A Composting Success Story

9 November, 2023

Last year I had the pleasure of working with two amazing ladies, Lisa Pointon and Emma Walker at Vasse Primary School.  This dynamic duo work as Kitchen Garden Co-Ordinators at the school's Wicked Patch Kitchen Garden. Emma teaches students on how to care for and tend to a garden, using sustainable methods and Lisa guides the students on how to make nutritious and delicious food using seasonal produce grown in the garden.  All Year 3 students take part in the Kitchen Garden Program each week on a rotation basis, learning something new each week.  Each Friday the program is also open to students in Years 2-6 with special educational needs.  Students start each session with time in the kitchen, then back out into the garden whilst the food is cooking.  They can then look forward to heading back into the kitchen to enjoy the food they've created.  

A Composting Challenge... 
In June last year I received a call to help, as the large volume of food scraps being generated by the school, were causing some challenges in their already established composting systems.  The large scale worm bins were not decomposing efficiently, creating anaerobic conditions.  After chatting with Lisa and Emma I was able to tweak a few of their existing practices and suggest a few new practices to implement.  Over time it was so good to see a huge improvement due to their commitment and hard work.  

Last week I returned to the garden again and it was so good to see their composting system still working efficiently and the garden beds benefiting from the use of the worm castings.   

Having an 'active' bin and 'inactive' bin helps to harvest the worm castings more efficiently. 

The Wicked Patch Kitchen Garden...
I thought you might like to see a few more photos from my recent visit to this inspiring garden.

As you enter the garden you are greeted with vibrant poppies, cheerful cornflowers and beautiful roses, being both asethetically pleasing and helping to attract beneficial insects for organic pest control.

The school has a number of "Bay Friendly" wicking garden beds!  Wicking Beds are raised garden beds with a water reservoir at the base, making them very efficient in their use of water.  Moisture is drawn up through the soil from the water reservoir making it available to the plants as needed.   Less water is lost due to evaporation and any nutrient runoff is also significantly reduced.

The Kitchen Garden has a number of productive fruit trees scattered throughout the garden including a banana tree.  

An abundant & vibrant harvest from last Summer in the school's kitchen garden.   Photo courtesy of Lisa Pointon.

The school also has other valuable contributors to the garden such as Jeremy Bruse.  Along with running his business EcoAg Contractors, Jeremy also works at the Vasse Primary School helping to care for the gardens and open spaces using regenerative methods. Using a special microbial brew, he has been experimenting with composting large volumes of carbon waste from the school grounds.  The results have been amazing and the school will soon have a more efficient way to process their organic garden waste, saving time and money whilst returning life back to the soil.

School Food Gardens can provide unique challenges but when a passionate team are involved it's such an inspiration to see what can be achieved, for the benefit of the students, environment and anyone who comes to visit.  

Thanks so much Emma, Lisa & Jeremy for the wonderful work you are doing!

Til next time,

Alisa 🍂