A Mammoth Week for the Garden Project!

The Pictures Tell It All!

So much has happened this week.

Saturday saw our fisrt working day witha a great nband of volunteer parents coming in and helping.

 The Chicken shed was finished. It has to be one of the grandest chicken coops out there

 Our original garden got a good going over. It has now been cleared, ready for new crops to be planted

 A group of hard workers built a retaining wall in the new garden area.

.A finally we had our tool shed constructed.

Monday saw the arrival of the 12 chickens. There was a lot of excited children as they finally got to see their chickens after such a long time of waiting.

It didn't take long for them to seetle into their new home. We haven't had any eggs yet but it shouldn't be long to wait.

Then on Tueday and Wednesday, 7A finally got to do what they had been waiting so long for.

They were able to get down and get dirty and build the Pizza Oven. And what a job they did.

With  their teacher Mr Isele, 3 parents and  the local member of parliament, Mr Darren Grimwade helping, they worked at mixing the clay and straw, layer a brick base and finally decorating the oven to their own design. At completion thay have made an oven that they all shoupld be very proud of. I'll let the photos do the talking.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Have a look at the progress that has been made with the chicken run. The structure is completed , all we need now is for the fencing and some interior decorating to be done before the chickens arrive.

The gardens that were planted at the end of March are going well, now that we have some fine sunny weather.

In the kitchen we have now had all the Tupperware delivered. Thank you to megan from Tupperware and also to all those parents that supported us by buying their products.

There will not be an update over the holidays, but once we are back I should be able to post photos of the existing gardens and the progress made on the new garden area.

Until next blog,

Enjoy the break and stay safe

Ross T

Great news! Finally we are up and running for 2012.

Welcome back to all those people who have been reading last years blog, and hello to all the new readers joining us.

I know it has been a long time since the last posting, but the project has been going from strength to strength in the blog's absence.
To quickly bring you up to date on what has been happening.

Since getting the funding from the Stephanie Alexander Foundation we have been busy redesigning our gardens and where they are being placed. This means that we will have far more garden space than originally planned. the main garden is also closer to the kitchen, so the children will have better access to their fresh produce. the wood fired pizza oven will also be surrounded by the garden. in this garden we are using a garden system developed in Peru. It gives a higher yield from each garden bed, it is easier for the children to access each bed and drastically reduces the amount of water used. we will  not need to go to extra expense to put in an irrigation system.

In the kitchen we have now installed the majority of kitchen utensils required. We were very lucky to have Harris Scarfe Morayfield come on board as a supporter of this project and they have outfitted the kitchen with all the small electrical appliances and the hand operated ones such as the pasta makers, mandolins, mortar and pestles, etc. Without their backing we would have not been able to have this equipment. 
Tupperware also had a successful day at the the kitchen on Tuesday. from the sales that were made on the day, we will be able to purchase some great storage containers for the pantry.
We are also in the process of purchasing 60 aprons for the children to use.

The chicken run is finally under construction, hopefully if the rain holds off we will have the enclosure finished before the Easter break. After the holidays we will finish off the coop and install the chickens.

as mentioned earlier, if the weather stays fine, we will have the chicken run finished and we will also have more garden beds in place.

Until my next update, take care and stay happy!

Ross T