Some time ago we decided to undertake a wonderful project to bring nature closer to our Year 10 students. We created an organic garden at Elian’s British School of La Nucía — and now the whole school has become involved. It’s a fantastic initiative which brings the whole community together and produces endless opportunities for learning.
Read on to find out how our organic garden has evolved month by month, and how passion and dedication made sure the idea became a reality. The range of benefits from our garden just keep on coming — as you’ll see below.
November, preparing the ground for the school garden
The first month was a time for making decisions: choosing the ideal location for our garden and getting everything ready for our ambitious planting schedule.
Our Year 10 students were involved from the beginning, so they could feel some ownership and emotional investment in the project — Our Year 10 students were involved from the beginning, so they could feel some ownership and emotional investment in the project —
essential to build their enthusiasm so they were fully engaged and willing to learn..
December, planting of diverse species
Site preparation continued and the month was mainly dedicated to filling the beds with different substrates and improving soil fertility ready for planting.
We chose carob seeds and two varieties of broad bean seeds. We planted a customised mixture of carob seeds, and the students learned techniques to encourage germination by mimicking natural processes, like the application of fire, or the effects of digestion.
We also added pelargonium citronella.We then added vegetables, such as spinach, chard, carrots, leeks, cardoons, cabbage and peas, as well as aromatic plants like lavender, rosemary and lemongrass.
Finally, we installed an automatic irrigation system to keep our school garden well watered during the holiday season.
January, some weather setbacks
After the Christmas holidays we faced weather challenges in the school garden and had to adapt cultivation to the adverse conditions.
But despite this, we managed to get everything growing and continued to experiment with different seeds and plants.
At this stage, it started to get exciting as we witnessed the rapid growth of the species already planted, and our students learned about the different conditions and evolution of each one.
February, perfecting and finalising
February was a very special month because we dedicated ourselves to finishing tasks such as the design of the school garden and creating plans and planting schedules.
But it was also the time for fascinating new activities, like the distillation of essential oils from our plants.
March, the advent of spring
With the arrival of sunny weather and the change of season, our school garden bloomed and became more beautiful than ever.
We harvested our first vegetable crops and planted flowers for extra colour. There was a sense of wonder as we witnessed the fruits of everyone’s efforts.
Seeing tangible results come from their hard work is a great boost for our students and turbo-charges the learning process. But there’s always more to do in a garden! We put in new varieties of plants to enrich the growing environment even more, including tomatoes, courgettes and peppers.
April, young visitors to the school garden
Durante la semana de la ciencia, recibimos en el huerto a alumnos de infantil y primaria con el objetivo de que se acercaran también un poco a la naturaleza y conocieran el proyecto.
The little ones loved exploring the variety of plants and were fascinated by the insects they examined under the microscope.
Our primary pupils’ enjoyment of their visit truly underlined the importance of school garden projects to teach all age groups about the environment.
May, the harvest continues
May saw the arrival of our bumper potato crop — we harvested 31 kilos!
Our potatoes were of the Desiree variety, which are particularly beneficial from a nutritional perspective because of the higher water and lower starch content.
So much activity already, and it’s only the beginning! One thing we do know: our organic garden has many more joys and rewards in store.
