THE Peace Garden at Holy Spirit School, Bray Park, north of Brisbane, has a new addition thanks to the school’s Prep 2 students.
The children, with help from parents, created and built a scarecrow to deter birds from sampling the garden’s produce.
Prep teacher and garden club co-ordinator Mary-Ann Sorensen said students brainstormed how to make the scarecrow, deciding what was needed, what items of clothing he would wear and how to actually put the pieces together.
Ms Sorensen said all the children had a part to play in the making of the scarecrow and were delighted in the finished product.
“Additional whirligigs are helping to keep the birds at bay and bring a sense of life and movement to the garden,” she said.
Ms Sorensen said the garden had been operating for the past year and was instigated as a School Wide Positive Behaviour Program.
“The garden is an expansion on the already established sustainable practices within the school such as water tanks and energy reduction,” she said.
The garden club runs twice a week during lunch with between 10 and 20 students from different year levels participating each day.
Ms Sorensen said the garden’s name came from the students themselves.
“Naming the garden was a priority,” she said.
“The children decided on The Peace Garden as they felt peaceful and happy when working in the garden.”
Ms Sorensen said principal Peter Pashen endorsed the name after students explained their reasoning.
“It also aligned beautifully with the Spiritan ethos of the school – fruits of the Spirit – being true to these fruits engendered a peaceful way of life and demeanour,” she said.
She said current crops included lettuce, zucchini, snow peas, borlotti beans, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, eggplant, purple carrots, celery, parsley, basil and onion chives.
These are sold to the tuckshop to fund future plantings.
