Marafiki Gardening Club
On Thursday 8th June, pupils of the Marafiki Committee launched a new project to grow fruit and vegetables. This project has links with our partnership school where pupils of St Peter Claver in Tanzania grow their own produce to eat at meal times. We hope to share advice and techniques with our friends in Tanzania to produce high quality crops for our school community. The Marafiki Committee will also maintain a composting system, water butts and learn about sustainable farming and crop rotation.
This was a huge job to get the project started. First the beds were created by Colin, who is part of our site team, which were placed in a perfect position within our school grounds which has sunlight for most of the day. Within these two beds we decided to plant a mixture of fruit and vegetables.
The first job for our pupils was to move 1 ton of soil into the beds and pots. As one group moved the soil, another broke up the soil further so it was ready for planting and once this had been done another group started to plant. There was a lot of moving back and forth but all pupils worked great as a team.
The fruit and vegetables that have been planted are:
- Strawberries
- Chives
- Dill
- Rocket
- Kale
- Beetroot – Rainbow and bolt hardy
- Turnips
- Onions
- Lettuce
- Runner beans and dwarf beans
- Peas
- Courgettes
- Potatoes
- French squash
There are a number of different fruits and vegetables that we will plant when they come into season and pupils will keep a rotation of crops. There is still a lot of work to be done on the project but pupils have made a fantastic effort on the launch.
A huge thanks to Colin for his expert advice to launch the project and the pupils who gave up their time to get the project started.
