All We Need Now Is ...

The development of a kitchen pavillion will make HalindaGreen a showcase in the Western Sydney Region and further afield.

The Public School system of NSW can be proud of the achievements of our students to make this garden something special. They have worked with community members to build a garden in difficult circumstances. A hot and windy piece of neglected soil is becoming richer with every season. Garden beds have expanded, provided meals for community parents and citizens and continue to flourish despite limitations of resources. And all of this happened in the first year of HalindaGreen !

One significant example of limitations on resources though, is that all of our efforts have been successful despite the fact that we have NO TANKS !

[We posted about our eligibility for a tankvoucher a year or so back]

Halindagreen carers and students have had to be 'pretty resourceful' to find water enough for the green. We look forward to the day when we can judiciously water our own school garden with liquid joy from our own tanks. We are hoping that we can find a way to be a worthy NSW showcase garden with an adequate water scheme to show for the needs of our special needs students.

Sustainability is the next step !

We are a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Showcase School !!!

THE KITCHEN IS COMING !
The big news is we are innovators in our region. We have qualified for membership of a very special group of schools around the world! One of only 47 school gardens selected from places all over the globe, for inclusion in the 2010 program to fund and promote a kitchen garden and food skills for students.

We will be working with communities to use these resources to make a very special place out on our school garden 'HalindaGreen'.

Our school community garden initiative is due to ramp up production over the next growing season and the Stephanie Alexander Program will fit our needs exceptionally well. With this success we can now have a kitchen pavillion in our garden !

Mrs T's 'Taters

Mrs T, our venerable SLSO gardener, a busy brilliant contributer to HalindaGreen has been using every inch of space at school to plant crops. She has made use of the sun against a northern facing wall of Juniors block, outside the air-conditioning yard. Hessian sacks are filled with soil and potatos are growing like topsy !

Parents plant and students Harvest

Produce from HalindaGreen

becomes

A sustainable harvest.

Delicious !

Looking at Plants Closely

Students at school have developed an interest at looking at plants up close. Lunchtime in the playground is often a treasure hunt for young learners looking at clover with a careful eye. Students love to find four leaf clovers especially. Phillip enjoys bringing them back to class for luck. Some have found themselves encased in laminating sheets to be enjoyed for a while longer.


This week we discussed chlorophyll and it's role in obtaining energy from light.

The Community that plants together ...

For 'Education Week' this year HalindaGreen was host to parents carers and community members visiting and working alongside students to plant vegetables for school programs and plantings.

Cauliflower, Bok Choy, Onions and Spinach were amongst the open day seedlings prepared and tended to on the green. Halinda School thanks all Community members who turned out and contributed to the fun.

A Strawberry in May

Our garden produces treats.

Phillip did great work watering the seedlings in the hothouse and planting broadbeans. His just rewards ? A strawberry in May!

Egg plants are go !

Ms Lalitha cooked up some indian fritters with our garden egg plants. YUM !

Then we had a go for our cooking lesson. Straight from the green to our plates !

Herb Spiral - underway

Mr D suggested a herb spiral, as part of a permaculture design process. Our art teacher Cooksley chose the spot, D 8/9 started the digging and John our G.A. is putting his bricky skills to use. Herb spirals can be loose stones or hay bales even, but a tradie likes a challenge!

Seeds of an Idea - growing up

Our hothouse has not only survived the winds of April,(a bit buckled but still standing), the seeds it housed have thrived in it's warmth.

Rain can't stop us !

It may be raining outside but nothing can stop our learning. The in-school work experience team set out with umbrellas to the dry school hothouse during the downpour. The Green Work team then set about learning some of the most important lessons on the face of the earth, how to plant food ! Nothing anyone does is achieved without food. So today we planted next seasons crops.

We used seed raising mix and seeds and made a start on the winter planting.

Lake Whalan !

....So when the sun comes out we are starting a permacultural wetland drainage system to soak up some of the water for good use !

Strewth ! Scare the Crows Mate !

The Laughing Scarecrow competition was a bottler. Alan Shearan our local MP came to school to hand over the School Eco Grant officially. And the school forwarded out onto the green and the Scarecrows were judged. Best Dressed, Best Chuckler, Most Australian design.

Many parents were impressed with the growth in the garden over the course of nine months. The native trees have established themselves and many of the plants donated by community members have begun to produce a harvest.

It was by many accounts a good day in the garden !

Mini Senior Scarecrows

Seniors students in Ms Nelson's & Ms Griffin's class took up the theme of laughing scarecrows for the garden and made some nifty mini chucklers ! Soon to be released into the wilds of HalindaGreen.

Halinda Green Learning

Staff from Halinda set out for the city early this Wednesday for an hour and a half of stop-start traffic. Their destination ? The Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney !

Halinda Green takes it's commitment to growing knowledge and plants seriously, and the development day for Green Educators, P&C members and community gardeners within schools held by the fine people at the RBGS was an excellent primer for core knowledge in the Sustainable Schools curriculum.

Native plants and indigenous knowledge workshops, permaculture lectures, lesson workshops and compost inservices all provided rich experience for eager learners.

A great day !

Stone the Crows !

Our Halinda School Laughing Scarecrow Competition is on the way !

Work Ed. on Halinda Green

This week the Transition grade of our school ventured out to view the garden. We used the chance to see which learners could benefit most from being there. Students liked the outdoor classroom environment and did several circuits of the green to take in the grounds. Group members plucked herbs and enjoyed the sensory stimulation of fresh smells and sunshine.

In the coming weeks work parties will be formed to spend longer sessions outside for gardening tasks. Students looked forward to the chance to spend more time out here.

After it doesn't rain, it pours.

So after the heat of a summer so hot we had to stay inside at recess and lunch, we now have a week so wet we can't use the playground because of torrential rains!

These extreme contrasts are big events even for the Australian climate. The Sunburnt country full of droughts & flooding rains seems to have turned up the weather a notch. HalindaGreen is now flooded at one end of the bike track.

We are considering an overflow to give quicker drainage and hopefully harvesting some water that way.

One of our goals written into the School Environmental management plan is to use Permacultural principals where we can. Designing water harvesting into the scheme of the garden makes common sense and reduces our future reliance on piped, metered water.

Stay tuned.

Heat Wave Summer of '09

The Green has been a hot place over the summer break. With driving winds and several strings of above 40 days the area has been hard to keep alive. Peter and John have kept up water to the student's vegetable plots and trees. Happily classes return to a Halinda Green where the plants have been able to continue to grow despite the heat. Thanks to our site manager and grounds assistant.

Plants have certainly flourished. Egg plants have swollen, melons grown and tomatoes have gone into overdrive ! In addition to these the native shrubs have established well and flowers thrown in for colour and bees have appeared and herald a new beginning to the school gardening year.

We are heading in the right direction.