Lesson1: SOILS
Garden Work

The area that was made available for this class was an old vegetable garden that had been part of the garden surrounding the school residence. Despite the fact that the soil had grown vegetables before it was in fairly bad condition. The soil was a clay loam that was heavily compacted and was also full of weeds.

For this first lesson it was important to get the garden started and so we put most of the effort into fully preparing one bed and getting it planted with garlic.

The students were divided into work groups and allowed to change jobs every 5 mins before they became bored.

At one stage the children decided that they did not want to handle compost because it was made from manure. There was a lot of noise and complaining so we placed them around the bed in a circle and got them to close their eyes - silence! We then asked them to imagine the smell of fresh horse or cow manure. When they had done this I asked them to open their eyes, pick up a handful of compost and smell it. Did it smell like manure?? After this they were happy to get on and work.