Supporting Moorooka State School's Community Garden Project for National Tree Day
Posted in News
Supporting Moorooka State School's Community Garden Project for National Tree Day
Thanks to Toyota and Planet Ark’s National Tree Day, the Motorama Toyota Moorooka team had a fantastic opportunity to engage with the local community by supporting Moorooka State School students with their Community Garden project.
On Friday, 29 August, the team joined year six students to help turn their ideas for the garden into a reality. Ruby, Astrid and Bella from Moorooka State School led the charge by developing five key points detailing the purpose of the garden and the utilization of the produce grown. The points they came up with were:
- To develop knowledge about the life cycles of various plants.
- To develop an understanding of how to create a sustainable vegetable garden including the processes involved in growing, harvesting and preparing fresh food.
- To develop knowledge about the health benefits of eating fresh food.
- To create a monthly market stall selling produce to our school and the wider community in which the funds raised will be used to sustain the kitchen garden project.
- As a community garden, to provide fresh produce for our school families, school tuckshop and the wider community.
The team leaders had also developed a plan for what would be grown in each of the thirteen garden beds that were prepared for the project. The first set of garden beds would be used for growing herbs, fruit (including strawberries, yum!) and vegetables, the second set would be dedicated to growing Marigold to act as a natural method of pest control, while sunflowers would be planted in the last set of garden beds in an attempt to attract birds and pollinators to the garden.
With the plan in place, we headed off to the local Bunnings to handpick all the plants from the students’ wishlist. Upon our return, a team made up of students, parents and volunteers started working through the to-do list to get the garden ready for planting. It was a perfect day for gardening with the sun shining bright to motivate all members of the gardening team. The soil was delivered and laid, followed by the delivery of hay and mulch within which we were able to plant our budding seedlings. The final result was a lovely garden and open space filled with plenty of promise for an abundant crop of herbs, fruit and veggies in the coming months.
The Motorama Toyota Moorooka team was excited to be able to get involved with a community project supporting a local school while contributing to a great cause like Planet Ark’s National Tree Day. Motorama Toyota Moorooka’s General Manager, Aki Phule, described the day and the enjoyment of being able to help foster environmental awareness in the next generation:
“‘Being Green’ is one of our core values at Motorama so it was really great to have partnered with Moorooka State School to help out with their community garden in celebration of National Tree Day. Thanks also to Toyota for their support - we all share this planet so we must work together to protect it.”
The team will be keeping in touch with Moorooka State School to stay up-to-date with the garden’s progress and are excited to purchase some herbs from the market stall for tasty pesto pasta in the near future
