Parramatta High School students start gardening
Students at a western Sydney high school are taking a break from the concrete jungle, picking up spades and cultivating a garden.
Parramatta
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Parramatta High School’s “Garden Gurus’’ club is anticipating spring and the chance to add a splash of green to their mostly concrete yard.
Plans are under way for a veggie patch to be cultivated in three raised garden beds as well as a worm farm and compost heap to enrich the soil.
It will be a novelty for many students.
“Most of them live in units,’’ deputy principal Kim Johnstone said.
“They’re all about sustainability, they’re currently researching what to plant. The idea is they’ll sell their stuff or cook them.”
Principal Domonique Splatt estimates 90 per cent of the school’s 980-strong population live in apartments.
She hopes to plant citrus trees with fruit to be used for jams, as well as herbs and vegetables for hospitality students.
“We’re a little concrete school here so it’s an opportunity to create some green thumbs with kids and get their hands in the soil,’’ she said.
“It gets our students outdoors and doing something horticultural and something for the environment that’s of a positive nature and I think it has spin-offs for wellbeing and feeling good.”
Year 7 student Kirti Mukesh said her mother would grow tomatoes in her homeland of Pakistan and she was looking forward to growing veggies at Parramatta.
“It’s more beneficial for the environment,’’ she said.
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