“Okay, listen up children”, said the teachers “We are going to have a garden of our own here at Treamis”. “Ma’am can we bring green gram?” said one student, another student wanted to bring brinjal sapling, another some red lentils and so on. The enthusiasm of the students was so evident. They could not wait to start on this project. The main objective or purpose of this project is waste management, where wastage of food along with fruit and vegetable peels are used to make manure in a compost pit that has been dug up in a corner of the fruit and vegetable patch adjacent to the playground. Also, it serves as a good means to teach children about healthy eating and also instil a sense of responsibility in the students towards their environment and become responsible for their own self and their belongings.
The students of Grades 5, are undertaking the responsibility of maintaining the fruit and vegetable patch. The students of grades 5, 6 and 7 have to collect the food waste from the cafeteria and make a layer of this along with a layer of leaves and mud. Our school gardener Chinappa procured worms from a nearby field and left them into the compost pit.
Pots were arranged in rows and columns ready for the students to sow their seeds. Also square patches in between the pots served proper to plant onion, potato, corn, wheat and green gram sprouts. Ragi millets were spread in small pots bordering the entire patch. Apart from these, spinach seeds, green chilli, turnip, raddish were also planted. The students were advised by the gardener to water the patch and pots every alternate day. Some stem cut outs of flowering plants were also planted in medium size pots by students of grade 6.
Students of grade 7 will be planting fruit trees such as papaya, pomegranate, guava, curry leaves etc.
