Ever since beginning my career as a teacher, I have always been interested in encouraging students to move to a more sustainable future by learning to grow food.

My experience with the school veggie patch started at Woy Woy Public School, NSW, Australia. There I assisted the school to apply for school funding to run a Bush Garden program targetting students in Grades 5 and 6 with behavioural needs. Then, in outback NSW, I aimed to run a school veggie garden at Walgett Community College, Primary campus. However, due to the hot dry conditions of living in Walgett, it was impractical to sustain a veggie garden and the idea eventually evolved to become a garden growing organic cotton, a main crop of the local Walgett Shire area.

An idea I have for the future would be to have students work together to make simple planter boxes out of bamboo or recycled palette wood to grow vegetables. An easy to install gravity fed irrigation system would be used to water the planter boxes. These boxes could be placed wherever convenient around the school grounds. Produce can either be eaten fresh or preserved by pickling.

Apart from an interesting hands-on activity, I find gardening taps into the social and emotional lives of students. Gardening can can also be an opportunity for integrated studies in any school curriculum.