Growing in the Garden

My work in Gallon Jug breaks down into three pretty distinct categories: 1) teaching duties, 2) principal duties, and 3) all the stuff no one else at the school wants to do. 

As relates to the third category, my favorite duty has been managing the school's garden.  Gallon Jug is a very agriculturally focused area, so it makes perfect sense that the school would have a large and productive garden.  Prior to having it thrust upon me here, the closest I've come to gardening has been my annual tradition of murdering a Poinsettia plant during the holiday season. 

  

At the school we have a 7 period day, with the 7th period being an exchange where each teacher has the chance to teach one subject to all of the grade levels at the school on day per week.  This is an opportunity for each teacher to work with all of the students at the school and also to teach a subject separate from the regular routine.  These classes include:  Music, Arts & Crafts, Spanish, and Environmental Studies (aka, gardening). 

 

 

As the Environmental Studies teachers I get to plan lessons for the Kindergarten/ Infant 1 Students (1st grade), Infant 2 - Standard 2 students (2nd - 4th grade), and the Standards 3/4 students (5th and 6th grade).  My Standard 5 and 6 class splits our Thursday Environmental Studies period between the garden and the school's Medicinal Plant Trail, depending on which is in most need of attention any given week.

 By far the most popular job in the garden is chopping - using a machete to cut the grass and trim weeds.  The kids in Gallon Jug - and I think largely throughout Belize - learn to use a machete very young, as it is the main tool for yard care in parts of the world where you don't see many push mowers and weed whippers.  I'll admit that it took some getting used to seeing the kids grab the machetes and go to work.  At the beginning of the school year my class had a 'bring your machete to school day' when we needed to reclaim the garden after a summer of uncontrolled weed growth and the 3 school machetes weren't getting the job done.

  

Despite their weekly protests, I don't allow students younger than Standard 2 to use the machetes.  They can learn the basics of wielding really big knives at home under their parents supervision.  

There's always plenty of work to be done.  The students in Kindergarten thru 4th grade keep plant journals where they track the growth and life cycles of plants that they start from seeds.  We have a small plant nursery on the veranda of the school where many of the plants in the garden got their start under the watchful eye of one of the young students.     

Given the climate and jungle environment, we are continually able to replant and replant.  We've tried a variety of plants with mixed results.  Our best luck has been with sunflowers, radishes, onions, and - my personal favorite - cilantro. 

I've learned a gardening adage that the surest way to know when a cucumber is ready to be picked is when the birds have eaten it.  Our cucumber plants grow and produce like mad, but thus far we've been splitting the bounty about 50/50 with the birds.

 

The thing that I've been most proud of with our Roots and Shoots garden is that, not only has every child at the school been able to take an active role in gardening, every student has also been able to share in the rewards. 

All of the vegetable grown, with the exception of one batch of lettuce that was sold to Chan Chich lodge recently, have been sent home with the students.  The lettuce sold to Chan Chich was on a day when the lodge was short on lettuce and we were the only garden in Gallon Jug with any that was ready to pick.  The profits went to the school's field trip fund.