Thursday, April 14, 2011

Planting an Edible Garden

My workshop at iLeap got over yesterday and I had two participants- Tejas and Ishan. The enthusiastic duo were a LOT of fun to work with and I'm glad to have added two more members to the Gastronauts Club!

Day 1:
I started with a book reading of "A Garrulous Gastronaut's Guide" after which we discussed the different activities Cheeku does in the story. This was followed by an activity where the aspiring Gastronauts made their own table mats by sticking character cut outs on A3 sheets of paper which was later laminated.



Day 2:
We began work on our "Edible Garden Guide Books"... Each plastic container that was used as a planting pot was labeled with different coloured papers and the book had a corresponding coloured tab that made an easy navigation system in the book. The Guide Books had information on how to grow a few basic herbs and plants at home using seeds from the kitchen. We were going to plant coriander, fenugreek or methi, and chilli. We also soaked all our seeds and loosely packed our planters with soil.




Day 3: Continued our Edible Garden Guides and planted our seeds...




Day 4:
Our last action packed day we watered the planted seeds, made a home made insect spray to ward off any bugs that might bother the future seedlings and made a tangy mixed salad with watermelon, grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers with a lemon, salt and pepper dressing.
DELICIOUS!

Bees and Earthworms are good for plants... so no bug spray on them!