School Garden Blog Post

On Thursday, our class went to see the Seniors' garden where they grow all kinds of plants. Here are some of the questions that I asked and the answers that were given:

Q: How does this garden tie in with learning?
A: We're learning Environmental Science this year and it's great because, even though you can learn in a closed off classroom environment, it's much more interesting to go out and actually experience the stuff that you can do with environmental science, like growing a garden.

Q: What do you grow?
A: Lettuce, basil, peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, and a couple of random plants.

Q: What happens during the Summer?
A: Nothing I guess. If John were here, he'd probably take care of it, but this is his last year [teaching], so I guess it just dies.

Q: Do you guys do anything with the plants (e.g. sell them, eat them, etc.)?
A: We eat the plants sometimes. But last week, for example, we fed lunch to a lot of people from just the garden, and they each got a good amount of food.



Here are some reflective questions that I'm also going to answer:

Q: Do you want to continue the Seniors' work?
A: I would love to do that, but according to my third question, the garden is going to die over the summer, so my class might have to start anew when it finally ends up our turn.

Q: What struck you about the garden?
A: I thought it was really cool how they could grow all kinds of different plants, like fruits, trees, vegetables and spices all in the same area.

Q: Did this inspire you to start your own garden?
A: I guess not exactly a garden, but it inspired me to plant a couple of trees with fruit on them, so I could have fresh tomatoes, strawberries and a grapes, and if olives count as fruit, then those too.

Q: How did this garden remind you of sustainable living?
A: I think the garden was sustainable because instead of giving money to someone else (which cannot make plants), the seniors are growing their own plants, so that they take from nature, but they also replant the seeds, thus creating an equivalent exchange process.