HAVE YOUR SCHOOL AND EAT IT TOO

The 2006 Edible Classroom conference in Melbourne

The use of school gardens in education has come of age. What started as a special interest within the Permaculture milieu ten years ago is now mainstream. So much was evident at the November 2005 Edible Classroom conference at Collingwood College, Melbourne.

Students and teacher at a West Australian school examine life in their school's wormery

More than 200 participants heard speakers such as author and chef, Staphanie Alexander, Cultivating Community’s (a community organisation funded by the state government to assist housing estate gardeners) Ben Neil and Victorian community garden instigator, Basil Natoli, as well as school students and teachers present their ideas on the development of food gardens as educational venues. From interstate came Jacqui Hunter (Hunter Gatherer Designs, Adelaide), claire fulton (community gardens network, Adelaide), Leonie Shanahan (community gardens, Noosa), Rebecca Chattelburgh (community and home garden educator, Albury) and Fiona Campbell (local government sustainability educator, Sydney) and others.

Participants visited three school gardens in Melbourne plus the inspirational garden at Collingwood College, which was started by Stephanie Alexander and Cultivating Community.

A number of the gardens are the basis of programs in which students grow, prepare and cook the food grown in their gardens then eat it as a shared meal. From out of their own funds, some schools support a community garden coordinator to work with students.

Gardens range in size and in the amount of time students spend in them. Some schools keep chooks in their gardens as an added interest for the children. What became clear was the eagerness of students to work in the gardens.

Jude Fanton, from the Seed Savers Network in Byron Bay, held workshops in teaching seed saving and seed processing in schools. Carolyn Nuttall, author of A Children’s Food Forest, provided an informal and insprirational address.

As a follow-on to a convivial Sunday afternoon picnic in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens organised by Jude Fanton, a visit to the garden’s Ian Potter Children’s Garden was made possible by Roslyn Semler from Visitor Services. The playground features plantings and installations that provide unstructured playspace in which the children are free to use their imagination. There is a large food garden — herbs, vegetables and a few fruit trees -— planted in raised beds.

Come of age

For a few that stayed on, the Edible Classroom conference segued into an informal community gardens tour. This should come as no surprise as the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network enjoys a close alliance with those working in school gardens.

The Edible Classrooms conference was organised by Cultivating Community, an organisation involved in starting school as well as community gardens. It is through events such as this that a skilled and knowledgable cadre of practitioners is emerging to develop what is a new avenue of learning in our schools.