Reap what you sow

Crops planted by the Year 11 General Plant Production Systems class on campus grounds are beginning to grow. All the grain was donated by Watheroo farmer Quinton Bricknell who has also provided lots of advice to Kirsten and her students. Watheroo is about 205km north of Perth.

Quinton inspected the crops recently and was impressed by their progress.

The crop beds are the result of a fantastic team effort by the PPS students who began by marking out the crop beds.

Earthmovers then came in and dug out the beds due to all the tough grass which has given the area a bit of a new look. The existing soil was of poor quality so some Gingin loam was delivered to the school.

The class then spent the next few Friday mornings building the beds and planting the crops, with a different one going in each week – lupins, then canola, then oats and then wheat. The last crop to go in was barley.

Students have been learning about monitoring the weather, plant nutrition and the depth and spacing required for the crops to grow. Initially we needed to water them and the resident crows and magpies have helped themselves to a few shoots, leaving only their footprints and a few pulled up shoots lying around as evidence.

• A healthy lupin shoot

The students have also set up a shadehouse and are now hydroponically growing lettuce and snow peas, with strawberries to go in soon. Our thanks go to Graham Fair and Greg Hartmann who helped to set up the frame for the students to put the shadecloth on.

The class can be very proud of the results of all their hard work which is now starting to take shape.