The whole Greenbank community has been involved in the making of our pocket garden this year.  Every child took their own seed tray home to tend during the Easter break.  Most seedlings came back into preschool after the holiday and in time for our annual BIG DIG.

We had a few design hitches whilst preparing our pocket garden structure.  We reused an old water tray frame. Our challenge was to find a way of making it into a box. This was solved with the help of the Greenbank Church handyman who happened to have some old perspex at home- we suddenly thought how amazing it would be to see the roots through the perspex sides! And it has worked! The handyman also constructed our wonky shelf out of bits of wood donated by a parent who happened to be having work done in her home at the time.

All our plants have either been planted from seed or donated by parents and families in our community.

The best part of doing the garden has been filling it with soil- all the children helped with this. We also loved seeing how we transplant and knowing that we immediately need to water the plants.

We have several edible plants- tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, herbs- mint, fennel, chives, basil, rosemary, thyme, marjoram.  We have flowers- marigolds, lavender, calendula- all attracting our bees and pollinators.

We have learnt how long it takes for certain plants to grow and how much water they need to get strong.  Our pocket picnic garden will remain in our own preschool garden for as long as it withstands the weather.