Spotlight on Silverbeet

Thanks Jade and Inaya for sharing about silverbeet. It's great to know that our extended PCS family (Jade's rabbits) are also enjoying vegies from our garden.

Silverbeet is really easy to grow. It is ready is eat at around 6 weeks after planting and grow in almost any soil type.

Silverbeet is fab because it is  a cut and come again plant, which means if you are careful when you harvest, you can continue to harvest for an entire season, if not more. If it does start to flower you just cut it right back to the base and usually it will recover and sprout again.

You can eat the dark green glossy leaves or the wide cream stalks. They are really tasty just lightly cooked in a saucepan with the just the water on them from washing and a little butter. If you add silverbeet to cooked potatoes in a hot frying pan and add lightly beaten eggs, you can make a tasty frittata.

March Miracles!

Well our autumn planting has been completed for a few of our beds. We planted the seedlings in at the end of February and have faithfully been watering them and watching them grow.

We are learning so much about how to look after seedlings like how to plant them correctly and look after them once they are in the ground. We have seen for ourselves how they start off so small and grow so quickly. We even discovered that they take up quite a bit more space than we had anticipated!

The weather here in Auckland has been beautifully warm and as a result our garden is pumping. Here is a pic of what this same bed looked like just four weeks after we initially planted it.

Which meant that last week we were able to harvest some silverbeet and some of our gourmet lettuce! Here we are getting our (biodegradable) plastic bags filled up with our first lot of goodies to take home.

Today, our gardeners were discussing how they had enjoyed the lettuce at home in sandwiches, salads and even burgers! It is so great that this is something the kids have done themselves and are able to share with their families at home.

If you would like to see more of what we have been up to, you can visit ImageShack on this link to see more pictures.ImageShack Our gardens in March

2014- Another year to watch us grow!

Wahoo! We are back at school after the summer holidays and it is time to get stuck into the garden for the new year.

We have started our Environment and Sustainability Group again for the year with a very keen group of children from Year 4, 5 and 6.

After our first trip to the garden we discussed what needed to be done and started the work. We also had a chat about what we could plant at this time of the year and gave our list to Mr Deed so he could organise the purchasing of plants and seeds for us.

First, we weeded out all the things in the garden beds that needed to be removed. Some of these were crops from last year which were now dying off but other things that needed to go were those pesky little weeds that creep in.

Next, we prepared the beds for growing by turning the soil over and clearing away rubbish.

Then, we had a few sessions in the garden where we planted seedlings (oooh so much fun!) and seeds.

So now, all we have to do is watch and wait for our plants to grow. We planted beetroot, carrots, dwarf beans, cabbage, spring onion, sugar snap peas, radishes, silverbeet and celery.

And when we went to check the garden yesterday, we were thrilled to see everything growing well. Even some of the seeds we planted have sprouted so it is exciting days ahead!

Stay posted to see pics of what we are growing and feel free to post suggestions of other things we might like to try growing at this time of the year.