Titoki’s diary on growing carrots from recycled carrot tops.
11 May 2015:
Carrot tops were put into a water dish and left by the window so that they would get lots of sunlight. Children at Titoki know that living things need water and light to grow. During the week, Cooper who loves preparing carrots for morning tea, kindly saved his carrot tops and added them into the water dish.
22 May 2015:
After about two weeks, there were lots of young shoots and leaves and a few carrot tops even had tiny white roots growing out at the base. We decided that it was time to transplant the carrot tops with roots into pots.
Alana, Arum, Cooper, Emily, Eva, Falco, Finn, Heath, Shilo and Torbien helped to prepare the pots and filled them with potting mix before carefully putting the carrot tops into the pots and topped them up with another scoop of potting mix. All the pots of carrots were neatly placed in the raised garden bed and watered. Now we need to buy more potting mix so that they can eventually be transplanted into the raised bed.
29 May 2015:
Many thanks ๐ to Tracy, Heath’s mum, who donated two bags of potting mix and we were able to finally transplant the carrot tops into the raised garden bed. Finn, Madelief and Zach started to prepare the raised bed by removing all the dried brown leaves. Madelief remembered that dried brown leaves are great food for our worms in the worm farm and she promptly gathered all the leaves and gave our worms a treat. The children then went on to till the bed to loosen the hardened soil.
Finn and Zach volunteered to help move the half bag of potting mix and asked if they could use the wheelbarrow in the shed. Good thinking boys! The children worked together to fill the potting mix into the raised bed. However, as Finn, Madelief and Zach tried moving the next full bag of potting mix, they found that they were not quite strong enough to lift the bag by themselves. Zach suggested that they could ask for help from the older children. Soon Madelief came back with Ethan and Torbien. With lots of muscles and hard work, the huge bag of potting mix was finally moved to the raised garden bed. Falco and Kian came along and decided to help us transfer all the potting mix into the raised bed.
All the carrot tops were gently transplanted into the raised bed. While the children were tidying up and putting all the gardening tools away, Abigail, Babette, Eva, Gloria, Inez, Ivy and Shilo happily volunteered to help water the newly planted carrot tops.
8 June 2014:
A beautiful and sunny day! But we were sad that two curious Titoki youngsters could not resist pulling up the carrots to check if they were ready for harvesting ๐ Time to call for ideas and help.
12 June 2014:
A brain storming session by Sam, Madelief, Matisse and Heath.
Madelief: We need to cover the carrots so the children can’t pick them again.
Heath: Yeah, we should get a big cover and cover them!
Sam: If we put a cover on, there will be no water and light for them to grow. I know. My daddy used some wire for the chicken coop. There are holes for the water and light to go through.
The children all agreed with Sam’s idea of using chicken coop wire and we were fortunate enough to find a roll in the shed. The children unrolled the wire, using both their hands and feet to unroll the wire and carefully attached it onto the screws along the sides of the raised garden bed.
This brain storming session and problem solving is mirroring the wise whakatauki ‘a whero ma pango ka oti ai te mahi’ (when everyone cooperates, work is accomplished well).
What learning do I think is happening here?
Children have learnt another method of propagating carrots besides growing them from seeds. Different areas of learning such as numeracy, literacy, science and social skills have all been integrated into these past few weeks. Children have been constantly challenged to work out their own theories through their personal observations and knowledge.
Opportunities and possibilities?
The children will continue to care for the young plants in the coming weeks and monitor their growth. We will encourage children to explore the idea of growing other winter plants and creating their own menu when the carrots are ready for harvesting.