Like anything that is placed in the garden, the monkey bars are made and placed for a specific reason. The purpose of the Monkey Bars is to aid or assist the beans to grow up instead of growing on each other. For the structure we made 3 poles holding the roof part of the structure. Then we tied some rope on the poles for more area for the beans to climb upon.
By, Leo Rhee
One notable part of my experience in Incredible Edible this year has been teaching people who are new to the service about things in the garden. This is my second year in this service and my third year in a gardening service. Some of the things I’ve helped teach are; how to trim the plants, how to differentiate between a plant and a weed, etc. The main other differences have been that now I don’t have to do composting because I did it for almost all of last year. The other big difference is that now we have much less garden to tend to because the garden by the maths block has been closed off.
I joined this service this year, and I’ve enjoyed almost everything that I did so far. The thing that I enjoyed the most is planting various plants and vegetables in the garden. During the process of planting, I moved plants that were planted in the small pots to our gardens and replanted them. At first, I was not confident as this was the first time I planted something by myself and worried about harming the roots of the plants. So I asked one of the teachers to teach me how to replant the plants safely. She told me to dig the hole deep enough so that the plants can stay stable. It was not easy for me to plant the crops properly, but once I’ve finished planting the first one, I could easily plant the rest of the plants. It was a good experience as I got to plant the vegetables for the first time and had an opportunity to observe many different plants.
Over the months of gardening (one season), my knowledge and experience of gardening have both grown. From the start, I did not know what to do and had no experience in gardening. I started to learn and concentrate on how to garden correctly, I really enjoyed it. Improving the beds and taking care of the plants gave me a rewarding sense of accomplishment. Felipe, Keira and I planted okra plants that really grew big and tall and fruits started to grow. The other memorable thing that we did was that we drank the butterfly pea tea that was planted that we grew together. Overall incredible Edible has been amazing. Thank you, Mr.Sparks and Mr. Kerridge. – Marc
Over the months of gardening I realized how important it is to have a garden because it provides healthy food in a way that is sustainable. The food is made in our school and is grown with our hands. It also makes us go out more into the sunlight and make something ourselves and it makes us get our hands dirty . Activities like this unite us as a community. – Ines
Over the course of one season and a few weeks, I feel like both my knowledge and experience about gardening has grown. Although from the start I had a basic feel of what gardening was, I noticed that as the weeks passed by, I was in a completely new and unfamiliar territory and I really enjoyed it. I got to channel my concentration and effort towards maintaining, growing and enjoying the greenery. Activities such as composting, planting new seeds and providing healthy beds really showed me the strength, beauty and excellence of nature. It was a joy watching how the okra that my friends and I planted grew in such a small span of time. I somewhat felt proud picking the large long okra vegetable from the stem. I feel that this is one of the most rewarding services the school has to offer and I feel like many more people should be able to experience what it’s like to be in Incredible Edible.
Throughout my time in Incredible Edible, I have had my share of great fun and learning. One of the things that I enjoyed very much about Incredible Edible was how we were able to get our hands dirty and get straight into the garden almost every lesson. The range of activities was extremely diverse, one second I would be weeding, the next, racing in a trolley while your friend pushed you at top speed towards the compost station. Something that I was quite proud of was me, Keira, and Marc’s Okra Plantation. We did everything- laying the soil, weeding the soil, planting the okra. A few weeks later, we had multiple Okra standing tall with pride. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with the Incredible Edible service and feel lucky to have signed up for this service.
Felipe, 2020
Composting is an important part of Incredible Edibles. Food waste from the campus, dead foliage and coffee grounds are put into one of the four composting bins near the college clinic. One of the jobs we do which involves the compost is stirring the food waste and dead foliage. This allows for better quality soil, with a mixture of carbon from the dead foliage and nitrogen from the food waste instead of large layers of carbon or nitrogen which could cause harm to the plants we grow in our garden. Because we take food waste from food waste bins on campus, random items like plates, bowls and plastic packaging can also make their way into the compost bins, causing quite a lot of problems for those who use soil made from the compost. – Paul
I think most people don’t understand the values of gardening. It actually makes an incredible impact on the world. First, gardening and eating fruits and vegetables is a very sustainable food source and it takes 10 times less land to make vegetables and fruits compared to eating meat. Also gardening is a really fun experience because you get to see things grow, get your hands dirty and work with people in the garden. I also have learned a lot about the different types of plants. We had a variety of experiences like cutting dill, planting kangkong and using the hydroponics system. Luis
Over the weeks of gardening and taking care of our campus garden I have realized that it’s really important to take care of our campus garden, even though you might get cuts, dirty shoes, and dirty hands. It is important to take care of our campus garden because even if it seems like it doesn’t matter because it’s only a small part of nature in the world a small thing can still make a big difference. Our planet is dying and climate change is getting worse so we all need to stay sustainable as a community and gardening is a super useful thing that is fun and it doesn’t take so much energy. -Gaia