we learn and then volunteer our services in our wider community by setting up small Caring Gardens in places where they are needed. We are getting in touch with how things grow and learning about the magic of growing things. We have a patch of earth to play with!
2. Our Animal Project: The Owl Box. We have an Owl Box and are waiting for the Owl Box Experts to visit us and show us where to set up our box and give us some advice.Horrayyyy! Our Owl Box is ready and waiting.

What lucky children Forres Children are:-)