As the Edible School Gardens program is being developed and constantly improved, it is important that I look back on each school and evaluate how the program ran in that school and if it could have been done differently to make it more successful.   Here I talk honestly about all those things that could have been done differently so that hopefully you won't make the same mistakes.

This  was a Year 4 project with a very motivated teacher and lots of parent support for the project.  The students were probably a bit young to understand design concepts but certainly didn't lack any enthusiasm in the garden for getting the jobs done.

We had a wonderful harvest day organised by the teacher, where recipes were sent home (to those parents that volunteered) with a list of ingredients required from home and a list of the fresh produce available from the garden.   More than 30 people arrived (parents and grandparents)with recipes and a variety of food from  all over the world, and a feast was shared which included homemade lemon grass and ginger cordial.

The kids were so proud as they gave garden tours to their family and ate the food.

This edible school gardens project was only about 6 sessions and although the garden looked fantastic and lots of food was being harvested, I felt that I hadn't had enough time to embed all the different systems of a permaculture garden that are necessary for its longevity.

Recently I was asked to return to the school to do some teacher training and 12 month planning, so will go back twice a year to do that.