Organic Gardening.

This year, our school has been involved with the Biological Farmers of Australia's Organic School Gardens Program. We have been selected as a Leader School and we are trialing a range of lessons which are helping us to develop skills and knowledge on how to garden organically. For some time in our gardens, we have made gardening decisions which are based on making sure we consider the environment. These lessons have taken our organic practice much further.

These lessons and resource materials are available free to everyone and offer extensive background material and equipment lists to each topic.
Look here to check it out. Organic School Gardens Program

Last week we tested the pH of the soils in our various gardens. We hoped to be able to find out why some plants were thriving and some struggling. We also had a new garden planned and wondered whether the pH of the introduced soil would allow our plants to take up the nutrients readily.
A simple pH testing kit and various soil samples was all we needed. We discovered our Peace Garden's soil was quite acidic and explained why we had some issues with some plants. We were happy to find out that the Mandala Vegetable Garden's soil was in the correct range for growing veggies. Another area of the school garden tested quite alkaline.
Students learnt about how we could increase or decrease the pH as needed and how our compost will help create a healthy soil.

Here are our tested samples.