This week our students are posting blogs for their Action Projects…

For our end of year Action Project focusing on community development, students created a Community Garden for High Park Day School! A group of students, called “The QKH Farm Team”, conducted research on why community gardens are important, which plants grow best in full-sun, and which plants will reap the most benefits for our community. This blog post details the steps they took, in their own words, to creating our beautiful and sweet-smelling new community garden! The students hope that by sharing their Action Project they will encourage you to create a garden for your community.

We Love Planting!!

Tips From The QKH Farm Team Action:

*What we used: gloves, trowels, pots, rich soil, mulch, watering can, and a variety of herbs and flowers.

*The plants that we chose to plant: dill, sweet potato vine, rosemary, cosmos, oregano, French tarragon, black krim (tomato), lavender, and portulaca.

*These plants grown well in full-sun. Full-sun is considered 6 hours of sun each day. We water our plants daily, depending on how much sun they receive.

*Here is a list of other plants that we learned are easy to grow: bay, basil, chives, chervil, and coriander. Herbs often grow more quickly than fruits and vegetables.

* We lay the beds of our pots by mixing old donated soil with fresh rich soil. We removed rocks, sticks, and any garbage that we found.

*How to remove plants from their disposable containers without hurting them: Pinch the stem softly, then tilt the plant on its side and pinch the plastic container until the soil loosens and the plant slides out.

*The soil and the roots are tightly packed within the disposable containers. In order to allow the roots to spread after planting, the root ball needs to be loosened. The root ball is very delicate. Loosen the root ball softly by squeezing it on each side to release some of the soil, allowing the roots to spread. Your plant is now ready to be placed in the hole created for it!

*Planting is a lot easier than it sounds, and it is a lot of fun! We hope you are inspired by our action and choose to plant your own garden to share with others!

A special thank you to the parents who donated planters, soil, herbs, and flowers for our Action Project!