By Alana Mitchelson
BERWICK Lodge Primary’s new school community garden has been named this year’s Best Edible Garden.
Open to all government schools across the state, the Best Edible Garden category was the most heavily contested but the Berwick Lodge vegetable garden was singled out among 30 schools at the Victorian School Garden Awards on Tuesday 29 November.
The community garden was constructed in late 2014, built largely from recycled materials with the help of many volunteers.
It is mainly a working vegetable garden with a compost, worm farm and tanks for capturing rain water.
More than 100 students, ranging from Prep to Grade 6, meet twice a week to maintain the garden.
The students harvest produce and have cooked a variety of foods such as fried rice, vegetable muffins and eggplant fritters.
The school also holds regular harvest stalls and sells produce to the school community, with all proceeds invested directly back into the program.
Berwick Lodge Primary School assistant principal Sandra McCrum said the awards presentation was held at the Botanic Gardens and students had the opportunity to explore the children’s garden.
“There were activities for the students and learnt how to make seed bombs out of dirt and clay,” she said.
“This award was a wonderful achievement for our school and our garden as we were competing against schools across the entire state.
“We won a $1000 voucher at Maxicrop that will probably be used on seedlings and materials for the garden next year. Children will have some input on what we spend the money on.”
