The School Garden

Probalby the last big harvest of the season as the students are now eating all the tomatoes. The peppers are too hot for them as they have discovered! 

  The next few days were pretty warm so I went and covered some of the seedlings. I was also worried it might rain heavily so on a different day, I went and covered the seedlings with bottles.  I replaced one or two damaged seedlings and checked that everyone had something strong and surviving in their little plots. A visiting friend helped me put rope around each plot which helps keep other seedlings from being trodden on.

Week 2 Planting I'd planted seeds of brocolli, brussel sprouts and beetroot earlier in August. Some had been eaten by caterpillars and others struggled because it was too hot but by this 2nd class in mid-September, I had enough seedlings for each group to plant with a water system. One group make their own and I'd made a few for the first group. I typed up instructions for each group and went through what to do. There was even a caterpillar on one of the brussel sprouts so I could show them how well they are camouflaged. This produced quite a bit of excitement and jumping around1 The poor seedlings got quite a bit of yanking and I was worried whether they would survive or not. Interestingly, some of the noisier students really focussed well and paid a lot of care and attention to their plants. Jordi came out of the class at the end of the day beaming. 'I heard a sentence I hardly ever here' he said. When the bell rang, the students had said 'Wow, is it time already!...

We are all delighted with the progress Sandra is making. The only watermelon and it's growing. Each week the students rush to see how much Sandra has grown. They measure it with their ruler and make in on their papers. Well, not all of them but quite a few ;-)  

I was a little nervous heading into the school on Tuesday 13th September for my first session with a class of 2nd year students. I'd prepared a lesson plan for myself and Jordi, the school director. The class is split into two halves, around 13 students each, with one half outside with Joel and I and the other half inside with Jordi. I was quite worried about there being nothing left in the garden after the long, hot summer but the fabulous, quirky, messy garden shone. The watermelon that has been growing endless leaves and no fruit, popped out a little watermelon, much to the delight of the students. There are now 4 aubergines growing, lots of beans as well as chillis. There was even a strawberry ready for the picking. The first session was 'Getting to know the garden'. There was a slight panic stricken look on the students' faces when I said I don't speak any Catalan. I wonder how long it will take for them to realise I can understand a bit ;-) Joel explained the ...

The final stage of the day was to make roasted tomato arrabiata sauce to freeze for winter. and foccacia bread with sun dried tomatoes and olives with a decoration of anything I could find.