Kids get down and dirty in classroom

DOWN AND DIRTY: Parkhurst State School students Taylah Cox, 8, Nick, Green, 9, and Hannah Dobson, 10, show off their school veggie patch.

Chris Ison/The Morning Bulletin

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• Children learn to love homegrown

PARKHURST State School's veggie patch is Nick Green's favourite classroom.

The nine-year-old loves getting down and dirty, mixing soil with compost, before planting seeds in the school's new veggie patch.

“My favourite vegetable to grow is potatoes,” the grade-four student says as he talks The Morning Bulletin through his and his classmates' new outdoor project.

The Rockhampton primary school is part of the McCain School Veggie Patches program designed to teach children about healthy eating by growing and harvesting vegetables in their schoolyard.

“It's fun getting out of the classroom and into the garden,” Nick said.

The program gives schools a chance to earn gardening equipment, seeds and tools to build and maintain a vegetable garden, while also giving students the opportunity to be a part of hands-on learning outdoors.

Parkhurst signed up to the program about 10 weeks ago and their growing garden already has no-dig potatoes, tomatoes and snow peas.

Teacher Kath Warcon said she and the other teachers involved in the project had plans to add herbs and fruit trees to the garden in the future.

“It shows the kids how easy it is to grow their own, self-sufficient fruit and vegetable patches in their own backyard,” Mrs Warcon said.

To tie in with the year of biodiversity and sustainability at the school, teacher Dave St Henry, who is known by his students as the “butterfly guru”, has played a major role in developing a special butterfly garden to teach the kids all about butterfly life cycles.

Mr St Henry said the garden had host and nectar plants, home to a number of different species of butterflies.

“Our target is to build our current 10 up to 25 different species found in Rockhampton to boost the butterfly population,” Mr St Henry said.

“The kids love it. They get to experience eggs turning into caterpillars and new-born butterflies,” he said.

KIDS' GARDENING TIPS

Nick and his classmates' veggie patch tips:

Water, water, water. Keep your garden nice and moist

Collect your own veggie and fruit scraps for compost

Make sure you have the right environment for your plants