4 School Garden Projects To Do In Brisbane, Term By Term
My adorable neighbour, and fellow green thumb, Nat with a flower grown from seed
If you are lucky enough to have a school garden or in the process of pitching for one, explaining how you’ll use it across the whole school year is a great way to get a project across the line. Strategy aside, gardening and learning to grow flowers and vegetables is a skill that only comes with experience, so while doing one gardening project in a term in great, doing a range of projects across the school year is even better!
I’ve pulled together a number of school garden projects to do in Brisbane below - from planting a mini wheat field at the start of Term 2 to growing herbs like basil and coriander in pots in Term 3, there are so many fun options that can also be linked to the Australian School Curriculum. And if you’d like more options, check out my 2024 Planting Calendar below!
Sunflowers, tomatoes, wheat and salad greens all make great school garden projects in Brisbane (see above)
School Garden Projects For Brisbane | Term By Term
Term 1: Bee Flowers: The heat of Term 1 in Brisbane can be a little bit tricky for a gardening project, but one option that could go well is growing a range of bee flowers to bring in pollinators. I recommend the flowers zinnia, cosmos, marigold and basil because they are all fine in Brisbane summer weather. If planting from seed, plant about 5-10 seeds for each flower to have a multitude of blooms. Check out my own bee garden here.
Term 2: Mini Wheat Field: An unusual school garden project could be to plant a mini field of wheat. It opens itself up to lots of interesting maths calculations for working out how much wheat is needed to make a loaf of bread, as well as baking lessons. The best time to plant wheat in Brisbane is in April or at the start of Term 2. Wheat takes a long time to grow and will mature by November, but it’s worth it. You would need to plant about 90 wheat seeds for a metre square field.
Term 3: Herb Pots: Spring is a nice time to plant a range of herbs and a simple school garden project could include getting the class to plant a collection of herb pots from coriander to basil to parsley and chives. As 1 seed becomes 1 whole plant it could make sense to get everyone in the class to plant just one pot each. When herbs are grown in pots (as opposed to a garden bed) they need to be watered daily to stay alive.
Term 4: Salad Bowls: They say you can’t win friends with salad, but I disagree. Creating a big class ‘salad bowl’ could be a good project for Term 4 because leafy salad greens like rocket, basil and lettuce are some of the quicker growing vegetables and can be easily picked out of the garden for students’ lunches throughout the term before everyone heads off onto the holidays. If planting from seed, I recommend planting 10-15 seeds each for rocket, lettuce, basil and even some marigold if you want to add an edible flower in the mix.
Looking for school garden projects to do in Brisbane? My neighbours Nat and Sam holding Mother’s Day flowers
Looking for more information? Check out my handy School Garden Curriculum Links or School Garden Grants For 2023-2024.
