Avondale Updates

Children at Avondale community crèche established their own garden whilst learning about food, plants and the importance of the soil, as part of the national planting season campaign.

Ten preschool and aftercare children had to start the garden and seedlings from scratch.

To learn how plant life starts, each child had to prepare sugar beans in jam jars stuffed with cotton wool. They were responsible to water the seeds everyday and witness sprouting and eventually the emergence of a new bean plant.

Meanwhile, the team of children was taught how to prepare the soil by removing weeds and stones. Compost from Avondale farm was worked into the soil to show them the make-up, colour and temperature of the soil changes.

Next the positions for the plants were plotted, the holes were poked and the young bean plants were inserted and compacted. Watering followed.

Remarked an eager new farmer Rozandia Cupido (10) afterwards: “ Now we have to water our beans every day and keep snails away from the garden.”

Plantingseason is a web community based project to encourage South Africans to rediscover their connection with the soil and the food they eat.

The organisation’s mission is to create an integrated, holistic environment where rural communities and privileged societies live in harmony and awareness with each other and their surroundings, through education on sustainability and the effects of climate change.

This project is in line with Avondale’s commitment to Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) to which we are affiliated to, says crèche teacher Nadia Jonker.