School Garden Project - rap up of 1st year

去年から愛情をかけて育てて来た、学校菜園プロジェクト。8月から2ヶ月半ほどコスタリカを出て旅にでかけるため、ひとまずここで終了です。亜熱帯雨林の地で野菜や果物を育てるのは一苦労だったけれど、子どもたちや親たちとともに地道に楽しく取り組んだおかげで、たくさんの収穫を得ることが出来ました！実践あるのみ、と実感。11月の新学期からは"Global Citizen"という名前で、週2回の授業を受け持つことに。パーマカルチャーと伝統的な暮らしやサバイバル術を伝授し、子どもたちとともに学ぶため、ますます学校菜園プロジェクト、愛とエネルギーを注ぎ、小さくじっくり育てていく予定です。 As me and my daughter are leaving Costa Rica for 2.5 months, I am writing to complete my experience at the School Garden Project which started last year. Growing food in a tropical rainy environment was not easy, but at the end, we had a lot of production and individual growth! 

In January, we started from making compost - collecting kitchen waste from each households, collecting manure and leaves, and mixing well together. This was a great start to learn that we can make good soil out of everything we have already. This is surprisingly not part of the Costa Rican culture though....    

Parallel to compost/soil making, making a green house in the school property was a big project. Natrishka, my beloved friend and also strong single-mama took over the challenge, digging, installing bamboos, collecting glass, teaching kids about mud buildings....    

We had so much fun, and look what we've created out of (mostly) only recycled materials!   

We've also studied about soil and seeds. What is a good soil? What is a good seed? Seed was collected from my farm trips to various organic farms.  

In April the rainy season started, and so we started planting. Seeds were mainly planted in the small cups we made out of recycled materials - another good example of utilizing whatever we once thought was "garbage".   

Each student had their own cups - to grow their own personal love and connection with the plants. 

Planted tomato, basil, chile, okura, spinach, corn, melon, sweet potato, beans, coriander, turmeric, kale, lettuce... what else? 

The Garden project was incorporated in other subject too, like math. Each week, students measured how much the plants grew.  

We also started biodynamics method - studying about the cosmic movement and planting accordingly, giving plants extra spiritual attention, and providing special nourishment. 

Path and garden exteriors were made by gravel and bottles - taken from the Nosara recycling center. There are tons of unused glasses out there, you guys! We just need to be creative and work together to make it happen.  

So now... at this point, we have food for us growing, almost ready to be taken into our lives! The total cost was $390, just as much as we made at the fundraising party. What an extraordinary journey for everyone, coming together, putting love and energy, and learning together with kids about sacred cycle of life... Thank you for making it happen all of you out there...

We will be continuing this success and challenge by creating a permaculture curriculum starting next November. So keep tuning in please!